CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Russia Military Intervention in Ukraine and Middle East Policy

Interview

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Joining me now from Capitol Hill is California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, member of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as the appropriations committee.

So, Representative Schiff, you hear these stories, one wrench to share between three bases, but also more systematic problems we've heard about over recent months, morale, just bad oversight, bad behavior in some of these very sensitive installations. How alarmed are you by the problem and do you believe that the Defense Department now has a handle on how to correct these problems?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I'm very concerned about it and not the least in part because this is not a new problem. This was something that came to light, I think, when Secretary Gates was defense secretary and he fired a couple of people and we thought that some of the cultural and training problems had been fixed, or at least we had made progress. But it appears, in this latest report, that we haven't made much progress and I think a big part of the challenge is that this is not where probably the best officers gravitate to. It's not the sort of viewed as the best path for advancement within the military. And that, I think, has led to a lack of focus on the necessary resources, the necessary training, the necessary corrective action. And I hope that this new analysis will prompt vigorous action. It certainly will rekindle oversight efforts here in the Congress.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean it's incredible to think we have thousands of these things and they've just become so removed from the American consciousness. I want to turn, if I can now, to Russia and the Ukraine. As you're aware, NATO says Russian troops and tanks and forces have moved across the border. I just wonder, we have this happening yet again. You know, the administration talks about raising costs on Russia to prevent this kind of behavior, but clearly that policy is not working. I mean would you say that the administration's response to Russia's military action in the Ukraine has proven to be a failure?

SCHIFF: Well, I don't know that I would use failure, I think that's too strong a term, but it certainly hasn't had the impact that we want it to have. It has affected the Russian economy. It has damaged the Russian economy. That's something we wanted, but it hasn't gone that extra step in actually changing Russia's policy very much, which is why I hope that we can work with our European partners to strengthen the sanctions, not simply as I think they're intending to merely add new names to the list of those individual sanctions, but broaden the scope of those sanctions.

I'd also like to see the United States and our European partners start to provide military assistance to Ukraine, anti-tank munitions, for example. We haven't done that, I think, out of an abundance of caution, not wanting to provoke the Russians into more aggressive action. But the reality is, the Russians are taking those actions anyway. And while the Ukraine military will never be a match for the Russian military, we can increase the cost to Russia's action and operations within Ukraine by providing greater material support to Ukraine. So I think both those steps are going to be necessary.

SCIUTTO: Well, you have to wonder if there should be a policy review at this point. We're talking about a Syria policy review. An if as part of that review, why don't they have those sanctions teed up and ready to go for each Russian escalation step that you have, rather than kind of letting it happen and then trying to tee up something after the fact?

SCHIFF: Well that, I think, would be ideal and that's certainly something we should be doing. My sense is that, you know, with this cease-fire agreement, which is really a non-agreement, there was hope that we were on a different pathway. I think Europe, which has never been enthusiastic about the sanctions, was hoping that we would move in a direction of easing sanctions rather than adding new sanctions. But what's taking place now is General Breedlove has indicated there's very much movement in the opposite direction. The Russians, once again, acting with belligerent, invading the territory of Ukraine, bolstering the rebel forces, looking to seize more ground. All that, I think, is going to reawaken Europe to the need, not just to keep the sanctions we have and not just to add new individuals, but to broaden the base of those sanctions themselves.

SCIUTTO: You're aware of the talk now of a review of Syria policy and the idea of adding Assad, the governor, Bashar al Assad, in effect to the target list, so you're not just looking to get rid of ISIS, but also Assad. Is that something that the U.S. has the capability and commitment to do? I mean it's already taken on a lot with ISIS, a war that we've been told will take years to accomplish that goal. How do you - how do you consider doing both things? You know, it seems like a very tall order.

SCHIFF: Well, it is a very tall order and I think part of what make it a tall order is that if we expand the scope of not just going after ISIS in Syria, but we go after the regime itself, it changes the nature of the environment in terms of Iran. Does Iran then become much more hostile to us in Iraq? Does it let lose its militias to try to bomb us with IEDs in Iraq, as those militias did in the past? So there are a lot of repercussions from it. At the same time we're seeing the real tensions and problems with the current policy when we have been undertaking these bombings of the Khorasan group and that has alienated some of these so-called moderate forces that are wondering why we are going after al Nusra, the al Qaeda franchise, that is so effective in fighting the regime.

So there are real problems with the current strategy of only going after ISIS and I think that ought to get us at least to review whether we need to broaden public efforts to go after the regime. I do think one of the more promising things that we're doing is Secretary Kerry's efforts to find some consensus in the region with our Gulf allies, with our Iranian adversaries, to phase out, transition out Bashar al Assad because I think that's key to ending the civil war and ultimately ending the space that ISIS has to operate in.

SCIUTTO: It's incredible to think we're, in effect, on the same side as Iran in Iraq against ISIS and then on opposite sides in Syria with regard to the government of Bashar al Assad.

Thanks very much, Representative Adam Schiff, on Capitol Hill.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Jim.

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