CNN "The Situation Room" -Transcript
Interview
CNN "The Situation Room" -Transcript
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BLITZER: Taliban insurgents waged a brutal anti-election campaign, doing all they could to try to intimidate voters. But in the end, many Afghans defied the Taliban and cast their ballots for president. Results aren't expected for days and there are some reports of irregularities from international observers.
And joining us now from Islamabad, Pakistan, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. He is in Pakistan after spending some time in Afghanistan where he monitored the elections. These were historic elections. The second presidential elections. Were you impressed or not so much, Senator Corker?
SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: I was, Wolf. I found in the places I was, I was in 45 different voting stations. I did not see any irregularities myself. Things were orderly, people waited in line from 4:30 in the morning until 7:00 when the polls opened and I had to say I was very impressed.
BLITZER: Were you impressed enough to come home convinced that things are moving in the right direction or the wrong direction in Afghanistan overall?
CORKER: Well, overall, Wolf, Stanley McChrystal, the general in charge, is doing this 60-day assessment. I was successful in getting some benchmark language in this last supplemental appropriation.
And I do thing the broader issues have not been articulated fully. I think there's a lot of work to do. We're going to be in Afghanistan, I think for a very, very long time.
And so the overall picture, certainly we're adding more forces, we're adding more money, there's no question, but I do think that there's no question part of my reason to be here is to make sure that I understand fully what it means to be successful in Afghanistan.
So on those questions, I still think there's a lot of discussion to take place.
BLITZER: You're a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Do you believe that more troops beyond 68,000 already deployed or on the way to Afghanistan, more U.S. troops are necessary?
CORKER: You know, General McChrystal again is going to be making that assessment in the next few days. Actually, his 60-day assessment was due three or four days ago. He wanted to see what happened in the selection process.
I would be surprised if he doesn't ask for more troops. There is no question that without security there is really no way for the country to move ahead.
But I will tell you, eating dinner, being with people here, talking with them, the fact that security was more of a concern during this election than the 2004 election, obviously says a lot by what's occurred here over the last five years, obviously says a lot about what's occurred here over the last five years.
And, again, I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. To be successful here, for this country to truly function, we're talking about nation building. This is not a more limited engagement. This is going to have to be a much more brad engagement.
And, again, I think there's going to be more discussions back at the capital after these assessment are made, and certainly I'm going to be monitoring the benchmarks.
BLITZER: A lot of Americans are frustrated that the NATO allies, and this is supposed to be a NATO operation in Afghanistan, that a lot of them are MIA right now. Why don't they join the U.S. and build up the forces instead of putting so much of the burden only on the United States military?
CORKER: I think much of the population of those countries back home have been disenchanted with Afghanistan. We've got 40 or 41 countries involved. There's a lot of caveats, as you know, as to what their troops can actually do as they're involved with NATO. I think a lot of it has to do with unpopular support back home.
I don't want to sound negative, Wolf, but this whole ramping up, every time we put a flag into a country, that means that we're there to stay. That means a lot. And, again, we certainly had some reversals over the last several years. It's going to take a lot more engagement for us to be successful.
Much of it depends on what happens here in Pakistan too. The two absolutely are joined together. And I will tell you that in meeting with military officials here today in Pakistan and meeting with others, I am actually very much more optimistic about Pakistan than I was a year and a half ago being here.
And again, the success of this region in dependent upon success in both of these countries.
BLITZER: I know that in a lot of domestic issues, especially health care, you disagree with President Obama and his administration. But from what I'm hearing, as far as Afghanistan and Pakistan is concerned, and correct me if I'm wrong, senator, you're pretty much on board with President Obama.
CORKER: Again, I have raised a lot of questions with the administration. I think when it comes to foreign relations, we need to certainly be very bipartisan. Unfortunately in the past that hasn't always been the case.
So let me say this -- I have a lot of questions. I'm going to be asking some tough questions when we get back.
I do realize that the strategy that we had in place that was more limited was not yielding the kind of results that need to be yielded for us to be successful here.
So I don't have a better answer. I certainly have a lot of questions. I think it's incumbent upon all of us serving, and I'm sorry I'm so tired tonight, but upon all of us serving to ask those tough questions.
But there's no question that changes had to be made for us to be successful. I look forward to certainly talking to military and civilian leadership when I get back home about some of the things that I saw here and certainly continuing to probe as we move along. I plan to come back to this region many times.
BLITZER: One final question before I let you go to sleep, Senator Corker, as far as the outcome of the elections in Afghanistan are concerned, does it really make much difference from your perspective, from the U.S. perspective, if Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, is reelected or his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister is elected? Does it really make any difference to the U.S.?
CORKER: I think there would be policy differences. The official position of the U.S. was neutral. I think to incumbent, he felt like that was not supportive since he had been working with us. But I think our position was truly neutral.
Would there be policy differences, just like there would be in our country? Yes, I'm sure there would. There were different campaigns that each of them conducted.
But at the end of the day, I think what we wanted to see was as much as possible an election without gross irregularities. I think that may have been the case. That's certainly what I say in the limited area I was in, Herot (ph).
I think we want a partner that is truly going to work with us in a way that tries to weed out the corruption that's taking place within government now, to be a steady partner as it relates to building an economic base. And I think, again, our best position, as it has been stated, is to be neutral and work with whoever the winner is.
BLITZER: Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, thanks very much for joining us.
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