CNN "The Situation Room"-Transcript
Interview
CNN "The Situation Room"-Transcript
BLITZER: Let's talk about the situation in Iraq, Senator. Here is an excerpt of one of the questions that a YouTube viewer submitted last night. I want you to listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't it our responsibility to get these people up on their feet? I mean, do you leave a newborn baby to take care of himself? How do we pull out now?
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BLITZER: What do you say to that person? SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I hear what that person is saying, but I'm also -- read the National Intelligence Estimate report, which is the -- effectively, the government's report, the Defense Department's report, that says that the surge is really not working there.
I've read the intelligence reports that say that al Qaeda is stronger today than it was at the time that the war has started, and I also believe that the presence of American servicemen and women inflames the situation in Iraq.
What we need to do is have a program that is going to redeploy those troops out, and at the same time have a surge offensive in terms of diplomacy that is going to say to the Iraqis, you have to stand up, and your neighbors have to stand up and take -- assume responsibility for your own future.
BLITZER: The president, though, insists you're wrong, and your colleagues who want a quick pullout from Iraq are wrong.
Listen to what President Bush had to say today about the current al Qaeda threat that potentially emanates from Iraq.
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BUSH: We've already seen how al Qaeda used a failed state thousands of miles from our shores to bring death and destruction to the streets of our cities. And we must not allow them to do so again.
So, however difficult the fight is in Iraq, we must win it, and we can win it.
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BLITZER: All right, Senator, what do you say to the president?
KENNEDY: Of course, you can't confuse the facts, like the president is attempting to do. John Adams said, "facts are difficult things." Meaning, we have to deal with the facts, and the facts remain that the National Intelligence Estimate says al Qaeda is stronger because of our presence. The National Intelligence Estimate says that the surge is not working. And, also, the other reports, Baker-Hamilton, suggest that Iraqis will only make the judgment decision about their own future when they believe that we are going to withdraw. They don't believe that at the present time (ph).
BLITZER: But the NIE, the National Intelligence Estimate, also says al Qaeda has formed, in the after-Saddam era, a clear presence in Iraq right now.
KENNEDY: That's right. We have to give focus and attention to battling the al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has expanded into 40 units in Africa over the period of the last two years. I mean, they have expanded worldwide. And what we should have done, is rather than going into Iraq, given focus to going into Afghanistan and al Qaeda.
The situation in Iraq now calls for a change in policy. This administration doesn't understand it.
BLITZER: But, you know, there's a lot of frustration among Democrats and others that you've been in power now for almost a year in the House and the Senate, you haven't been able to effectively change that policy in Iraq. What do you say to those Democrats who are angry?
KENNEDY: I say, Wolf, they should -- we are -- should understand the history. I was here against the Vietnam War from 1967 on. We didn't conclude it until really 1973. We thought we did in 1968, didn't we? We had a Democratic president, nominee that said we're going to end the war and a Republican that said he had a plan to end the war. And still, it went on.
I regret that. And I fought to try to bring an early end to the war. I fought to bring an end to the Contra war. That lasted too long. That lasted five years.
This isn't going to last that long, but until we get the American people that are really going to shake the doors here in the Capitol and shake those Republican doors, it isn't going to happen. But I'm going to be there every step of the way, urging, fighting, struggling, working with my colleagues to get that job done.
BLITZER: Senator Kennedy, thanks very much for spending a few moments with us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
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