MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Islamic State

Interview

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For more, let me bring in John Garamendi, Congressman from California who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, you get the first question. Are we doing the right thing? Your thoughts?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (R) CONGRESSMAN: We`re doing the right thing but I think we`re also going about it the wrong way. The President welcomes our involvement. Ed, this is a new war. This is not an extension of the Iraq I, or Iraq II war or even Afghanistan. This is a new war.

The constitution is very clear. The President must come to Congress to get our approval and authorization to use force. It`s very, very clear to me. They`re arguing that they don`t need it, that they can continue the wars of the Afghanistan and the 2002 era.

We need to limit. We need to be very, very careful. We need to limit exactly what the President said he wanted to do last night. We don`t want to grease the slippery slope to all-out engagement in the Middle East again.

But if we fail to put through a very clear authorization to use force that`s limited, limited in its scope, limited in how much and where we can do it, we`re going to head right down that slippery slope and I`ll guarantee you we`ll have thousands of boots on the ground leading the effort to try to deal with these countries. Which we will not succeed at, unless those country surrounding it -- the Sunni counties surrounding this area, Iraq, Turkey, the countries in the Gulf State and Jordan. If they don`t get engaged with their boots on the ground we cannot succeed. We will simply enflame this thing even worst than it is.

SCHULTZ: So Congressman what I`m hearing is, you want this very well- defined and you want Congress` stamp of approval that the 13-year-old vote doesn`t fit anymore, that this is as you said, a new war. I have to ask you tonight, John.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

SCHULTZ: Are most Democrats talking like this, what`s the conversation amongst your party?

GARAMENDI: We need to find out. That`s what the debate is about.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: Under the American constitution, the president can propose war but it is Congress that authorizes war and I don`t care how you want to parse the language. I don`t care how smart your lawyers are, this is not Afghanistan. This is not al-Qaeda. This is not the Gulf War II in 2002 which was under faults pretenses anyway.

SCHULTZ: OK.

GARAMENDI: This is a new war and we need to go about this with very careful definition. The President laid out four things. Those should be the parameters of an authorization to use force.

SCHULTZ: So Congressman, do you believe that the President can get an appropriation to arm these Syrian moderates? Would he need to vote on that, in your opinion?

GARAMENDI: Frankly, I was rather shocked today when we heard in a briefing that they wanted to connect that to the continuing resolution, in other words, the funding of government after October or after September 30th. That is a recipe for shutting down a government because you put right smack into the continuation of the operation of government, a very controversial issue.

SCHULTZ: OK.

GARAMENDI: Not wise, I think it ought to be a separate vote, voted up or down and let`s see where we`re going.

Am willing to support that? Yes, if it`s carefully defined. If it`s limited, yes, I will. I`ve already said I support air power both in Iraq and in Syria but we need to be careful here about how we approach this and to connect that authorization to train and equip the Syrian rebels whomever they maybe and a lot of questions you raised it too.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: Who are they...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: ... to put that into the continuing resolution of the funding of the American government and all of its various pieces, I think is a very serious political mistake.

SCHULTZ: That is a great unknown. Who are the Syrian moderates and are they seriously going to be that much better off if they are armed?

Congressman John Garamendi, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time.

GARAMENDI: Always, Ed. Thank you.

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