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 JIM
LEHRER: We'll come back to Iraq in a moment, but I want to come back
to where I began, on homeland security. This is a two-minute new question,
Senator Kerry. As president, what would you do specifically, in addition
to or differently, to increase the homeland security of the United States
than what President Bush is doing?
SEN. KERRY: Jim, let me exactly what I'll do. And there are a long list
of things.
First of all, what kind of mixed message does it send when you've got
$500 million going over to Iraq to put police officers in the streets
of Iraq and the president is cutting the COPS program in America? What
kind of message does it send to be sending money to open fire houses
in Iraq, but we're shutting fire houses, who are the first responders
here in America?
The president hasn't put one nickel, not one nickel, into the effort
to fix some of our tunnels and bridges and most-exposed subway systems.
That's why they had to close down the subway in New York when the Republican
Convention was there. We haven't done the work that ought to be done.
 The
president -- 95 percent of the containers that come into the ports,
right here in Florida, are not inspected. Civilians get onto aircraft
and their luggage is x-rayed, but the cargo hold is not x-rayed. Does
that make you feel safer in America?
This president thought it was more important to give the wealthiest
people in America a tax cut rather than invest in homeland security.
Those aren't my values. I believe in protecting America first. And long
before President Bush and I get a tax cut -- and that's who gets it
-- long before we do, I'm going to invest in homeland security, and
I'm going to make sure we're not cutting COPS programs in America, and
we're fully staffed at our firehouses, and that we protect the nuclear
and chemical plants. The president also, unfortunately, gave in to the
chemical industry, which didn't want to do some of the things necessary
to strengthen our chemical plant exposure.
And there's an enormous undone job to protect the loose nuclear materials
in the world that are able to get to terrorists. That's a whole other
subject. But -- I see we still have a little bit more time. Let me just
quickly say, at the current pace, the president will not secure the
loose material in the Soviet Union, former Soviet Union, for 13 years.
I'm going to do it in four years, and we're going to keep it out of
the hands of terrorists.
MR. LEHRER: Ninety-second response, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay
for all these promises. It's like a huge tax gap and -- anyway, that's
for another debate.
My administration has tripled the amount of money we're spending on
homeland security to $30 billion a year. My administration worked with
the Congress to create the Department of Homeland Security so we could
better coordinate our borders and ports.
We've got a thousand extra border patrol on the southern border; more
than a thousand on the northern border. We're modernizing our borders.
We spent $3.1 billion for fire and police -- $3.1 billion.
 No,
we're doing out duty to provide the funding. But the best way to protect
this homeland is to stay on the offense. You know, we have to be right
a hundred percent of the time, and the enemy only has to be right once
to hurt us.
There's a lot of good people working hard. And by the way, we've also
changed the culture of the FBI to have counterterrorism as its number-one
priority. We're communicating better. We're going to reform our intelligence
services to make sure that we get the best intelligence possible. The
Patriot Act is vital. It's vital that the Congress renew the Patriot
Act, which enables our law enforcement to disrupt terrorist cells.
But again, I repeat to my fellow citizens, the best way to protect you
is to stay on the offense.
MR. LEHRER: Yes, let's do a little -- yes, 30 seconds.
SEN. KERRY: The president just said the FBI changed its culture. We
just read in the front pages of America's papers that there are over
100,000 hours of tapes unlistened-to. On one of those tapes may be the
enemy being right the next time.
And the test is not whether you're spending more money. The test is,
are you doing everything possible to make America safe. We didn't need
that tax cut. America needed to be safe.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America.
I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That's
my job.
I work with Director Mueller of the FBI. He comes into my office when
I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how to protect us. There's
a lot of really good people working hard to do so. It's hard work.
But again, I want to tell the American people we're doing
everything we can at home, but you'd better have a president who chases
these terrorists down and bring them to justice before they hurt us
again.
MR. LEHRER: New question. Mr. President, two minutes.
