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American Morning

Interview With Senator John McCain

Aired September 10, 2003 - 07:42   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 the debate right now in Congress about the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and other Pentagon officials faced some tough questions yesterday from the Senate Armed Services Committee; this, regarding the president's request for $87 billion to cover the cost on Iraq and Afghanistan and how the mission in Iraq goes from here.
Senator John McCain of Arizona is among those concerned that the administration's go-it-alone approach has left the U.S. with too much of the financial responsibility for Iraq. The senator is with us in D.C.

Good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Good morning.

HEMMER: Part of what you insist right now is that more U.S. troops should be into the theater of operations in Iraq immediately, not waiting for international troops. You insist this is not tanks, but it's special forces, it's Marines, it's intelligence officers. How would those troops stop the bombing that we witnessed in Erbil about 18 hours ago?

MCCAIN: Well, they would proceed with the vital process of identifying and putting down these insurgent groups, but also be involved in the reconstruction and the self-governance activities, which are very important in turning the government of Iraq over to Iraq.

Right now, we are short of people. The British have increased their size by two battalions in just the last few days in recognition of that. And also, if we need international troops, which I am afraid will not be coming real soon given the attitude of the French and the British as displayed by their response to the president's speech, then we need to get some people over there and get them there quickly.

HEMMER: I want to play a bit of the exchange you had yesterday with one of the Pentagon officials. Let's listen to it, and talk about that offer with international troops when we come back here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: Do you have any idea as to when we could expect the first international troops to arrive in Iraq?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir. MCCAIN: You have you no idea. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Part of what happened yesterday. What's a fair deal to cut with these international forces in the U.N., do you believe?

MCCAIN: I think these international forces probably would best be supplied immediately from Turkey, where we could put them in the south, Pakistan and India. And I hope that other countries would also contribute. But that's going to have to get -- most of these countries are saying that they'd have to get U.N. approval, and obviously the Germans and the French are going to exact a very, very high price. Unfortunately, they are playing an adversarial role rather than being an ally in this very important and vital effort.

HEMMER: Yes, you quoted Ronald Reagan yesterday. You said, "Facts are a stubborn thing." You were just in Iraq recently. Do not you and a number of your colleagues realize at this point that no one thought and no one had the foresight to see that this country was in need of just about everything? Why is it that before this conflict began that the United States did not recognize that Iraq was much poorer and much more run down than anyone had been led to believe before?

MCCAIN: You know, I don't know the answer to that. I guess we didn't appreciate the full extent of Saddam Hussein's total neglect in any way for the welfare of his people. A city like Basra, the second- largest city, where people rose up and he killed thousands of them, it's a huge slum. It is a giant slum with no services, no kinds of basic essentials that people need to live, especially in very high- temperature conditions.

So, all of these services have to be rebuilt, and it's going to cost more than the president has asked for.

HEMMER: Back on the 31st of August, you wrote a piece in "The Washington Post." I just want to pull a little bit from the end of that piece that you wrote -- and quoting now: "Iraq must be important to us because it's so important to our enemies. That's why they are opposing us so fiercely and why we must win."

When you speak of victory, how do you define it today in Iraq?

MCCAIN: Probably when the people of Iraq are governing themselves. That's probably the best benchmark, and that probably could happen sooner rather than later, as far as being directly related to the return of the basic services -- the electricity, the water, the sanitation, the law enforcement -- those kinds of things. In that way, the Iraqi people will be able to govern themselves.

And I'm not sure how long it would be, but I don't think that we have time on our side. I think it's critical that we act quickly by sending more troops there. And if not, we run the risk of the Iraqi people turning against us. HEMMER: You know the American people love deadlines. I know you can't give us a definition here. Are you thinking 6 to 12 months? Or do you think that's dreaming at this point?

MCCAIN: I don't know because I don't know how quickly we're going to act in the form of sending troops. I don't know how quickly we're going to be able to provide them with the security. So, it's sort of up to us. But I would argue that the next three to six months will be critical.

But the Iraqi people are grateful we freed them, but they also believe that we propped up the Saddam Hussein regime in the '80s. We sided with Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. We told the Iraqi people in '91 we'd get rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn't. And economic sanctions that we imposed -- justified economic sanctions hurt the Iraqi people and their economy.

They are being told that we are pressing them for their oil and we don't care about them, and that's the message the bad guys are sending. We have to counteract it by giving them their government and restoring their basic services.

HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

HEMMER: John McCain, good to see you as always. Come back any time.

