CBS "Face The Nation" - Transcript
Interview
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HARRY SMITH: We're back with Senator Lindsey Graham who joins us this morning from Clemson,
South Carolina. Senator, good morning.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-South Carolina): Good morning, Harry.
HARRY SMITH: Let's first start with Afghanistan. General McChrystal apparently wants forty thousand
more troops. Should he get what he wants?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes. I would give the General the resources he needs to regain lost
momentum. He says in his report while the situation has deteriorated success is possible, but to regain
the momentum we've lost we're going to need additional troops. And without better security, without
dislodging the Taliban, this new effort at governance will fail. You can't have a second shot at governance
until you get the security situation right. This counterinsurgency strategy of General McChrystal's has
been well thought out. I hope the President will give him the troops he says he needs.
HARRY SMITH: You have made numerous trips to Afghanistan. Before we went on television during the
commercial break you said the situation there has deteriorated measurably.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yes.
HARRY SMITH: How bad is it?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Uh-- you can't travel like you once could. I was there about a year ago.
And the environment of getting off the base is much more difficult. You could have ten thousand
Department of State lawyers over there working on the rule of law. You could have all kind of agricultural
experts trying to help, you know, do away with the drug problem or replace it with commercial agriculture.
You just can't travel. Civilians just can't operate right now. So, we need more combat power, not just us
but NATO, to take the fight back to the Taliban because they have reemerged because of the lack of
governance and lack of enough troops. The sixty-eight thousand American soldiers there now cannot turn
Afghanistan around without some help. And that's the big question.
HARRY SMITH (overlapping): How--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I hope they get the help they need.
HARRY SMITH: How urgent is this decision?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: He said-- General McChrystal said if we don't do it within a year the
insurgency cannot be defeated. Here's my concern about the next eighteen months. We're looking at a
trifecta of disasters here: If Iran is not checked, they're going to have a nuclear weapon in the next eighteen months. If we don't reinforce Afghanistan now and turn around the military situation the Taliban
are going to take over part or all of Afghanistan. And if NATO doesn't jump into the fight with both feet
they're going to become a paper tiger. We could have three major disasters that affect our national
security for years to come if we use half measures. Reject half measures.
HARRY SMITH: I tried to get an answer from the secretary of state. Do you really believe the Iranians are
currently working on a nuclear weapon?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Absolutely, I believe they are. I believe the holocaust existed. I've got
one rule of thumb. If the President of a country denies the holocaust you should believe the worst not the
best about what they're doing. Clearly they're hiding nuclear programs for a purpose. They're trying to
develop a nuclear weapon. And if they are successful the Sunni-Arab states in the region will want a
nuclear weapon, Israel becomes much at risk, and we're walking down the road to Armageddon.
We have about eighteen months using the international community to decisively act. No more half
measures. China is supplying one third of the refine petroleum to Iran. They need to join with the
Russians, the United States, and the international community to bring this regime to reality. Sanctions
only work if they change behavior.
HARRY SMITH (overlapping): All right.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: We need to empower the Iranian people and deter their regime.
HARRY SMITH: Crippling sanctions have been talked about. And the idea that--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (overlapping): Yeah.
HARRY SMITH: --all options should be left open, opens the door to military action. When might military
action-- when-- when should it be considered?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: At the last resort, when all meaningful sanctions fail. And what we do in
Afghanistan will affect the ability of Iran to get the message. This regime needs to be delivered a
message that the international community is deadly serious about stopping their nuclear program. So we
have not tried meaningful sanctions yet. We've got a little bit of time to do that. But at the end of the day
the worst thing that could happen to this country, in my view, is for Iran to get a nuclear weapon because
that changes everything in the Mideast for the worst. And what we do in Afghanistan I think will affect the
outcome in Iran.
HARRY SMITH: So, let's stay on Afghanistan for a second. What if Afghan-- if General McChrystal
doesn't get the forty thousand troops he asked for?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: We're going to lose. We'll be driven out. The Taliban will come back
stronger than they were before. The moderates in Afghanistan will go back in hiding or get killed. NATO
will be seen as a failure. And America will go it alone in the future. We cannot let NATO fail in
Afghanistan. This is NATO's fight, just not America's fight. The Taliban have come back for a reason. But
the good news is the Afghan people don't want them back. With additional military power, we can defeat
them.
And we have got to do what Secretary Clinton said--push the Karzai government or the next government
to do better. But until you get the military situation right you'll never get better governance. So failing in
Afghanistan is a disaster for NATO and it will affect Pakistan. The same people trying to fight the
Pakistani government are the same ones trying to come back in Afghanistan.
HARRY SMITH: Senator Lindsey Graham, we thank you so much for your time this morning.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Thank you.
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