Transcript Excerpt: Sen. John McCain

Read A Transcript Excerpt Of Scott Pelley's Interview With Sen. McCain

(CBS) 
PELLEY: What would you bring to that as President?

MCCAIN: I would never allow any technique which would not be publicly known to be used. We are better than our enemies. We are morally superior. That's why we will win this struggle. And I am confident that we will.

PELLEY: Do you believe that the United States has tortured its prisoners over the last few years?

MCCAIN: I do not have that evidence. But I have reason to believe -- and I've [got] no classified information -- that they have mistreated prisoners. How seriously, I don't know. By the way, that's why I felt compelled to pass the Detainee Treatment Act to make sure that we wouldn't.

PELLEY: You feel like it's a blight on the American reputation?

MCCAIN: I think it's harmed our reputation enormously in the world, yes, sir.

PELLEY: What did you learn in Vietnam that informs what you think about Iraq today?

MCCAIN: I learned many things in the Vietnam War. And I studied a lot about the war afterwards. I spent a lot of time studying. If you're going to go in, use overwhelming force. I think that you have to have a government that can be supported by the people. The regime in Saigon never really got strong support. I think you can succeed against an insurgency. In many ways, we were succeeding when the American people ran out to patience. It was a conventional attack by North Vietnam that overthrow the government in South Vietnam. That's a little-appreciated fact. I also learned that you've got to maintain the support of the American people, something that's obvious but it was reinforced by Vietnam. Otherwise, you cannot continue a conflict overseas. I think I also learned that a defeated army takes a long time to recover, and if this army is defeated, it's going to take this army a long time to recover. That's the only thing worse than an overstretched army, which we are unfortunately contending with today. I learned that young Americans will do magnificent things when they're serving their country, and it's very important that we never turn against those young people. And one of the things I'm grateful for, most grateful for, that even if people oppose this conflict, they still support the men and women who are fighting it. And for that, I thank God every day.

PELLEY: If the opposition of the majority of the American people to this war continues, is there a point at which a President has to abandon what he believes is right and do what the majority of the American people want?

MCCAIN: I think that Harry Truman proved that you shouldn't do that. You've got to do what you believe is right. Now, if you over time you may be forced to, I mean, after all, you're not a monarch or a dictator, you're a subject to the checks and balances and influence of the process of our government. But I think you have to do what you believe [and] know is right, where national security is concerned. I think you can make compromises on other issues as to try to get results. But on the issues of life and death such as this is, I think you have to stick with what you believe in.

PELLEY: We'd been speaking to a number of senior officers on this visit to Iraq, and they have talked less about democracy and more about achieving what they call an acceptable level of violence. Is that a sea change in what America was trying to accomplish here?

MCCAIN: I think it's a recognition that the security aspect of it is vital if we're going to have any further progress. I think these generals are trying to say, "Look, we need to have this secure environment. Otherwise, everything else is going to fail." And I agree with that.

[tommat2008]

You say that the war was very mismanaged but what do you expect? You have an idiot for a president who lied like hell to get the U.S. into this war and he doesn't give a *** about our soldiers and the thousands he has killed and the thousands he has maimed and the millions of Iraqis he has killed and maimed & you have a terrorist for a Vice President who is arrogant and also stupid who lies like hell so that he could fullfill his promises to capture the Iraqi oil for Exxon,Mobil, Shell, BP Amoco, Chevron, etc. and then they have jackasses like you who are too stupid to know when to shut the hell up! We don't give a *** if these terrorists Bush & Cheney & the Neo-Con Commie Nazi GOP go down the drain, lopse this war which is not to fight terrorism and lose the chance to rob these poor people of their inheritance. All of you should be arrested for this grand theft and all the murders you and those animals have committed ! Impeachment is not enough but watching Bush, Cheney, Gates, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, & Wolfowicz all hang like Saddam Hussein was hung for killing only 148 Iraqis would give the world the satisfaction they all need in knowing that justice has prevailed!

[toldyouso21]

McCain, do you and your party a favor and demonstrate you are a TRUE CONSERVATIVE: don't waste millions on a failed election bid--you have made yourself un-electable and you have just become a liar second only to Bush and Cheney and co. We were sick of that in 2006..we are not likely to want it in 2008, I loathe Giuliani (adulterer = liar) and Gingrich...but both have a better chance to be President than you. Because you not only lied, you insulted us--NO ONE can talk about safety, while wearing body armor in a place where the locals are protected by nothing--and where you have hundreds as an armed escort.

As for the friendliness of the Iraqis--what did you want them to do in the face of the occupiers? Give the finger? So that the US could put them in Abu Ghraib or have a nice, night raid to their homes? Never talk about how nice someone is to you--if you are holding a gun...consider it might be fake and just to appease you. DUH!!!!