CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Iraq

Interview

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BLITZER: We got to get those 40 American troops out of Irbil ASAP, as quickly as possible. They also have to worry about shoulder- fired surface-to-air missiles which could clearly endanger some of those U.S. cargo planes bringing in those humanitarian supplies.

Barbara, stand by.

I want to bring in Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

He's an influential member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Graham, I know you're well plugged in with the Pentagon.

What are you hearing now?

What's the latest information you're getting?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, that we have to do something. The time has passed just to do nothing.

About three weeks ago, I asked General Dempsey a very pointed question -- is there any force within the region that could contain or defeat ISIS, that represents a direct threat to our homeland, without American air power assistance?

And he said no. So that's the dilemma we have.

If you believe these people are a threat to our homeland, which I do, there's no way to deal with them without American air power. There's nobody in the region that can do that without American air power.

That's where we find ourselves.

BLITZER: So it's one thing to drop pallets of food and water, which is critically important...

GRAHAM: Right.

BLITZER: -- especially to the tens of thousands of religious minorities, Christians and others, who are -- many of whom will starve to death in the next few days unless the U.S. helps. It's another thing to begin launching air strikes on ISIS targets.

You want those air strikes, I assume, to begin?

GRAHAM: Like yesterday. ISIS is a direct threat to the stability in the region. And to be honest with you, you've got to be honest with people. Three years ago, Senator McCain and I were saying you'd better deal with Syria, because it's going to consume the whole region.

You can buy time by hitting them in Iraq, but if you don't hit them in Syria, you're going to be right at it again.

So this thing has spread throughout the region and air strikes in Iraq that are not followed up by air strikes in Syria are not going to get to the root cause of the problem.

BLITZER: A senior Iraqi military official, Senator, tells CNN that the Iraqi Air Force has launched air strikes against ISIS targets in and around this Irbil area.

Is that good enough?

GRAHAM: Well, they don't have the capacity. You heard the Iraqi -- the Kurds and everybody in Iraq saying our air force is not capable of this. I'm going back to what General Dempsey said -- is there a military capability in the region that can successfully defeat these guys or contain them without U.S. air power?

And he said, no. And I would agree with that assessment.

BLITZER: What about boots on the ground?

The president -- the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, today, said under no circumstances will the U.S. send troops back into Iraq.

Is that smart?

GRAHAM: Don't ever say what you won't do. If we do not contain this now and hit them using air power, this goes on six months and they go into Lebanon and eventually to Jordan, you're probably going to have to have boots on the ground.

Nobody wants that. But the longer it goes and the stronger they get, the more aggressive the response. This doesn't get better by ignoring it. They're not going to defeat themselves. They're not going to surrender.

And here's the question, Wolf -- how do you stop them?

Who's going to stop them?

I think we have to be part of the team to stop them.

The good news is, I think air power, smartly employed, could turn this thing around. But if you keep letting it get worse and worse and worse, you're going to have to use ground troops eventually, if they continue to take over all of Iraq and their surrounding neighborhood.

BLITZER: You know that the American public has no great appetite to get involved militarily in Iraq right now, right?

GRAHAM: Sure. Absolutely. No, all I would tell the American people, this is the world as it is. I'm -- everybody is war weary, but I hope you're not so weary that you won't defend the homeland. When the director of National Intelligence, the CIA director, the Homeland Security secretary, the FBI director, tells all of us in Congress, ISIS is a direct credible threat to the homeland, they're gaining in strength, they're no longer a terrorist organization, they're a terrorist army, somebody has got to level with the American people that our foreign policy is failing, our homeland is at risk.

So I assume that the American people do not want to allow radical Islam to grow in strength to hit us again and have another 9/11. If that assumption is right, that means we need to act in coordination the regional powers, not just by ourselves.

This is not about the humanitarian aspects of your story. This is about protecting ourselves from a growing threat from radical Islam in Syria and Iraq.

BLITZER: But there are these al Qaeda-inspired groups, not just ISIS, all over North Africa, in other parts of Africa...

GRAHAM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- whether Boko Haram, certainly in the Arabian Peninsula.

What is the U.S. supposed to do to all these...

GRAHAM: Al-Nusra.

BLITZER: -- yes, of course. They're -- they're all dangerous and they all potentially represent a threat to the U.S. homeland.

GRAHAM: Smartly engage them. Al-Nusra is about to take over Libya. You've got Northern Africa becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

If we're not willing to fight these guys and contain them by having partnerships with people in the region, we're going to get hit again. So we should have left some troops behind in Iraq. I think it would have been more likely than not that this would never have happened if we had had a 10,000 coalition force left behind. We're going to have the same thing happen in Afghanistan.

I'm sorry that the world is as screwed up as it is. I don't know what makes these guys tick, but they're cutting people's heads off, they're crucifying Christians, they're about to wipe out one of the most ancient people in the region and they're coming after us next.

So here's the good news. They're not 10 feet tall. With some will and perseverance and determination and smart foreign policy, both military and foreign assistance, we can beat these guys.

But they will not give up. Somebody has got to take it to them. And that's going to require us to be part of that team to take it to them.

BLITZER: Yes. What's so depressing, Senator, is that the U.S. armed and trained a huge Iraqi Army...

GRAHAM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- hundreds of thousands of troops...

GRAHAM: Yes.

BLITZER: And they, at the first sign of any problem with these ISIS terrorists coming in, they run away, they abandon warehouses full of U.S. arms...

GRAHAM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- stocks and it's a disaster that we're seeing unfold right now that is so, so depressing when you think of all the US...

GRAHAM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- blood and treasure that was invested trying to build up a capable Iraqi military to protect their own country. They just couldn't do it, for whatever reason.

Hey, Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

GRAHAM: I blame Maliki for gutting them.

Thank you.

BLITZER: Yes, Nouri al-Maliki...

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BLITZER: -- has obviously turned out to be a disaster, according to almost everyone...

GRAHAM: Absolutely.

BLITZER: -- watching that situation.

Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina, thank you.

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