MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Congressman John Garamendi on Peacemaking in the Middle East
Interview
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For more let me bring in Congressman John Garamendi who serves on the House
Armed Services Committee.
Congressman, good to have your time tonight, I appreciate it very much.
REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (D) CALIFORNIA: Certainly, Ed.
SCHULTZ: Does this situation as it unfolded yesterday as grosses it was in
Libya. Does that change anything? Does this bring us to any different
conclusion or any other method of response as you see it?
GARAMENDI: Well, for months, I`ve been saying the same thing. We have to
have a different response. We cannot do what we done before. It simply
didn`t work. So we need to have a different response, part to that
response has to do with the other countries in the area.
You saw Egypt very quickly responding to what happened in Libya. They are
seriously threatened. You saw Jordan also have responded when their pilot
was burned. You`d seen -- the question is, is Turkey also going to get
involve. The country surrounding Iraq and Syria and now Libya are at risk
and they are going to have to respond.
Clearly, this is radical jihad. No doubt about it. And we need to work
with those more stable countries, pull them into our work with them and
work with them to bring about a proper military solution. But we also have
to deal with the underlying social, economic and religious issues that are
profoundly operating through out the Middle East and quite possibly around
the world.
So that needs to be a very comprehensive strategy. We`ve got to understand
the religious jihad that`s going on, the Sikhism (ph) that exists in the --
in Islam between the Shia and Sunni. All of those issues.
Now, Ed, you said maybe we should put the army back into the Middle East.
I respectfully disagree with you.
Boots on the ground, a new military adventure with tens of thousands of
Americans with armor infantry, artillery, all the rest on the ground is not
going to solve this problem.
We are going to need to have certain elements. We will have to have
Special Forces operating in certain areas when they can be usefully but
mostly we need to build the support of the existing countries in that area
because they are the ones that are most seriously threatened. Not that
we`re not, we clearly are. But they`re the hometown and they are the ones
that you`re going to see this first and it`s already happening.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, I would personally come to the conclusion as someone
who is following the news and seen what`s unfolding here is that what we`re
doing isn`t strong enough, isn`t working. Now, whether that means we need
to put ground troops and get them involve, I don`t know. I`m not a
military expert.
But when they`re growing geographically and they`re growing in influence
and they are socially connected as they are, I mean, this was almost like a
movie production what they released.
I mean, it -- they`re in lawless parts of the Middle East, I mean, how do
you trot out 21 people with nobody else around and do something like that?
It takes organization, it takes protection and I think it`s reached the
level right now that where the United States. We might have to have a
conversation that special ops and some ground forces might be part of the
equation. But basically, we`ve told ISIS, well, that`s not going to
happen. We told other countries who are getting hit by this group that
we`re not going to put ground troops in.
Is there a time...
GERAMENDI: Well...
SCHULTZ: ... that we would possibly do that as this continues to grow?
GARAMENDI: Well, take a look at the total Middle East. If you or anybody
thinks that we can control the situation to have a ground troops, we better
be prepared to put several 100,000 troops on the ground.
You got Libya and Syria. You`ve got problems in Yemen. You clearly have
continuing problems in Afghanistan and now in the Libya area. We`re
talking about a major confrontation, should we put ground troops -- should
we want to put troops on the ground?
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
GARAMENDI: We need to study this. I would recommend and I`ve asked my
colleagues and their Armed Services Committee, let`s have a very serious
understanding of what it means to put troops on the ground. Special
operations, that`s one thing.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
GARAMENDI: You want to put the brigades. You want to put the armory. You
want to the artillery back in. What is it mean? What is the cost? What
is the human cost to Americans and others? And keep in mind that the
countries -- Egypt has a very strong military, Jordan had one that is not
be neglected and, clearly, Turkey has a major military operation.
All of those countries, they are the ones that have to come to the
realization that they are threatened.
SCHULTZ: So...
GARAMENDI: So we can use that threat to our advantage and to their
advantage by working with them, providing certain logistic all and the
intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance if they don`t have. But, boy,
I don`t want to put another division...
SCHULTZ: OK.
GARAMENDI: ... back on the ground there.
SCHULTZ: All right. Congressman John Garamendi, great to have you with
us, I appreciate your time...
GARAMENDI: Sure.
SCHULTZ: ... tonight and insight.
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