What criteria would you use to determine when to start bringing U.S.
troops home from Iraq?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me first tell you that the best way for Iraq to
be safe and secure is for Iraqi citizens to be trained to do the job,
and that's what we're doing. We've got 100,000 trained now, 125,000
by the end of this year, over 200,000 by the end of next year. That
is the best way. We'll never succeed in Iraq if the Iraqi citizens do
not want to take matter into their own hands and protect themselves.
I believe they want to. Prime Minister Allawi believes they want to.
 And
so the best indication about when we can bring our troops home -- which
I really want to do, but I don't want to do so for the sake of bringing
them home; I want to do so because we've achieved an objective -- is
to -- is to see the Iraqis perform, is to see the Iraqis step up and
take responsibility. And so the answer to your question is when our
generals on the ground and Ambassador Negroponte tells me that Iraq
is ready to defend herself from these terrorists, that elections will
have been held by then, that there's stability, and that they're on
their way to, you know, a nation of -- of -- that's free, that's when.
And I hope it's as soon as possible, but I know putting artificial deadlines
won't work. My opponent one time said, well, get me elected and I'll
have them out of there in six months. That's -- you can't do that and
expect to win the war on terror.
My message to our troops is thank you for what you're doing, we're standing
with you strong, we'll give you all the equipment you need, and we'll
get you home as soon as the mission's done, because this is a vital
mission.
A free Iraq will be an ally in the war on terror, and that's essential.
A free Iraq will set a powerful example in the part of the world that
is desperate for freedom. A free Iraq will help secure Israel. A free
Iraq will enforce the hopes and aspirations of the reformers in places
like Iran. A free Iraq is essential for the security of this country.
MR. LEHRER: Ninety seconds, Senator Kerry.
SEN. KERRY: Thank you, Jim.
My message to the troops is also thank you for what they're
doing, but it's also: Help is on the way. I believe those troops
deserve better than what they are getting today. You know, it's interesting,
when I was in a rope line just the other day, coming out here from Wisconsin,
a couple of young returnees were in the line -- one active duty, one
from the Guard. And they both looked at me and said, "We need you.
You got to help us over there."
Now, I believe there's a better way to do this. You know, the president's
father did not go into Iraq, into Baghdad, beyond Basra, and the reason
he didn't is he said -- he wrote in his book -- because there was no
viable exit strategy. And he said our troops would be occupiers in a
bitterly hostile land.
 That's
exactly where we find ourselves today. There's a sense of American occupation.
The only building that was guarded when the troops went into Baghdad
was the Oil Ministry. We didn't guard the nuclear facilities. We didn't
guard the foreign office, where you might have found information about
weapons of mass destruction. We didn't guard the borders.
Almost every step of the way, our troops have been left on these extraordinarily
difficult missions. I know what it's like to go out on one of those
missions where you don't know what's around the corner. And I believe
our troops need other allies helping. I'm going to hold that summit.
I will bring fresh credibility, a new start, and we will get the job
done right.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Jim?
MR. LEHRER: New -- all right, go ahead. Yes, sir?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I think it's worthy for a follow, if you don't mind?
SEN. KERRY: Sure, fine. Happy to.
MR. LEHRER: Okay.
SEN. KERRY: Sure, let's change the rules, we can have a whole --
MR. LEHRER: We can do 30 seconds each here.
 PRESIDENT
BUSH: All right. My opponent says that help is on the way. But what
kind of message does it say to our troops in harm's way -- "wrong
war, wrong place, wrong time"? That's not a message a commander
in chief gives. Or this is "a great diversion."
As well, help is on the way, but it's certainly hard to tell it when
he voted against the $87 billion supplemental to provide equipment for
our troops, and then said he actually did vote for it before he voted
against it. That's not what commander-in-chiefs does when you're trying
to lead troops.
MR. LEHRER: Senator Kerry, 30 seconds.
SEN. KERRY: Well, you know, when I talked about the $87 billion, I made
a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake
in invading Iraq. Which is worse?
I believe that when you know something's going wrong, you make it right.
That's what I learned in Vietnam. When I came back from that war, I
saw that it was wrong. Some people don't like the fact that I stood
up to say no. But I did. And that's what I did with that vote. And I'm
going to lead those troops to victory.
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