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American Morning

Peacekeepers?

Aired July 22, 2003 - 08:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq with yet more attacks today against U.S. troops there, and one soldier dead as a result north of Baghdad. Is it time now for the U.S. to seek a U.N. resolution for a peacekeeping mission there? Also, the mounting violence in Liberia. should peacekeepers go there as well?
In Washington, looking out for us today, Democratic strategist Victor Kamber is back today.

Vic, good morning to you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.

HEMMER: Republican National Committee spokesman Cliff May is back with us, too.

Cliff, good morning. How are you?

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC SPOKESMAN: Good morning. Former.

HEMMER: Former. We'll put the "F-M-R." period before your name next time.

Cliff, start us out right now, is it back to the U.N. to make it relevant again?

MAY: Well, it depends. I mean, I'd be happy to have it. I think the president would be happy to have U.N. participation, but not U.N. authority. The U.N. does not have the ability to go in and root out the Baathist hugs and the foreigners who are in Iraq attempting to kilt our troops there. We certainly wouldn't want the U.N. in a position to say, OK, let's bring in everybody, including Saddam Hussein and his sons and get together and sing "Kumbaya" and maybe have a peace conference. We have to root out the bad elements that are underground.

HEMMER: What's the incentive for the U.N. to get involved now, knowing the way this was handled prior to the war.

MAY: Well, I think the U.N. should want United States cooperation. Right now, you've got Kofi Annan, essentially saying to the U.S., well, we, the U.N. did nothing about Liberia all these years. Please, you Americans, send troops in there, pay for it as well.

I think the U.N. has not done a good job in any of these places. There's not a lot of the U.N. can do, by the way. The U.N. does not have a good record of nation building, and the U.N. does not have a good record, and doesn't have the capability to do low-intensity conflict, which is what we have in Iraq right now.

HEMMER: Victor, what does the U.N., if indeed a resolution were passed, how would that help the U.S. mission right now in Iraq?

KAMBER: Well, I think in two or three ways. Number one, I think it would bring world support to us. And I think there are a number of countries and people in the world that question our actions and the methods of our actions. The president -- remember, we are still under this whole process of, why are we there? What was the truth? What did the president really know? What did our intelligence say?

If in fact the U.N. was to support -- the effort now was to help takeover part of that effort now, I think it would send the right signal that the actions taken, the getting rid of Saddam Hussein, the regime change is for the good, for the whole world, and I think also, frankly, we cannot -- I mean, when Bremer this weekend announced we would be there three to five years, I think a lot of Americans woke up. Even they've heard that before, they finally woke up and said, we cannot keep the world ourselves, we cannot certainly keep three to five years the troops in Iraq all by ourselves. We need help.

HEMMER: Do you believe the U.S. would be swallowing a bit of pride if that route was taken?

KAMBER: You know, at this point, pride? I want to save lives. I mean, who cares? Pride -- Saddam Hussein is gone. That's the pride we should take in what we did. Right or wrong, we got rid of a butcher, we got rid of a dictator. I'm not sure I like the process that did it, but we did it. So that's the pride we should have. Now let's swallow our pride and move on with getting our allies back together and solving a real problem over there.

HEMMER: Let's move on to Liberia, quickly. Cliff, is it time?

MAY: Well, I think from a humanitarian point of view, it's absolutely justifiable, but I also wonder about people like Vick, who are opposed to intervening militarily in Iraq, but want to do it in Liberia. If you're talking about the humanitarian situation, it's bad in Liberia, but nothing compared to what it was under Saddam Hussein in Iraq. We were finding mass graves every day, tens of thousands of people shot in the head because they were suspected of being dissidents. We had the Marsh (ph) Arabs ethnically cleansed, hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced and moved out of their environment.

So if you were in favor as I was of going into Iraq, and now you're in favor of going into Liberia because it's necessary for humanitarian purposes, it's fine, but I don't understand the idea that we shouldn't have done anything about Saddam Hussein, but we should do something about -- Charles Taylor doesn't have weapons of mass destruction.

KAMBER: There is a major difference, and the major difference is the various peoples in Iraq, and, again, are Liberia, are asking for help and intervention, asking us to be there. And the government of Liberia is asking us to be there. Secondly, George Bush, once again, put his foreign policy out in front of the American public before he went to Africa to try to gain support. He announced he would send troops if, in fact, Charles Taylor stepped down, if in fact western African countries supported the effort.

MAY: Fine.

KAMBER: And then nothing happened, and now we are 50 lives later, or a hundred lives later dead, because talk, no action.

HEMMER: Cliff, final thought -- we got to run.

MAY: Very clear the people of Iraq wanted us to intervene.

KAMBER: That's not clear.

MAY: Yes, it is. It's absolutely clear. The government didn't have...

KAMBER: And that's they're still killing us now, the people of Iraq?

MAY: No, no, there's a small, tiny minority of Baathists and foreigners who were there. There are less than many 1 percent of the population, that's what you're going to have. You don't think people are going to try to kill us in Liberia, too? We have to risk that.

