2004 Debate Three: Alan Keyes and Barack Obama

~ ILLINOIS SENATE RACE 2004 ~

DEBATE THREE:

ALAN KEYESBARACK OBAMA

2004 DEBATE THREE: ALAN KEYES AND BARACK OBAMA

AlanKeyes.com

~ 2 ~

Alan Keyes and Barack Obama Debate

Sponsored by WTTW and the City Club of Chicago

~~~

October 26, 2004

First, we go to tonight's forum for the candidates for the United States Senate. Here's Phil Ponce.Phil?PHIL PONCE, MODERATOR: Thanks, Bob. Here with me in Studio A are two groups of people. First, in the audience, are members and guests of the City Club of Chicago. The CityClub is helping to underwrite tonight's forum.With me, here at this table, are the two major-party candidates who want to be Illinois' nextUnited States senator. They are Republican Alan Keyes, and Democrat Barack Obama.And, a quick note on procedure. This is not a formal debate. There are no opening or closingstatements, and answers will not be timed. The candidates will not necessarily be asked the samequestions. Our goal is to better inform our audience about the candidates and the issues. We havea limited amount of time, so we've asked the candidates to be succinct. If they begin to make aspeech, they know I will cut them off.Mr. Keyes, as you know, three hundred and eighty tons of powerful explosives are missing froma weapons installation in Iraq. Senator Kerry is calling it "one of the great blunders of the war inIraq." You've been generally supportive of the war, but what would you say has been the greatestblunder of the war?ALAN KEYES, (R) ILLINOIS U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Hmm. Well, I'm not sure, in myopinion, there has been any egregious blundering. I think that there could have been a greatereffort, over the beginning of our efforts there, to bring in others. I would have brought others inon the political side of the equation, to help deal with the business of putting together an Iraqigovernment. I think that could still be done.But, I think it's absolutely imperative that we keep the security dimensions of the Iraqi war underthe control of the United States, so that we can pursue what ought to be our main objectives,which is to make sure that Iraq does not become a base for terrorist activity, that we are able to

2004 DEBATE THREE: ALAN KEYES AND BARACK OBAMA

AlanKeyes.com

~ 3 ~make sure a government does not come to power that will aid and abet terrorism, that we are ableto do what's necessary to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists.Those national security goals are the proper goals of our effort, and I think we ought to belooking to the Iraqi people and to the international community to help deal with the politicaldimensions of establishing a stable government there.PONCE: Senator Obama, you have been critical of the decision to go to war, but what would yougrant has been the biggest success?BARACK OBAMA, (D) ILLINOIS U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, I think that the initialmilitary was extraordinarily successful in moving into Iraq, and I think that it exceeded allexpectations, even those of us, like myself, who expected the military to be successful, the initialincursion into Iraq, were stunned and impressed by how efficient our military and our bravefighting forces were in executing it.But, going back to your previous question, I think that three hundred and eighty tons of explosives that are now being used on roadside bombs is an enormous error, particularly whenthe Bush administration had been warned by the Atomic Energy Commission.I mean, in past debates, Ambassador Keyes has suggested that somehow I'm naïve to questionhow we've gone about this war in Iraq. It strikes me that this administration has been naïvethroughout. It was naïve in terms of thinking that we'd be greeted as liberators in Iraq. It's beennaïve in thinking that somehow this would actually diminish recruitment for terrorism. In fact,it's accelerated it. It's been naïve with respect to how difficult it's gonna be to secure the peace,and it strikes me that, unfortunately, our troops and our taxpayers are suffering from those errors.PONCE: Mr. Keyes, naiveté on the part of the administration, on those counts?KEYES: Well, I think we mustn't rush to judgment, because what I'm hearing, and the mediasuggests, [is] that, with respect to these tons of explosives, it's still not clear what the chain of possession was, and whether or not it was, in fact, after the United States took possession that welost track of these explosives.I also think that all Americans are gonna look at the larger picture of whether or not we havetaken steps that have effectively stopped Saddam Hussein from delivering weapons of massdestruction to terrorists. The probability of that is zero.Whether we have in fact established a base that allows us effectively to recruit the kind of intelligence that we need to deal with this situation in Iran, in Syria, and elsewhere.