MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
MSNBC
SHOW: HARDBALL
HEADLINE: HARDBALL For November 10, 2003
BYLINE: Chris Matthews; Bob Arnot
GUESTS: Norman Schwarzkopf; Mitch McConnell; Tom Daschle; Robin Wright; Christian Caryl
HIGHLIGHT:
"Iraq: The Real Story" asks are we making any progress in Iraq? General Schwarzkopf provides his suggestions as to what to do in Iraq.
BODY:
ANNOUNCER: Now, on HARDBALL with Chris Matthews, "Iraq: The Real Story." All week long, we'll find out what's really happening on the ground in Iraq, six months after U.S. forces kicked Saddam Hussein out of power.
Tonight, the latest from MSNBC's Bob Arnot on how American soldiers are winning the peace in Mosul.
Plus, Desert Storm commander general Norman Schwarzkopf on what it will take to win and whether things will get worse before they get better.
Senator Tom Daschle and Senator Mitch McConnell will face off over whether the Bush administration has the right plan for post-war Iraq. And Chris asks Robin Wright of the "Washington Post," what impact the ongoing struggle is Iraq is having on the global war on terror.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Senator Mitch McConnell is a Republican from Kentucky who recently traveled to Iraq.
Let me ask you, have you seen this? And let me go to this first point. In a recent Zogby poll, Senator, only 43 percent of Americans think the effort in Iraq has been worth the lives lost. Are you surprised by that number?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL ®, KENTUCKY: Well, I think, any time American soldiers are getting killed, Americans are concerned.
But I think it is also important to put this all in perspective. Only -- 77 members of the Senate voted for the resolution a year ago. Tom Daschle was one of them. To spend $87 billion both on our military, on our reconstruction effort in Iraq, past the Senate on a voice vote a week ago today, those who were criticizing the war could have gotten a vote on that. It only takes one senator to get a vote in the Senate. They didn't even want to have a role call vote on it, because they were afraid to vote against what obviously needed to be done to finish the job.
Regardless of how you felt about the war in the beginning. And I'm confident, Chris, you thought it was a mistake, from what you've said over the months.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
MCCONNELL: We need to finish the job and do it well.
And the report, I must say, that was on right before Tom Daschle on your program pointed out, in a very balanced way, that an awful lot of things are getting a lot better in Iraq. There is a violence problem, a security problem. But we're continuing to work on that. And the key to that, obviously, is a larger and larger Iraqi security force, so they can do a lot of this work themselves.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, do you think we're safer for having gone to Iraq, Senator?
MCCONNELL: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: How so?
MCCONNELL: I would rather have the terroristsI would a lot rather have the terrorists over in Iraq than in New York or Washington.
And I think it is pretty clear now that there are others in this with us. Look at the attack in Saudi Arabia. Maybe the Saudis are finally going to get the point that there's no way to buy peace with these people. They hate the Saudi regime as much as they hate the U.S. government. This is a worldwide effort. We had 30 countries that supported us on the war in Iraq. We've raised $13 to $19 billion in grants and loans at the Madrid conference.
There's a lot more of an international aspect to this than a lot of people portray. They just assume, if the French and the Germans are not with us, nobody else is. Well, that's just not the case.
MATTHEWS: Let's take a look at what Senatorformer Senator, former Vice President Al Gore had to say about the Bush administration's handling of the war last night, Senator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my opinion, it makes no more sense to launch an assault on our civil liberties as the best way to get at terrorists than did it to launch an invasion of Iraq as the best way to get at Osama bin Laden.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Well, that's Senator Al Gore, former Senator Al Gore, former Vice President Al Gore. He seems to have a deeper Southern accent than the last time we heard from him. What do you make of his thoughts?
MCCONNELL: He's been working on it.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: What do you think of his thoughts right there?
MCCONNELL: Well, we didn't launch the attack on Baghdad to get Osama bin Laden. Nobody thought he was in Baghdad.
But it's part of the overall war on terrorism. And America is going to be a lot safer as a result of the effort we've made to change the regime in Iraq. It is extremely dangerous over there. That's why we have a military. They're doing a terrific job fighting. We're going to get the Iraqi military up and running. There are 80,000 troops there now being trained. And that's going to grow up to 200,000 over the next year, so that they can fight these battles themselves.
MATTHEWS: OK, it is great having you on, Senator Mitch McConnell.
MCCONNELL: Thank you, Chris.