MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

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SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. The congressman recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan.

Congressman, good to have you on tonight. And I appreciate it very much.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D), WASHINGTON: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Tell us, what were your impressions of what you saw? The American people want to know, are we making progress? Are we doing the right thing?

What do you think?

SMITH: Well, I think we have the right plan now, and we‘re going to start making progress. I think it is very, very tragic that we lost six years after the Taliban were driven from power back in 2001. We just didn‘t have the right plan in place.

We didn‘t commit the resources to getting the governance level up in Afghanistan, to getting the development level up. And when President Obama came into office, he had a big problem to fix.

He put together a good plan. He‘s put the right people in place. General McChrystal in particular is a man I have great deal of confidence in. And now he has got to be able to put that plan in place and implement it. It‘s going to take time, it‘s going to be tough.

SCHULTZ: So, whatever General McChrystal says you‘re going to go along with. I see that you wrote, “But my general position is we have to give General McChrystal what he needs to get the job done.”

That‘s basically what the Bush administration was saying, support the generals on the ground. It doesn‘t seem like there‘s much difference between what you‘re saying and what we heard in the last administration.

SMITH: Well, in reality, actually, President Bush, in many cases, didn‘t do what the generals asked him to do, as came out afterwards. A lot of times, right off the bat, they said in order to successfully invade Iraq they were going to need more troops and he ignored them. So, I don‘t agree, actually. I think President Bush did precisely the opposite.

And I guess the point is, General McChrystal was picked to do this job. We have a great deal of confidence in his ability. I do, the president does. So do many others.

So, if we don‘t agree with the direction that he‘s saying we should go in, then I guess we have to admit that we picked the wrong person for the job. So...

SCHULTZ: Congressman Smith, there‘s a lot of Americans who think that we are headed down the same road the Soviet Union went down in Afghanistan. Nobody‘s ever won over there.

What is victory? Wiping out terrorists? Can we wipe them all out? Or are we doing nation building over there? And are we in for an expense that we‘ve never seen before?

SMITH: Well, there‘s two things about that.

First of all, we‘ve got to remember where we are. And on September 11th, I think it is appropriate to really focus on what happened in Afghanistan, what is now happening also right across the border in the Fatah, and the fact that the Taliban are inextricably linked to al Qaeda. And al Qaeda is still plotting, still planning, still trying to come up with ways to attack us here and throughout the western world.

We cannot afford to allow them to do that. We cannot afford...

SCHULTZ: So, you, as a Democrat, you stand to give the president what he wants at this particular point. You‘d go along with more troops if he calls for it. Yet, in the most recent polling that has been out there, 57 percent of the American people oppose the situation right now in Afghanistan and 42 percent favor. Also, it just looks like the support for this is starting to peel off.

SMITH: Oh, there‘s no question.

SCHULTZ: Go ahead.

SMITH: There‘s no question public support is starting to peel off. People are concerned. And certainly, we did not do as good a job as we should have in the last six years.

And furthermore, I think Senator Levin makes some goods points. We have to empower the Afghans to protect themselves from the Taliban. We have to train the army, we have to train the police corps, and we have to improve the development and the governance on the village level to keep the Taliban from being successful. That‘s going to be very, very hard.

SCHULTZ: Do you think, culturally—Congressman, do you think culturally we can achieve that in some measurable time without getting bogged down for another seven or eight years? Or is this going to be just a lifelong deal for the United States?

SMITH: Well, I think we are going to have to be somewhat involved in Afghanistan and Pakistan in terms of offering at least financial support for development. But hopefully, fairly quickly, we can get the Afghan security forces trained and to the level where they can protect themselves, because Senator Levin is right, it can‘t be us.

If we look like an occupying power we‘re in trouble. But we can‘t simply leave our allies in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban.

SCHULTZ: So, what is the exit strategy in your opinion?

SMITH: The exit strategy is to get the local Afghans to the point where they can provide security and provide the basic necessities of life so that the Taliban aren‘t able to weasel their way back in.

SCHULTZ: And Congressman, that is the exact same strategy that the Bush administration had in Iraq, and we‘re still there.

SMITH: Look, I‘m not arguing about Iraq. I mean, I‘m arguing about Afghanistan.

SCHULTZ: Well, I‘m not arguing—but the fact is, is that what you‘re saying is the exact same thing the Republicans in the Bush administration said about Iraq. We really have an open-ended policy in Afghanistan. We really don‘t know.

Isn‘t that right?

SMITH: Well, of course we don‘t know for sure what‘s going to happen. But I would ask you, is it OK if the Taliban take over Afghanistan and link back up with al Qaeda so that they can be safe and secure in that part of the world to plot attacks against the West? Is that OK?

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: And you‘re totally convinced that that‘s what would happen if we were to leave?

SMITH: If we were to leave right now, I think there is a very strong possibility of that happening. But again, we cannot put an endless array of troops in there because it defeats the basic effort.
SCHULTZ: OK.

SMITH: But we can‘t look at this part of the world and say, it‘s tough, we have to walk away. We‘ve got to be smart about our policy.

But again, the president came up with this strategy working with the best and the brightest minds on this issue. I think we should give our president at least a little bit of a chance. It‘s only been four months since he did his strategy. A little bit of a chance to implement that strategy.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, good to have you on the program tonight. I appreciate your time.

SMITH: Thanks, Ed. I appreciate it.

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