CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

It's all ahead on FACE THE NATION.

ANNOUNCER: From CBS News in Washington, FACE THE NATION with Bob Schieffer.

BOB SCHIEFFER: And good morning again. We begin this morning with Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. She's in Des Moines. Miss Bachmann, you and the other Republican candidates had withering criticism when the President announced he was bringing the troops home from Iraq. But Secretary of State Clinton says this morning Republicans should have made those complaints to former President Bush when he struck that deal during his administration to bring them home at the end of this year. What's your response to that?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (Republican Presidential Candidate/R-Minnesota): Well, President Obama has been in office now for two and a half years, three and a half years. And he's had plenty of time to be able to deal with this situation. And, of course, events change on the ground. This decision seems to me that it-- it was more politically based than military based. If you look at every time we've deposed a dictator, the United States has always left troops behind to be able to enforce the fragile peace. In this case, once we're finished in Iraq, we'll have more troops in Honduras than we'll be leaving behind in Iraq. And, of course, the problem is there will be an Iran waiting in the wings until the United States is gone. And then Iran will exert its dominance and influence in this region. That's not good for anyone. And here the United States has expended forty-four hundred lives over eight hundred billion dollars in toil and blood and treasure. And while we're on the way out, we're being kicked out by the very people that we liberated.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well that's just the point here. If-- if they don't want us there and the conditions they laid down suggest they don't want us there, how can you really help people who don't want your help?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well again the-- the problem is we've-- we've put a lot of deposit into this situation with Iraq. And to think that we are so disrespected and they-- they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this, that's why I've called on President Obama to return to the negotiating table. The-- the Obama administration has said they've gotten everything they wanted. They got exactly nothing. I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money that we have spent to liberate these people. They are not a poor country. They're a wealthy country. And I think that they need to do that because what we will be leaving behind is a nation that is very fragile and will be subject to dominance by Iran and their influence in the region. That's not good.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you-- do you think, Congresswoman, that the American people with the budget situation the way it is really want to keep a large contingent of American troops in Iraq indefinitely?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Oh, of course, not. No one wants to do that. But again this is for a temporary transition. We're going from the point of leaving to leaving zero troops behind. You can't find an example where we've done that historically. When we've secured a peace, it's usually very fragile during the transition period. And there is a-- an American presence that's required to ensure that peace. This is zero. This isn't even-- remember, the military had requested fifteen to eighteen thousand troops. That's what the generals had requested. It seems more political based than it does military based, this decision.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let me-- let me just--

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (overlapping): So it's more like a ge-- it's more like a General Axelrod is making this decision to take the troops down to zero.

BOB SCHIEFFER: But-- but let me ask you this. The conditions that the Iraqis laid down, that our troops would have no immunity there, that if they wanted to, they could arrest any American soldier and just throw him into jail. Would you as President have left American troops in that country under those conditions?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, of course, not. No president could. We could not allow our troops to be subject to that. But again we are there as the nation that liberated these people. And that's the thanks that the United States is getting after forty-four hundred lives were expended and over eight hundred billion dollars? And so on the way out, we're being kicked out of the country? I think this is absolutely outrageous what's happened. And I think President Obama clearly is not respected. The United States is not respected. And the President has been a failure when it comes to foreign policy.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you, you say failure but just last week, Moammar Qaddafi was killed. Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda leader, is dead. Osama bin Laden is dead. Doesn't the President have a few things he can point to as accomplishments in foreign policy here?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, of course. I would-- I would agree that the world is better off because all three of those actors are no longer with us. I absolutely agree with that. But I oppose the President putting us into war in Libya. Remem-- don't forget the President has put us into two additional wars. One is Libya and the-- the-- the recent one was at the request of Uganda. And we're now in Central Africa. One thing that we should have learned in the last twelve years is that once we are involved in a foreign involvement, in a foreign entanglement, it's very difficult to get out. And it's usually at a great price. Secretary Gates is the one who said that America had no vital interest in Libya.

BOB SCHIEFFER: But-- but--

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (overlapping): And so, yes, the world is better off without Moammar Qaddafi, but there's also a risk. This is just a snapshot in time. We don't know yet, Bob, who will be the true leader in Libya. It could be the Muslim Brotherhood. It could be more extremist elements. Plus, we also know that the MANPADS have gone missing, the shoulder-fired rockets. This is very dangerous in a very dangerous world. And Libya is a very volatile situation.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, you just said to an answer to an earlier question, we always leave troops behind. Shouldn't that argue that if you're saying that that maybe we should figure out some way to leave some treep-- troops there in Libya? Is that what you're saying?

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELLE BACHMANN: What appears that that will not be the case according to the early reports that we're getting. And again my position was that we should not have gone to Libya in the first place. And I opposed President Obama going into Central Africa and to Uganda as well.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, it's good to talk a little foreign policy with you this morning, Congresswoman. We haven't talked about that much in this campaign. So thank you for being with us this morning.

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELLE BACHMANN: Thank you, Bob.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source