Transcript: Exclusive Bush Interview

President Bush Sits Down With Bob Schieffer

(CBS) 
SCHIEFFER: But is that possible? Some people say with our forces stretched thin in Iraq already, we might not be able to launch an attack on anybody.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I--I--I--I would disagree with that. I think we've got plenty of capability, but I--it--it--it--the first option, of course, is to--is to solve this problem diplomatically, and that's where we are working to do.

SCHIEFFER: Let's talk about Iraq. You say we're going to stay there until we get the job done, but last summer it seems to me, Mr. President, that public support for the war began to erode.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Um-hmm.

SCHIEFFER: Why do you think that happened?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think--I think that people saw death on the TV screens without a sense that we are making progress. That's why I started giving these speeches. You--you might remember that--obviously you remember Katrina hit.

SCHIEFFER: Yeah.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And it made it a little difficult to go out and talk about the way forward in Iraq, but after my foreign trips to the Far East and--and to Argentina, I came back and started a series of dialogues with the American people. My job is not only Commander-In-Chief but educator-in-chief. And I needed to say to the people, you bet it's tough. And the enemy has—and the enemy is using their own weapon effectively, which is the destruction of innocent life.

SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think—you brought up Katrina--do you think the fact that the government kind of got off to a slow start, at the least, in dealing with Katrina that people lost confidence in the Federal Government and that might have had something to do with the loss of confidence in what was going on in Iraq?

PRESIDENT BUSH: That's an interesting question. I don't know. I haven't analyzed that. No question we could have done a better job on Katrina and no question that the pictures coming out of New Orleans were, you know, affected our conscience and hit our conscience and affected--affected things. I mean, people were wondering, this great country of ours, how come we couldn't have responded better, and that's why we're taking a look at lessons learned so it won't happen again. But I--you know, it's hard for me to connect response to Katrina to--to people's concerns about our troops overseas. The other thing is, is that I think—back to Iraq: I think a lot of people are wondering whether or not we had a plan to win. People--a lot of people--some people say we shouldn't have been there in the first place, and I understand that. Some people said, you did the right thing going in there, but I'm not so sure you've got the desire or the plan to win, and that's what I've been trying to articulate, is we do have a plan to win, and we are winning. And--and--and progress on the—the ground is beginning to back me up. I mean, the political process has been amazing when you think about it. These elections are truly outstanding.

SCHIEFFER: Yeah, well--

PRESIDENT BUSH: And--

SCHIEFFER: Go ahead.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I was going to say and now the challenge, and the American people, you know, are watching very carefully, as to whether or not a unity government wouldn't be formed, the government that is able to govern under this constitution which guarantees and protects minority rights. The other thing is, you know, our troop levels are going down from about 168,000 to less than 138,000, and part of that is because our commanders on the government are confident--confident the Iraqis are going to be able to take more and more of the fight.

SCHIEFFER: Well, let's talk about that a little bit. Now, some Democrats have called for a timetable for withdrawal. You have said that that's not a good thing to do because you're just giving the enemy the message, well, hang around until next date, we'll be out of there. But can you give the American people, Mr. President, some sort of a time frame, for example, where do you think we're going to be three months from now there, and what will troop levels be, say, come the fall?

PRESIDENT BUSH: You see, I--I can understand you wanting to ask that question and the American people, some wanting to--want me to give the answer to that. I can't give the answer to that because I'm not the--the decider. What I can assure the American people of is that we've got a strategy to victory. We got a plan to see that the Iraqis take the fight. More and more Iraqis are taking the fight, and I'm going to listen to our commanders.

SCHIEFFER: Um-hmm.

PRESIDENT BUSH: One of the interesting lessons from the Vietnam era was it seemed like to me that politicians all were making the decisions and not the commanders on the ground a lot of times, and I--I have vowed that the American people, and I will follow through on that--that if General Casey and the generals there in Iraq that will be making the decisions as to the troop levels.

SCHIEFFER: Well, do you—

PRESIDENT BUSH: I--I hope--I would hope to say that we have fewer troops there over the course of the year.