MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining me now is Washington Congressman Adam Smith, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

And we are glad you"re here tonight, Congressman, because you have taken a couple of trips over to Afghanistan.

From what you hear so far, could you support a troop increase to the tune of 34,000, 35,000 and $35 billion a year?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D), WASHINGTON: Well, first of all, Ed, I listened to your intro and I agree completely with everything you said about the hard position that President Obama has been put in after eight years of not having a clear plan and strategy in Afghanistan. And I also completely agree that we ought to pay for it.

We should have paid for it in the first place, and we certainly should now. We have heard from conservatives all over the place about how...

SCHULTZ: So you would support it?

SMITH: Absolutely. Well, sorry, I would support paying for it.

SCHULTZ: OK.

SMITH: The troop increase depends on what else is part of it. What is the strategy? What is the plan? Because the one thing we know, we"ve relied too much on the central government.

The Karzai government has been corrupt and inefficient. What"s our plan for changing that? Who are we going to work with on the local level? What are we going to do...

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: Congressman, respectfully, we have been asking these same questions. We are now in year number nine.

SMITH: Oh, absolutely.

SCHULTZ: What is 35,000 more troops going to do to change or answer any of the questions you just posed? Which are very legitimate, obviously.

But, look, we"re either in or we"re out of Iraq. We"re either going to resource this or we"re not.

Is it worth American lives, is it worth American treasure, in your opinion?

SMITH: Afghanistan, not Iraq.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

SMITH: But, first of all, yes, I believe there is a national security interest. I think the president explained it as crisply and clearly as he could. In the clip that you showed about the threat we face from al Qaeda and the Taliban, we have a national security interest in making sure the al Qaeda and the Taliban do not become resurgent in Afghanistan.

SCHULTZ: Well, that means we"re going to be there forever.

SMITH: And there"s a distinct risk that they will.

No.

SCHULTZ: I mean, if this is a religious cultural war, and they want to kill us, how is this war going to end?

SMITH: No, no, no. It"s going to end if we have an Afghan government and an Afghan people that are able to stop the Taliban and al Qaeda.

SCHULTZ: So nation building?

SMITH: No. No. I don"t think it is a matter of building up a nation.

I think it is a matter of training troops and offering a support system in there that gets them to the point where they can do it. I mean, Pakistan right now is fighting back against the Taliban. We don"t have 65,000 troops or even 1,000 troops in Pakistan. That"s a government that"s able to fight back despite the fact that al Qaeda and the Taliban are there.

SCHULTZ: Well, that"s an interesting point. So, our existence in Afghanistan depends on how effective the Pakistani army is against al Qaeda?

SMITH: No--Ed, that"s not what I said.

SCHULTZ: I mean, this is--well, wait a minute.

SMITH: You"ve asked about seven or eight questions. I really want to try to answer them.

What it depends on in Afghanistan is having an Afghan population. All I"m saying is that Pakistan proves that it is possible to have a government that"s willing to resist this force without a huge U.S. troop presence.

SCHULTZ: OK. All right.

SMITH: That"s what we need to get to.

And on the troop question, you know, I don"t know right now whether or not we need 35,000 more troops.

SCHULTZ: OK.

SMITH: The president"s got to make his case and tell us what the plan is. We need absolutely, unquestionably a different strategy. That is what is, I think, completely clear. And that"s what the president is giving us.

SCHULTZ: Well, the different strategy is going to be exactly what the generals want. He"s just 6,000, 5,000 short of what was requested over there.

Congressman, good to have you with us tonight.

SMITH: Thanks, Ed.

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