HEMMER: We've got to run. Cliff May, Victor Kamber, we'll talk again. Thanks to both of you in D.C.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 22, 2003 - 08:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq with yet more attacks today against U.S. troops there, and one soldier dead as a result north of Baghdad. Is it time now for the U.S. to seek a U.N. resolution for a peacekeeping mission there? Also, the mounting violence in Liberia. should peacekeepers go there as well?
In Washington, looking out for us today, Democratic strategist Victor Kamber is back today.

Vic, good morning to you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.

HEMMER: Republican National Committee spokesman Cliff May is back with us, too.

Cliff, good morning. How are you?

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC SPOKESMAN: Good morning. Former.

HEMMER: Former. We'll put the "F-M-R." period before your name next time.

Cliff, start us out right now, is it back to the U.N. to make it relevant again?

MAY: Well, it depends. I mean, I'd be happy to have it. I think the president would be happy to have U.N. participation, but not U.N. authority. The U.N. does not have the ability to go in and root out the Baathist hugs and the foreigners who are in Iraq attempting to kilt our troops there. We certainly wouldn't want the U.N. in a position to say, OK, let's bring in everybody, including Saddam Hussein and his sons and get together and sing "Kumbaya" and maybe have a peace conference. We have to root out the bad elements that are underground.

HEMMER: What's the incentive for the U.N. to get involved now, knowing the way this was handled prior to the war.

MAY: Well, I think the U.N. should want United States cooperation. Right now, you've got Kofi Annan, essentially saying to the U.S., well, we, the U.N. did nothing about Liberia all these years. Please, you Americans, send troops in there, pay for it as well.

I think the U.N. has not done a good job in any of these places. There's not a lot of the U.N. can do, by the way. The U.N. does not have a good record of nation building, and the U.N. does not have a good record, and doesn't have the capability to do low-intensity conflict, which is what we have in Iraq right now.

HEMMER: Victor, what does the U.N., if indeed a resolution were passed, how would that help the U.S. mission right now in Iraq?

KAMBER: Well, I think in two or three ways. Number one, I think it would bring world support to us. And I think there are a number of countries and people in the world that question our actions and the methods of our actions. The president -- remember, we are still under this whole process of, why are we there? What was the truth? What did the president really know? What did our intelligence say?

If in fact the U.N. was to support -- the effort now was to help takeover part of that effort now, I think it would send the right signal that the actions taken, the getting rid of Saddam Hussein, the regime change is for the good, for the whole world, and I think also, frankly, we cannot -- I mean, when Bremer this weekend announced we would be there three to five years, I think a lot of Americans woke up. Even they've heard that before, they finally woke up and said, we cannot keep the world ourselves, we cannot certainly keep three to five years the troops in Iraq all by ourselves. We need help.

HEMMER: Do you believe the U.S. would be swallowing a bit of pride if that route was taken?

KAMBER: You know, at this point, pride? I want to save lives. I mean, who cares? Pride -- Saddam Hussein is gone. That's the pride we should take in what we did. Right or wrong, we got rid of a butcher, we got rid of a dictator. I'm not sure I like the process that did it, but we did it. So that's the pride we should have. Now let's swallow our pride and move on with getting our allies back together and solving a real problem over there.

HEMMER: Let's move on to Liberia, quickly. Cliff, is it time?

MAY: Well, I think from a humanitarian point of view, it's absolutely justifiable, but I also wonder about people like Vick, who are opposed to intervening militarily in Iraq, but want to do it in Liberia. If you're talking about the humanitarian situation, it's bad in Liberia, but nothing compared to what it was under Saddam Hussein in Iraq. We were finding mass graves every day, tens of thousands of people shot in the head because they were suspected of being dissidents. We had the Marsh (ph) Arabs ethnically cleansed, hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced and moved out of their environment.

So if you were in favor as I was of going into Iraq, and now you're in favor of going into Liberia because it's necessary for humanitarian purposes, it's fine, but I don't understand the idea that we shouldn't have done anything about Saddam Hussein, but we should do something about -- Charles Taylor doesn't have weapons of mass destruction.

KAMBER: There is a major difference, and the major difference is the various peoples in Iraq, and, again, are Liberia, are asking for help and intervention, asking us to be there. And the government of Liberia is asking us to be there. Secondly, George Bush, once again, put his foreign policy out in front of the American public before he went to Africa to try to gain support. He announced he would send troops if, in fact, Charles Taylor stepped down, if in fact western African countries supported the effort.

MAY: Fine.

KAMBER: And then nothing happened, and now we are 50 lives later, or a hundred lives later dead, because talk, no action.

HEMMER: Cliff, final thought -- we got to run.

MAY: Very clear the people of Iraq wanted us to intervene.

KAMBER: That's not clear.

MAY: Yes, it is. It's absolutely clear. The government didn't have...

KAMBER: And that's they're still killing us now, the people of Iraq?

MAY: No, no, there's a small, tiny minority of Baathists and foreigners who were there. There are less than many 1 percent of the population, that's what you're going to have. You don't think people are going to try to kill us in Liberia, too? We have to risk that.

HEMMER: We've got to run. Cliff May, Victor Kamber, we'll talk again. Thanks to both of you in D.C.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com