MSNBC "Interview With Senator John Barrasso" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. MITCHELL: And joining us now, Republican Senator John Barrasso from Wyoming, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator, thank you very much. Welcome home.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thank you, Andrea.

MS. MITCHELL: Tell me whether your -- first, on Iraq, what your impression, is because we've had reports from our own Richard Engel that there is a quieting of the violence. But then we bombings like this, which, of course, keep everyone on guard, and remind everyone that Iraq is still not a safe place.

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, you're absolutely right, Andrea. I was there visiting with men and women in the field, men and women from Wyoming. One who was there on a second deployment said it's much safer now than it was. I was able to go through a marketplace now, wasn't able to do that when I was there with Senator McCain a year- and-a-half ago for Thanksgiving.

But as you just said, any day can be a bad day in Iraq. There's still lots of work to be done. We are now withdrawn from about 80 percent of the communities, but now it's time for the Iraqi people to step up in terms of the police as well as the military. We're doing a lot to train them, but things are certainly in the direction that we had hoped they would be with elections coming up.

We've had the regional elections there. And you know, the elections weren't decided upon religious grounds; they were decided basically upon local issues. All politics is local, and the winners were the people that the local folks thought could do the best job of making sure the water was running, and the lights came on.

MS. MITCHELL: Now, you had a chance to compare Iraq and Afghanistan. And how do you compare the military situation and the political situation between the two countries?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I had a -- both aspects. One, visiting on the political situation, I visited with President Karzai, told him he really needs to continue to step up the efforts there because the issue, part of it is the strength of the insurgents, but the other part of it is the weakness of the government, of the leadership. I visited with three of the candidates who are running against the president. The elections are going to be in August.

Right now, it seems that only about 30 percent of that large country is being run and governed by the president, about 10 percent by the Taliban, and the other 60 percent by the tribal leadership. And you know, there is so much corruption, it's become a way of life in Afghanistan. It is a cancer that is eroding that society. Ninety percent of all of the opium used for heroin in the world comes from Afghanistan, quite a bit from the Helmand province. But that can be both corrosive on people and well as corrupting on a government.

MS. MITCHELL: Now, in neighboring Pakistan, of course, the situation is, some would say, even more dire. This was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today testifying at the House Appropriations Committee about the situation in Pakistan.

SEN. BARRASSO: Well --

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: (From videotape.) I and our administration are deeply concerned by the increasing insurgency that is destablizing Pakistan. We have made those concerns abundantly clear to the Pakistani government.

MS. MITCHELL: That has a big impact as well on Afghanistan, does it not?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, it does. And I think that the secretary is correct. You know, there are several ways for our enemies to get nuclear weapons. One is where -- a significant focus was when I was in the Middle East -- on Iran, but the other -- with them developing their own weapons. The other is Pakistan where insurgent groups can take over a country that has nuclear weapons. So Pakistan and destabilization there is a significant concern to our own security right here in America.

MS. MITCHELL: All right. Thank you very much for briefing us. Senator Barrasso from Wyoming, just back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Thank you very much.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thank you, Andrea.

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