NBC News " The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Murphy On The War On Terror

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: Thanks for having me.

MADDOW: Let me ask your reaction to President Obama authorizing
sending 450 more troops, reopening that base in Anbar province.

What`s your reaction to that, broadly?

MURPHY: Well, let me answer that in context of what you just
explained. I do think there is an important distinction between the
lessons from the Vietnam War and the fight in against ISIS. The fight in
Vietnam was about what was called a domino theory, that idea that if we
didn`t step forward to stop the Vietcong there, that there was going to be
a series of dominos that would fall, that eventually would lead to attack
on the United States.

Here, it`s arguably, I think a very good argument, very different in
that the United States could be the very next domino, that if ISIS gains
control of a significant amount of territory in the Middle East, that they
could use that territory to launch attacks against the United States.

But we don`t have to look back to Vietnam to understand the lessons of
how not to proceed in that region. It is just the last ten years worth of
experience in Iraq that tells us that a massive deployment of ground troops
there may kill a lot of enemies, but they create many more.

I support the president`s mission to try to assist in the training of
the Iraqi forces. But I would be much more comfortable in supporting that
mission if I knew what the limits of it were, which is why I think Congress
has to vote this week, next week, on a prohibition on the large scale
deployment of ground troops, so that that creeping number of hundreds at a
time doesn`t become a second Iraq war before we have anything to say that.

MADDOW: You have been pressing for this for a long time. You,
Senator Tim Kaine as well, have been a leading light on this in the Senate.
There`s a number of Democrats who pushed for this, there`s even some
Republicans who say they agree with you on this. It still doesn`t feel
like leadership, either in the House or the Senate and either party is
willing to actually make this a priority and do it.

Do -- what -- you`ve been pushing for it so far and haven`t gotten it.
Is there some other way that you can push? Is there something else that
can be done to make Congress take this up?

MURPHY: Listen, I think you`re asking the $16,000 question. You
know, it`s relatively easy to authorize a war when you have been attacked
in the immediate past, right, whether that be after the attack on Pearl
Harbor or the World Trade Centers.

This is different. This is a much more shadowy, diffuse enemy. It
may not today present the kind of threat it would if it morphed into
something that had control of large parts of that region. But it doesn`t
mean our constitutional obligation is any less.

And there is where I think the lessons from the Vietnam War do come
into play. Congress knew over time that the strategy wasn`t working. But
because the strategy was moving at incremental paces, they never felt there
was an imperative to step in and set the record straight.

We`re ten months into this new war against ISIS. We had Americans die
overseas. We`re spending hundreds of billions of dollars. I think there
is goodwill on both sides to do something about it.

But the clock is ticking and we`re going to get into a Vietnam
situation in which Congress is essentially permanently abdicating its
responsibility if we don`t do something soon.

MADDOW: Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thank you for your time.
Thank you for being so out there on this issue in terms of your consistent
willingness to put yourself out there and speak out on this. You`re a rare
light on this in Washington. I really appreciate it, sir.

MURPHY: Thanks, Rachel.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source