MCCAIN: Thanks, Bill.

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 September 10, 2003 - 07:42   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 the debate right now in Congress about the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and other Pentagon officials faced some tough questions yesterday from the Senate Armed Services Committee; this, regarding the president's request for $87 billion to cover the cost on Iraq and Afghanistan and how the mission in Iraq goes from here.
Senator John McCain of Arizona is among those concerned that the administration's go-it-alone approach has left the U.S. with too much of the financial responsibility for Iraq. The senator is with us in D.C.

Good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Good morning.

HEMMER: Part of what you insist right now is that more U.S. troops should be into the theater of operations in Iraq immediately, not waiting for international troops. You insist this is not tanks, but it's special forces, it's Marines, it's intelligence officers. How would those troops stop the bombing that we witnessed in Erbil about 18 hours ago?

MCCAIN: Well, they would proceed with the vital process of identifying and putting down these insurgent groups, but also be involved in the reconstruction and the self-governance activities, which are very important in turning the government of Iraq over to Iraq.

Right now, we are short of people. The British have increased their size by two battalions in just the last few days in recognition of that. And also, if we need international troops, which I am afraid will not be coming real soon given the attitude of the French and the British as displayed by their response to the president's speech, then we need to get some people over there and get them there quickly.

HEMMER: I want to play a bit of the exchange you had yesterday with one of the Pentagon officials. Let's listen to it, and talk about that offer with international troops when we come back here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: Do you have any idea as to when we could expect the first international troops to arrive in Iraq?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir. MCCAIN: You have you no idea. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Part of what happened yesterday. What's a fair deal to cut with these international forces in the U.N., do you believe?

MCCAIN: I think these international forces probably would best be supplied immediately from Turkey, where we could put them in the south, Pakistan and India. And I hope that other countries would also contribute. But that's going to have to get -- most of these countries are saying that they'd have to get U.N. approval, and obviously the Germans and the French are going to exact a very, very high price. Unfortunately, they are playing an adversarial role rather than being an ally in this very important and vital effort.

HEMMER: Yes, you quoted Ronald Reagan yesterday. You said, "Facts are a stubborn thing." You were just in Iraq recently. Do not you and a number of your colleagues realize at this point that no one thought and no one had the foresight to see that this country was in need of just about everything? Why is it that before this conflict began that the United States did not recognize that Iraq was much poorer and much more run down than anyone had been led to believe before?

MCCAIN: You know, I don't know the answer to that. I guess we didn't appreciate the full extent of Saddam Hussein's total neglect in any way for the welfare of his people. A city like Basra, the second- largest city, where people rose up and he killed thousands of them, it's a huge slum. It is a giant slum with no services, no kinds of basic essentials that people need to live, especially in very high- temperature conditions.

So, all of these services have to be rebuilt, and it's going to cost more than the president has asked for.

HEMMER: Back on the 31st of August, you wrote a piece in "The Washington Post." I just want to pull a little bit from the end of that piece that you wrote -- and quoting now: "Iraq must be important to us because it's so important to our enemies. That's why they are opposing us so fiercely and why we must win."

When you speak of victory, how do you define it today in Iraq?

MCCAIN: Probably when the people of Iraq are governing themselves. That's probably the best benchmark, and that probably could happen sooner rather than later, as far as being directly related to the return of the basic services -- the electricity, the water, the sanitation, the law enforcement -- those kinds of things. In that way, the Iraqi people will be able to govern themselves.

And I'm not sure how long it would be, but I don't think that we have time on our side. I think it's critical that we act quickly by sending more troops there. And if not, we run the risk of the Iraqi people turning against us. HEMMER: You know the American people love deadlines. I know you can't give us a definition here. Are you thinking 6 to 12 months? Or do you think that's dreaming at this point?

MCCAIN: I don't know because I don't know how quickly we're going to act in the form of sending troops. I don't know how quickly we're going to be able to provide them with the security. So, it's sort of up to us. But I would argue that the next three to six months will be critical.

But the Iraqi people are grateful we freed them, but they also believe that we propped up the Saddam Hussein regime in the '80s. We sided with Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. We told the Iraqi people in '91 we'd get rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn't. And economic sanctions that we imposed -- justified economic sanctions hurt the Iraqi people and their economy.

They are being told that we are pressing them for their oil and we don't care about them, and that's the message the bad guys are sending. We have to counteract it by giving them their government and restoring their basic services.

HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

HEMMER: John McCain, good to see you as always. Come back any time.

MCCAIN: Thanks, Bill.

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