INTERVIEW WITH U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN

By Bob Schieffer and Gloria Borger on CBS's Face the Nation

05 May 2002

Excerpts

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GLORIA BORGER, U.S. News & World Report: Can I just switch to Iraq for a moment. Time Magazine is reporting this week that weapons monitors are absolutely convinced that Saddam Hussein is now struggling to build nuclear weapons; that he has biological and chemical weapons already. Is this an indication that we should be acting sooner rather than later on Iraq?

MCCAIN: I think we should be acting sooner, but I believe that we should have a long time ago. Both the Clinton and Bush administration made very strenuous efforts to support the opposition groups both within and without Iraq, either the Shiites in the South, the Kurds in the North and others. We haven't done really anything tangible to support those organizations. No, they're not Boy Scouts, nor should we expect them to be, but they're certainly far better than what's residing in Baghdad today. And I would give a full, 100 percent emphasis to those opposition groups to see if they can't make some progress. Nobody knows how weak Saddam Hussein is, but we all agree that he's a lot weaker than he was in 1991.

BORGER: Well, the State Department cut off funds for those groups. So that you're saying that was a mistake?

MCCAIN: I'm saying that it's been a mistake since 1997 when Congress passed the act that funded and supported these groups to overthrow the government. No, they're not perfect. I'm sure there are bad people in them. But for all this infighting that's been going on between CIA, State Department, DOD, et cetera, has not allowed us to even give these organizations an opportunity to show some effect. And I believe they can show some effect. Whether they can overthrow Saddam Hussein, I don't know. But why not give maximum effort in that direction before we send young Americans into harm's way?

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BORGER: Senator, are you concerned that our involvement in the Middle East is diverting attention or delaying action in Iraq?

MCCAIN: I think so. I think it's diverting the attention of the top policymakers, there's no doubt about that. But I think that whether we have or have not the support of some of the, quote, "Arab states" would not hinder or prevent us from carrying out a military operation. The Turks are very key to this whole scenario. And the other moderate states, we need their assistance, we need their help. But as we have found in the past, nothing succeeds like success on the Arab street.

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