MTP Transcript for Dec. 3

MR. HADLEY: The president supported the formation of the commission, he has met with the members of the commission, and did other senior members of his, of his administration. We’ve provided documents and information to them. I think it’s interesting, the American people don’t, probably, understand that the report has not come out and is not public and will not be public until Wednesday. There’s a lot of speculation about what’s in that report. Let’s see what they actually say.

The president is looking forward to receiving that report. He is conducting a review. That will be an important input to that report, but the president also wants to listen to Republicans and Democrats in the Congress. He wants to have the results and hear the results of the review by his military commanders. He wants to hear what the Iraqi government thinks is the way forward. He’s going to then take all of those things and come together with a way forward. His hope is that his way forward that the American people can support, Republicans and Democrats, the legislature and the Congress. That’s his objective.

Baker-Hamilton will be an important input, but as you would expect, he’s going to get inputs from a number of sources.

MR. RUSSERT: Some people have suggested the president is just plain stubborn about Iraq. He is going to do it his way, no matter what other people advise. As he said, if it’s only just his wife and his dog, he is going to follow the course that’s in his mind.

MR. HADLEY: He is stubborn about Iraq because—in the sense that the goal for him is very clear. It is a goal that the Iraqis share, I think the American people share. He’s also stubborn about Iraq because he understands the cost that if Iraq fails, I think the American people understand the cost that Iraq fails: a base for al-Qaeda and terrorists to destabilize the region, plan attacks against us, use oil against the West.

I think the American people understand the cost of failure. What they want to see is a way forward that has a prospect of success. That’s what the review is going to produce and it will be a way forward in partnership with the Iraqi government that wants to take more responsibility and needs to be supported in doing so.

MR. RUSSERT: We will be watching very closely. Stephen Hadley, we thank you very much for sharing your views this morning.

MR. HADLEY: Thanks very much.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, more on the situation in Iraq and the upcoming confirmation hearings on Tuesday for secretary of defense nominee Robert Gates. We have the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan. Then, former President Jimmy Carter. They are all coming up right here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Iraq with John Warner, Carl Levin of the Armed Services Committee. Then Jimmy Carter, after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Senator Warner, Senator Levin, welcome both.

All right, Senator Warner, this is it. October 5, this is what you said to the country, “I assure you in two or three months,” that would be today, “...if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it’s a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take? And I wouldn’t take off the table any option.” Sixty days are up. Are we ready for a change in course?

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA): You know, I, I really felt strongly about that. Carl and I had just returned from our eighth trip, and it turned out just as I predicted, if I may say with a sense of humility. But the government, the US government, both the Congress and the executive branch, are studying every possible option at this time. The Baker-Hamilton group, which you referred on your earlier piece with Steve Hadley are doing their job. And our president is listening, learning, and he’s open to take a change in course. Not necessarily the final goals, I think they should remain fixed, but the change of course of how to get from here to there, they’re doing it.

And I hope that the president, each time he sees an option whereby we can cut down the risks to the men and women of the armed forces, the loss of life and limb, the hardship on our families and our troops, that he will immediately put those things in place. Like he said with Maliki, “You want more authority over your troops? You’ll get it. You want more equipment? You want more training? You want to enlarge them? You’re going to get it.” So I think the president has taken a very aggressive action and I strongly recommend as he finishes his own internal review, in a week or 10 days, that he then come before the new Congress in January—after all, the people spoke in this election, very loudly, and the new leadership are a reflection of the voices of the people across this country—consult informally with the leadership of both the House and the Senate and hopefully we’ll forge a bipartisan—and underline “bipartisan”—consensus of the changes in strategies we should employ in the next months and perhaps six or eight months to come.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Levin, Senator Warner says the president is open to an aggressive review and yet on Tuesday, this is what he said to he nation. Let’s play it and come back and talk about it.

(Videotape, Tuesday)

PRES. BUSH: But there’s one thing I’m not going to do. I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: What’s your reaction to that?

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI): His stubbornness has continued. Some of his rhetoric has changed. He says he’s open to new ideas. (Coughs) Excuse me. He’ll even listen to Democrats. I—I even heard Steve Hadley say they’ll even listen to Democrats on the Hill. Boy, that would be a change. He’s been absolutely stubborn in his view that we are there—and this is his words just a few days ago, by the way, Tim—“We are going to stay in Iraq as long as Iraqis ask us to be there.” Now, that seems to me to be more of the same, “Stay the course. It’s up to the Iraqis how long we’re there.” It’s an absolute refusal to do what we all know, I think, just about everybody except the president, his wife and a few others who are very, very willing to say whatever he wants them to say.

We’ve got to tell the Iraqis it’s their responsibility. It’s their country. The prime minister of Iraq, Maliki, said something which has not been reported enough. He said the entire problem in Iraq is political. It’s not military. He said it’s the politicians who have the end to violence in Iraq. It’s a political problem in Iraq. It can’t be solved militarily. We’ve got to put pressure on the Iraqis to take responsibility, and the only way that that’s going to be done is if the open-ended commitment to Iraq of our troops is over. We got to end it. And the president, when he says we’re going to stay in Iraq as long as the Iraqis want us to stay, keeps that open-ended commitment, which takes the responsibility off them and puts it on us. The wrong way.

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