NBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Afghanistan

Interview

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Joining us now is Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Senator Merkley, thanks very much for being here tonight. It`s nice
to see you.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Oh, you`re welcome, Rachel. It`s
great to be with you.

MADDOW: So it seems to me you are on to something here that might be
unexpectedly popular, even though the Beltway common wisdom says stuff like
this never flies.

Do you think the Senate has changed enough to support this idea?

MERKLEY: Well, I absolutely do. The idea that we`re going to extend
this war another 1- years, make a commitment to have perhaps 7,000 to
12,000 troops there for that period, to spend at least another $50 million,
and I think that`s understating it probably by a factor of two. To do this
without any form of congressional dialogue to say, yes, this makes sense, I
think it`s a bipartisan sense that absolutely Congress should weigh in.

And, by the way, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on this back
in June. And they approved it 305-221, overwhelming support. You finally
found something both the House and Senate can say yes to.

MADDOW: I was just going -- I was just going to point that out,
because on every other issue in the world, when the Senate gets close to
doing something, unexpected, a departure from hawkish ways in the past, or
conservative ways in the past, we also think, oh, yes, but the House will
never go for it. In this case, the House has already jumped. They
considered the same issue.

The bedfellows are really strange on this. I wonder if it makes you
feel like the sort of Beltway common wisdom. The way that stuff like this
is instinctively thought of being impossible to happen. If you think
that`s outdated?

MERKLEY: Well, I think in this situation, you do have both the
grassroots on the right and the grassroots on the left saying enough is
enough. Let`s have a fundamental debate about what commitments we make.

I mean, we realize that al-Qaeda is everywhere. They`re not just in
Afghanistan. In fact, very few are in Afghanistan. So, we need to meet
the terrorist threat where it is, not necessarily lock ourselves into one
country for another decade.
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By the way, an extraordinarily corrupt country, a country where we
have tremendous challenge of Afghan soldiers shooting American soldiers.
Tremendous challenges of cultural understanding, communication.

A lot has gone wrong in this presence. And the idea we`ll make
another 10-year commitment of this fashion without a congressional debate,
I just think people say enough is enough, let`s reevaluate.

Mr. President, come back to Congress and ask for authority by the
middle of next year before we make this kind of commitment.

MADDOW: I have to ask you, this is a little weird given the subject,
but I have to ask you about something that happened on "The Tonight Show,"
with Jay Leno. Specifically because Jay Leno asked former President George
W. Bush.

It is a short clip, but I want your reaction to what George Bush said
here. Watch.

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MADDOW: President Bush says he hopes we stay there a long time and he
thinks that the U.S. troop presence is good for women in Afghanistan. I
have to ask if you think that helps or hurts you in making your case here?

MERKLEY: Well, I think President Bush is arguing for the perpetual
war. And there are certainly our members of the Senate who will argue for
the same. Once anywhere in the world, they will say stay there, build the
permanent bases, they want to continue the bases and they want to continue
the presence.

And let`s face it. This is a huge opportunity cost in terms of
American troops that can do other good things in the world elsewhere or
good things elsewhere in our security. There is a huge cost in terms of
dollars that are spent. We have huge infrastructure demands that would put
people to work and prepare the infrastructure for the next generation. We
have huge education demands.

I love the conversation you had with Elizabeth Warren, talking about
one of them, our kids can`t afford to go to college, which puts a big
aspirational vision for America that every child should have in our nation.
So, commitment unending for vast resources in a small country, or a fairly
large country in territory, but a small country in terms of numbers, half
way around the world that we have to re-think these types of things. They
shouldn`t be an automatic "let`s add another decade" to what s already been
the longest war in American history.

MADDOW: Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, I think you`ve got a better
chance with this than the Beltway press is giving you credit for. Stay in
touch with us as this moves in the Senate, sir. Thanks.

MERKLEY: Thank you.

MADDOW: Nice to see you.

MERKLEY: Great to be with you.

MADDOW: All right. We`ll be right back.

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