FNC Your World with Neil Cavuto - Transcript

FNC Your World with Neil Cavuto - Transcript
Friday, June 24, 2005

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Iraq front and center on Friday: A massive coordinated bombing near Fallujah (search) takes six American lives, including three female Marines, first time that's happened in the war, this while President Bush met with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Jaafari (search) in the Oval Office and a day after his defense secretary was getting a grilling on Capitol Hill, a world increasingly on edge, as tensions run over short here and deaths seem to mount over there.

The president has already scheduled a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday to deal with all of this. Is it going to do much good?

Here to flesh things out a little bit for us is Dan Burton (search), a congressman from Indiana, a Republican of some renown. You might have heard of him.

Congressman, good to have you.

REP. DAN BURTON, R-IND.: Thank you, Neil. How are you?

CAVUTO: What do you make of what he has to do Tuesday?

BURTON: Well, you know, war is not a popular thing, especially if it drags on for a while and if there's negative comments on television, as we were seen.

The fact of the matter is, though, we have taken the war to the enemy. Al-Jaafari, the prime minister over there, came in yesterday, talked to us in Congress on the Foreign Affairs Committee and has talked to the president. He's very happy with what we have contributed. He says, without our help, the war against terrorism would be going very poorly.

And he said this war against terrorism involves not only us, but them and the rest of the world. He says it's something that we have to win. And so, the American people need to know that World War I, World War II, all of the wars in which we have been involved in that were world wars required patience. We have to win this war. We cannot back down to the terrorists. If we do, it's going to be very costly.

CAVUTO: Now, the president was saying it would be just as costly to set up a timetable right now, that the terrorists or the insurgents would seize on that. Do you agree?

BURTON: Oh, I sure I do, because, if you tell the enemy when you're going to pull out, when you are going to withdraw, it gives them the green light to hold off and attack at strategic moments.

CAVUTO: But, Congressman, eventually, we are going to be pulling out. We don't know when, right? So, when that is announced, it's going to be that, right?

BURTON: Well, Neil, we have already reduced our troop force over there from 160,000 to 140,000. And as they build up their military, they're at 169,000 now, we will continue to reduce our force structure over there.

But we can't give them a timetable for the withdrawal. I think we're going to have an ancillary force over there supporting the Iraqi military for some time.

CAVUTO: What is some time?

BURTON: But it is in our national interest to do that

CAVUTO: What do you think is some time?

BURTON: I don't think we can give you a definite time.

CAVUTO: Yes.

BURTON: You know, in Korea, we have had troops there for a long, long time to make sure we maintain peace in that part of the world. We are going to have troops there for a while, but it is absolutely essential if we are to win this war against terror and to keep the battle in their backyard.

CAVUTO: You know, Congressman, you are an expert on these matters, but one of the sort of simplistic fears that I have is that, if and when we do pull out, leave even a nominal force, the Syrians, the Iranians and all this other outside interference that we've been seeing from this insurgent activity really begins to come to the fore. They just pour through the borders, increasingly porous borders, as it turns out.

BURTON: Yes. Neil, you're absolutely right.

CAVUTO: And then I worry about what we do. What do we do?

BURTON: Well, it's absolutely essential that we create a very viable Iraqi military during these next few years. And I think we're going to do that. We right on schedule right now as far as building up their military. They're at 169,000. They're carrying most of the load in the fight to the enemy now. We're backing them up.

And so, as they build up their force structure, we'll reduce it. And when we leave, when we do leave, hopefully, they will have a military that is capable of defending their borders and their country.

CAVUTO: Are you confident at this point that they do, or is it understood that they're a long way?

BURTON: I'm confident they're making giant strides forward. And al- Jaafari, when he was here yesterday and talked to us, said that they're making progress. They are working as hard as possible. They're trying to bring all parts of the country together. They have got 25 Sunnis that are helping draw up the new constitution. They're really working very hard to make this thing work, and I think they will.

CAVUTO: All right. Congressman Dan Burton, I want to thank you very much. Have a good weekend.

BURTON: Thank you, Neil.

CAVUTO: Congressman Burton joining us from Capitol Hill.

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