Transcript for Sept. 3

SEN. SANTORUM: Well, my point is that we need to have strong surveillance programs. You mentioned Special Forces. We have lots of Special Forces out there, but they need intelligence if they’re going to be able to do their jobs. And as far as that being a plan to solve this problem, I think you just fundamentally misunderstand the problem. You’re saying that somehow or another the language and terminology doesn’t matter. You believe that we’re going to win or lose this war on the battlefield in Iraq and the battlefield in Afghanistan. I don’t. I think we’ll win or lose this war right here in America. I think we’ll win or lose this war because the American people...

MR. RUSSERT: Let’s, let’s have...

SEN. SANTORUM: Please let me finish—because the American people are not going to stand—are, are, are losing their resolve because of the tactics the terrorists are using. Understand, terrorists understand. What they, what they want to accomplish is every single day to kill people, and every single day make it hard for Americans to open up their papers, or turn on their television and find more death and more destruction. And it’s undermining our ability to prosecute this war.

We need to lay out for the American public what this war is, the fact that we are up against, I think, the greatest challenge of this, of this country’s history.

MR. RUSSERT: But, senator, the American people have turned against the war in Iraq.

SEN. SANTORUM: Yes, they have.

MR. RUSSERT: Why? Because of misjudgments made by the Bush administration?

SEN. SANTORUM: I think because the Bush administration hasn’t laid out the complexity of dealing with this war and, and how it fits into a broader picture.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me pursue...

SEN. SANTORUM: And that’s what I’m trying to do.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me pursue that, because when President Clinton took troops into Kosovo, this is what you said. “President Clinton is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill defined objective and no exit strategy. He is yet to tell Congress how much this operation will cost. And, he has not informed our nation’s Armed Forces about how long they will be away from home.”

Do you believe you should have the same standard for President Bush? He should give a defined objective, he should give an exit strategy, he should give a cost, and he should give a timeline for Iraq, just as you were demanding President Clinton give for Kosovo?

SEN. SANTORUM: No. Because, because Kosovo and, and Slobodan Milosevic were never a security threat to the United State of America. No way. There—I mean, it wasn’t even close.

MR. RUSSERT: But these are men and women at war.

SEN. SANTORUM: We had, we had—excuse me—we had no business, in my opinion—and I felt this today—we had no business going in—into that area.  We had no national security interest. We are up against an enemy that every single day in the streets of Iran they’re out talking about how they want to destroy the United States, how they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. We can sit back and say they’re not a real threat, we can sit back and play games and, and, and pick apart the administration’s strategy, or we can focus...

MR. CASEY: We never said that, right? You know we’ve never said that.

SEN. SANTORUM: ...we can focus...

MR. CASEY: Never said that.

SEN. SANTORUM: ...on what the real problem is. The real problem is we are up against a serious enemy that wants to destroy us. Ask the two Fox News reporters who just came back. “Submit or die!” That’s what they believe. And we can step back and say, “Ah, well, they’re crazy. Ah, we’re not—they’re not serious.”

MR. RUSSERT: But...

SEN. SANTORUM: “Oh, we all just need to play around, and play politics with tactics.”

MR. RUSSERT: ...but what is wrong with asking—what is wrong with asking for a defined objective, an exit strategy, a cost estimate and a timeline?

SEN. SANTORUM: We have—we have...

MR. CASEY: Tim...

SEN. SANTORUM: ...we have—the administration has, has testified, as I have laid out in my campaign, lots of things that we need to, we need to accomplish on a tactical level. The bottom line is, are we going to get the focus right as to who the enemy is and how we, how we have to go after them?

MR. CASEY: Tim...

SEN. SANTORUM: And again, I go back to Iran. What—a big problem I have with this administration is it hasn’t been tough enough on Iran. It should not have let Khatemi come into this country and be at Harvard today. It should not have negotiated with the Iranians on their nuclear program.  They’re stringing us along and they’re going to continue to string us along.  We need to pass the Iran Freedom of Support Act, my bill that I introduced two years ago. I offered that on the floor of the United States Senate.

MR. RUSSERT: Should we launch a military attack against Iran?

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