Jan. 24 Republican debate transcript

Williams: Senator McCain, thank you.

Governor Romney, retired four-star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey is just back from one of his many trips to Iraq and has written a report, an after-action report on his findings. This sentence stood out: "The U.S. Army is too small and poorly resourced to continue successful counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at the current level."

The question, Governor, is: How do you double the size of it from 400,000 to 800,000, as the general recommends in here, without a draft?

Romney: Well, I'm recommending that we add 100,000 active-duty personnel to our military. We're right now at about 1.5 million. Take that to about 1.6 million.

We found in our state that we were losing enrollees for the National Guard at about 6 percent per year. And the legislature and I got together and passed something called the Welcome Home Bill.

We said, you know what? If you'll sign up for the National Guard, we'll pay for your entire education for four years.

We put in some other benefits as well -- life insurance and other features that we decided to pay for. And the result of that was, the next year enrollments went up 30 percent.

And so, if we want more people to sign up for the military, we have to improve the deal. And frankly, our G.I. Bill has gotten a little old. We need to update our funding level for that so that young people who go into the military get a full ride as they come home and get to go into college.

But let me step back also and just talk about what we saw the night with the Democratic debate as we think about the commitment that needs to be made to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is simply unthinkable that the Democrats would have said at that debate when they were asked, "What's more important to you, that when we get out or that we win?" that with their answer -- they wouldn't answer directly, but with each of their answers, it was very clear getting out was their only objective. Just get out as fast as you can, regardless of the consequences. And that's simply wrong.

We cannot turn Iraq over to Al Qaida and have Al Qaida have a safe haven from which they can recruit people to carry out bombings, to attack this country and our friends around the world. It's unthinkable, and that's why I will not walk away from Iraq until we have been successful and finished that job.

And one more thing.

What an audacious and arrogant thing for the Democrats to say, as Hillary Clinton did, that they are responsible for the progress that the surge has seen by virtue of their trying to pull out so quickly. Look, the success over there is due to the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women, and to General Petraeus and to President Bush. Not to General Hillary Clinton.

Williams: Governor, thank you.

Tim?

Russert: The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll today, the highest percentage ever of Americans, six in 10, said that the removal of Saddam Hussein from power was not worth the price we have paid in blood and treasure.

Every Democratic...

Excuse me, please.

The Democratic nominee will go to the country and say the war in Iraq is a bad idea, not worth the price in blood and treasure, and we should get out.

I want each of you to take 30 seconds.

Will you go to the country, Senator McCain, and say, the war was a good idea, worth the price in blood and treasure, and we will stay?

McCain: It was worth getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He had used weapons of mass destruction, and it's clear that he was hell bent on acquiring them.

The problem was not the invasion of Iraq. The problem was the mishandling of Iraq for nearly four years by Rumsfeld.

And again, I railed against that. I was criticized by Republicans. There were others that called for a phased or secret withdrawal.

The war in Iraq was justified because of the threat of Saddam Hussein. It was the mishandling of the war.

Now we're on the right track. Now we are succeeding. And if we withdraw and if we decide that we have to get out of there, I guarantee you, Al Qaida will be trumpeting to the world that they have defeated the United States of America.

Russert: Senator, my question is...

McCain: Your -- my answer.

Russert: ... was the war a good idea, worth the price in blood and treasure?

McCain: It was a good idea. It was not worth the failures that happened, but it is worth it at the end of the day, because we will have peace and success in the Middle East, and our men and women will return, and return with honor, and they won't have to go back and fight Al Qaida there.