[Blitzer:] President Obama is laying out his vision for U.S. foreign policy over the next two and a half years, detailing the blueprint earlier today during the commencement exercises at the West Point Military Academy. The president says, while the U.S. military will always be the backbone of America's leadership, it cannot be the primary component. And he outlined his plans for addressing several critical hot spots around the world, including Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. Joining us once again from Phoenix, one of the president's more vocal critics on foreign policy, Senator John McCain, the Republican Senator from Arizona. You heard the president outline his vision. You want to give us your immediate reaction to what you heard, Senator?
[Mccain:] First of all, I resent, deeply, the criticism that the president lodges at those of us who are, I believe, deeply concerned and involved for years in national security, saying that there's really only two choices, no intervention whatsoever or total commitment of American troops. No one I know of wants to commit American troops anywhere right now. But we do believe that the president should have learned the lesson from Iraq, when we pulled out without leaving a residual force. By the way, as we have after other wars in other places. And of course, now, the black flags of al Qaeda fly over Fallujah. The director of National Intelligence has said SyriaIraq border area now a base for al Qaeda who will be planning attacks on the United States of America. It's a total failure. The place is in chaos. He's making the same mistake in Afghanistan, setting the date for total withdrawal, sending a message to the Taliban, all you got to do is wait.
[Blitzer:] Well, let me interrupt for a second, Senator. Because Secretary John Kerry was on CNN earlier today on "New Day" and he responded to that criticism that you and Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, and others, have said by having this deadline two years, all U.S. troops would be effectively out, that would be a mistake to just keep it open-ended. Listen to Secretary Kerry.
[John Kerry, Secretary Of State:] It is only by setting dates that we have been able to meet milestones. If you left it open-ended, if you said to the Afghans, well, we'll be here as long as it takes, you can absolutely bet your bottom dollar, and it probably will be the bottom dollar of the U.S., that they'll take just as long as they want to. So what the president is doing is appropriately empowering the Afghans, giving them the opportunity to take control of their future, and that's the best way for them to step up and do so.
[Blitzer:] So he's defending the deadline. What's your reaction?
[Mccain:] Well, first of all, obviously, Secretary Kerry must be ignoring the chaos that has now ensued in Iraq as we set time for complete withdraw. Second of all, I think it's rather insulting to the Afghans to think that they would not want to be able to defend themselves. That's not the Afghans that I know. And third of all, the president spoke at West Point today. I think a first year cadet at West Point will tell you, when you're in a conflict, you don't tell the enemy exactly when you are leaving. That doesn't mean I think we have to continue fighting. We don't. We can succeed and have a residual force there, the same which we had Germany, Japan, Korea, after those conflicts. And which we didn't do in Iraq and we now see Iraq becoming a first becoming chaos, but also a base for as the director of National Intelligence has said, for attacks on the United States of America. Look, the United States is not weak. The United States is not credible. We're not reliable. When the president of the United States told Lindsey Graham in the Oval Office he was going to attack Syria, when he told the world they had crossed a red line, the president had set and then didn't do it, it reverberated throughout the entire world. We are unreliable. And all of our enemies believe that. And so I believe that Afghanistan possibly could revert to the situation that it did after we helped them drive the Russians out.
[Blitzer:] But I don't know if you heard the interview, but Secretary Kerry made the point as far as that red line, drawing that red line in Syria, the U.S. did follow up, and working together with the United Nations, working together with the Russians, they have effectively destroyed, he says, 92 percent of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile already. And 8 percent is being controlled, for all practical purposes, they're just finding a way to get rid of it. Hasn't that objective, the narrow objective of destroying Syria's chemical weapons, been achieved?
[Mccain:] Meanwhile, the horrible barrel bombs are being dropped, slaughtering innocent people. Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is there. Meanwhile, the Russians have increased their supplies of weapons to Bashar Assad and the slaughter, mindless. 160,000 people dead, millions of refugees. And we have sat by and watched it happen, while we have the chemical weapons, to some degree, removed. But there are allegations of chlorine attacks, which are chemical attacks, which are not covered by this so-called agreement. It is I can't tell you how it breaks my heart to see us continue to sit by and watch the Syrian people slaughtered not just by Bashar Assad, who was going to lose before Hezbollah came in and the Iranians stepped up their help and the Russians stepped up their help. This has turned into a regional conflict and a tragedy of monumental proportions, for which we will pay a heavy price for decades to come.
[Blitzer:] There's a huge and growing al Qaeda presence in Syria right now, there's no doubt about that. U.S. intelligence officials have said that is among the top threats potentially, as far as terrorism is concerned, facing the United States. Unfortunately, Senator, we have to leave it right there. But as usual, thanks for joining us.
[Mccain:] Thanks, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] She gave voice to a generation and shined a light on injustice. The author and the poet, Maya Angelou, has died at her home in North Carolina. Angelou led a remarkable life. She spoke six languages. She was a single, teen mother. Went on to become a singer, a dancer and a civil rights activist. Here, Maya Angelou reads the poem she wrote for Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural.
[Maya Angelou, Poet & Artist:] Lift up your hearts. Each new hour holdings new chances for new beginnings. Do not be wedded forever to fear, yoked eternally to brutishness. The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change. Here, on the pulse of this fine day, you may have the courage to look up and out, and upon me, the rock, the river, the tree, your country.
[Blitzer:] Oprah Winfrey has just released this statement. Let me read it to you. "I have been blessed to have Maya Angelou as my mentor, mother, sister and friend since my 20s. She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. The world knows her as a poet. But at the heart of her, she was a teacher. "When you learn, you teach. When you get, you give," is one of my best lessons from her." Maya Angelou was 86 years old.