PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE October 6, 1996 Transcript

---

JIM LEHRER: Back to foreign affairs for a moment, Mr. President. Are you satisfied with the way you handled this last Iraq crisis and the end result?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I believe that we did the appropriate thing under the circumstances. Saddam Hussein is under a U.N. resolution not to threaten his neighbors or threaten his own -- repress his own citizens. Unfortunately, a lot of people have never been as concerned about the Kurds as the United States has tried to be, and we've been flying an operation to protect them out of Turkey for many years now.

What happened was that one of the Kurdish leaders invited him to go up north. But we felt since the whole world community had told him not to do it that once he did it we had to do something. We did not feel that I could commit -- I certainly didn't feel I should commit American troops to throw him out of where he had gone, and that was the only way to do that.

So the appropriate thing strategically to do was to reduce his ability to threaten his neighbors. We did that by expanding what's called the no-fly zone, by increasing our allies' control of the air space now from the Kuwait border to the suburbs of Baghdad. Was it the right thing to do? I believe it was. Is it fully effective? Did it make him withdraw from the north? Well, he has a little bit, and I hope he will continue.

We have learned that if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile. We had to do something, and even though not all of our allies supported at first, I think most of them now believe that what we did was an appropriate thing to do.

JIM LEHRER: Senator Dole.

MR. DOLE: Well, the president's own CIA director says that Saddam is stronger now than he was. And I don't understand extending the no-fly zone in the south when the trouble was in the north. And what we'd done during the Bush administration, the Kurds were at the State Department negotiating, trying to work their differences out. Now we've got all thousand and thousands of refugees. We're even shipping, I guess, 3,000 Kurds to Guam.

It involves Turkey. It's a real problem, and Saddam is probably stronger than he ever was. We shot, what, 44 cruise missiles? They're worth about a million-two a piece, and hit some radar that was repaired in a couple of three days. Did we inflict any damage? No. Did we have any of our allies helping? Well, we have Great Britain, they're always very loyal to us and I appreciate that. And, of course, Kuwait, even though they had to find out they had 5,000 troops coming, they didn't even understand that. We had to get their permission.

The bottom line is, we went in there alone. We're supposed to be operating under a U.N. resolution. We did it without any of our allies that helped us in the Gulf.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Senator Dole has two or three times before tonight criticized me for working with the U.N. Now I'm being criticized for not working with the U.N.

MR. DOLE: No, this is not the U.N.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Sometimes the United States has to act alone, or at least has to act first. Sometimes we cannot let other countries have a veto on our foreign policy. I could not send soldiers into the north of Iraq. That would have been wrong. I could reduce Saddam Hussein's ability to threaten Kuwait and his others neighbors again. That's what I did. I still believe it was the right thing to do.

JIM LEHRER: Senator Dole, on your ``photo op'' foreign policy charge against the president --

MR. DOLE: Not mine.

JIM LEHRER: Huh? No, no, I mean your charge against the president that he has a photo op foreign policy, does the Middle East summit last week fall into that category?

MR. DOLE: Well, there were some good pictures, but does it fall in that category? I don't know. I want to be very serious. I've supported the president when I thought he was right on Bosnia, I supported him on NAFTA and GATT, so it's not that we always disagree. Others disagreed with us.

The Mideast is very difficult, but it seemed to me, just as an observer, that, you know, before you'd call somebody to America, you'd have some notion what the end result might be. Now maybe it's better just to get together and sit down and talk. Maybe that was the purpose, and I know talks have started again today.

But again, it's almost like an ad hoc foreign policy. It's ad hoc; it's sort of, well, we get up in the morning and read the papers, and what country is in trouble -- we'll have a meeting. To me that's not the strategy that I think that people expect from America. I think we have lost credibility, and I say this very honestly without any partisanship.

We've lost credibility around the world. Our allies know -- they're not certain what we're going to do, what our reaction, what our response is going to be. Nobody suggested sending troops to Iraq, if that was the hint there from the president, but I do think that Saddam Hussein is stronger than he was, and I do believe that he didn't gain a great deal in the Mideast by bringing three of the four leaders -- one refused to come -- to Washington, DC.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: We have a very consistent policy in the Middle East. It is to support the peace process, to support the security of Israel, and to support those who are prepared to take risks for peace. It is a very difficult environment. The feelings are very strong. There are extremists in all parts of the Middle East who want to kill that peace process. Prime Minister Rabin gave his life because someone in his own country literally hated him for trying to bring peace.

I would like to have had a big, organized summit. But those people were killing each other -- rapidly: innocent Arab children, innocent Israeli people. They were dying. And there is -- so much trust has broken down in the aftermath of the change of government. I felt that if I could just get the parties together to say ``Let's stop the violence, start talking, commit to the negotiations,'' that would be a plus.

Now, today the secretary of state is in the Middle East and they've started negotiations and all those leaders promised me they would not quit until they resolved the issues between them and got the peace process going forward again.

JIM LEHRER: Senator Dole?

MR. DOLE: Well, I was disappointed the president did not call for an unconditional end to the violence. I mean, it seemed to me the violence had stopped when these leaders came to America, the killing and the tragedies that had taken place. And it's unfortunate. And it is a difficult area. No doubt about it. It shouldn't be politicized in any way by the president or by -- by his opponent. And I don't intend to politicize it. I hope that they talk and I hope they reach some result and that the killing will end.

REGIONS TOPICS RECENT PROGRAMS ABOUT US FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS / FEEDS:

Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station.
PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved.