Feb. 26 Democratic debate transcript

Russert: I want to ask both of you this question, then. If this scenario plays out and the Americans get out in totality, and Al Qaida resurges and Iraq goes to hell, do you hold the right in your mind as American president to reinvade, to go back into Iraq to stabilize it?

Sen. Clinton: You know, Tim, you ask a lot of hypotheticals. And I believe that...

Russert: But this is reality.

Sen. Clinton: No, well, it isn't reality. You're making lots of different hypothetical assessments.
I believe that it is in America's interest and in the interest of the Iraqis for us to have an orderly withdrawal.
I've been saying for many months that the administration has to do more to plan. And I've been pushing them to actually do it. I've also said that I would begin to withdraw within 60 days based on a plan that I ask begun to be put together as soon as I became president. And I think we can take out one to two brigades a month.

I've also been a leader in trying to prevent President Bush from getting us committed to staying in Iraq regardless, for as long as Senator McCain and others have said it might be -- 50 to 100 years.

So when you talk about what we need to do in Iraq, we have to make judgments about what is in the best interest of America.

Sen. Clinton: And I believe this is in the best interest. But I also have heard Senator Obama refer continually to Afghanistan, and he references being on the Foreign Relations Committee.

He chairs the subcommittee on Europe. It has jurisdiction over NATO. NATO is critical to our mission in Afghanistan. He's held not one substantive hearing to do oversight, to figure out what we can do to actually have a stronger presence with NATO in Afghanistan.

You have to look at the entire situation to try to figure out how we can stabilize Afghanistan and begin to put more in there to try to get some kind of success out of it. And you have to...

Russert: All right. Let me...

Sen. Clinton: ... work with the Iraqi government so that they take responsibility for their own future.

Russert: Senator Obama, I want you to respond to not holding oversight for your subcommittee. But also, do you reserve a right as American president to go back into Iraq once you have withdrawn with sizable troops in order to quell any kind of insurrection or civil war?

Sen. Obama: Well, first of all, I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So, it is true that we haven't had oversight hearings on Afghanistan.

I have been very clear in talking to the American people about what I would do with respect to Afghanistan. I think we have to have more troops there to bolster the NATO effort. I think we have to show that we are not maintaining permanent bases in Iraq because Secretary Gates, our current defense secretary, indicated that we are getting resistance from our allies to put more troops into Afghanistan because they continue to believe that we made a blunder in Iraq. And I think even this administration acknowledges now that they are hampered now in doing what we need to do in Afghanistan in part because of what's happened in Iraq.

Now, I always reserve the right for the president -- as commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad. So that is true, I think, not just in Iraq, but that's true in other places. That's part of my argument with respect to Pakistan.

I think we should always cooperate with our allies and sovereign nations in making sure that we are rooting out terrorist organizations. But if they are planning attacks on Americans like what happened on 9/11, it is my job, it will be my job as president to make sure that we are hunting them down.

Williams: And Senator, I need to reserve...

Sen. Clinton: No, but I have -- I just have...

Williams: I’m sorry, Senator.

Sen. Clinton: No, wait a minute. I have to...

Williams: I've get to get us to a break.

Sen. Clinton: The question was about invading.

Williams: Television doesn't stop.

Sen. Clinton: Invading Iraq.

Williams: Can you hold that thought until we come back from a break? We have limited commercial interruptions tonight, and we have to get to one of them now. Despite the snowstorm swirling outside here in Cleveland, we're having a warm night in the arena.

We'll return to it right after this.

(Commercial break)