December 14, 2009
It starts out fine – barry defensive about Afghanistan – and then when Kroft asks him what he’s going to do about the corrupt government and the drug trade – barry laughs.
[hand transcribed]
KROFT: [Afghanistan] Most difficult decision in your presidency so far?
BARRY: Yes. Because when you go to Walter Reed, and you travel to Dover, and you visit Arlington and you see the sacrifices that young men and women and their families are making, there is nothing more profound. It is a solemn obligation on the part of me as Commander-in-Chief to get this right.
Now it’s clear why he went to Arlington and Dover.
KROFT said that his West Point speech was very analytical, detached, not emotional, tone professorial, no exhortations or promises of victory.
BARRY: That was actually probably the most emotional speech that I’ve made in terms of how I felt about it…There is not a speech I made that hit me in the gut as much as that speech.
Because he didn’t believe what he was saying? He would never be behind it if he was still a senator.
KROFT: Most Americans, including the Dems don’t think it’s worth fighting…why did you go ahead?
BARRY: Because I think it’s the right thing to do, and that’s my job. If I was worried about what polled well, there are a whole bunch of things we wouldn’t have done this year.
KROFT: Staked your presidency on?
BARRY: There are a whole bunch of things that I’ve stake my presidency on.
KROFT: The West Point speech was greeted with a great deal of confusion –
BARRY: I don’t agree with that statement.
KROFT: You do?
BARRY: I absolutely do. 40M people watched it and I think a whole bunch of people understood what we intend to do.
KROFT: It raised a lot of questions and some people thought it was contradictory – that’s a fair criticism.
BARRY: I don’t think it is a fair criticism. On the one hand I said we’re be sending in additional troops now – on the other hand by July 2011, we’re going to move into a transition phase where we’re drawing our troops down.There shouldn’t be anything confusing about that.
Then he talks about the Surge in Iraq – though stops short of saying it was a good idea. Then talks about what will happen in July 2011.
BARRY: Look – as the Commander in Chief, obviously, I reserve the option to do what I think is going to be best for the American People at that time and our national security.
Says it’ll be clear by the end of Dec 2010 if it’s working.
KROFT: Why set a deadline?
BARRY: In absence of a deadline, the message we are sending to the Afghans is it is business as usual this is an open-ended commitment.
KROFT: The main reason we are doing this is al qaeda – why 30K troops when there may be fewer than 100 al qaeda fighters in Afghanistan?
barry says the epicenter of extremism is the border of Pakistan-Afghanistan and that Pakistan is going to have to cooperate.
(8:00) Kroft says the country is not really a country and the government is corrupt and then asks: How are you going to deal with this?
(8:14) BARRY LAUGHS. Ha-ha-ha.
BARRY: The reason I laugh is because this is really hard. There’s not a question you asked that I haven’t asked in meetings and that I don’t ask myself. I don’t have the luxury of choosing between the ideal and what exists on the ground. I have to make decisions based on how, given where we are right now, how do we get to the best possible place.
KROFT: Let’s change the subject – jobs.
BARRY talks a sip of water. We can talk about Afghanistan some more.
Then they chat about the economy, jobs and Wall Street and barry starts giggling again.
(11:00) Kroft asks why it’s taking so long.
BARRY: Everything appears to take long in Congress – we can talk about healthcare if you want.
They giggle and have a friendly repartee. barry shows more emotion talking with Kroft than he does anywhere else.
There is a definite weird strangeness….one wonders why…
Then barry says the healthcare bill is “deficit neutral and will actually bring down the deficit.”
KROFT: You think it’s going to pass before Christmas?
BARRY: I think it is going to pass out of the senate before Christmas.
KROFT: Are you going to be involved in that process?
BARRY: I’ve been involved the whole time.
