Bill Clinton Speaks Out; War in Iraq
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: My exclusive interview with former President Bill Clinton about the environment, Iraq and his wife's campaign. Also tonight, you've heard the stereotypes about Asian Americans and academic achievement. Tonight, we have the facts, instead. And testimony in the Phil Spector murder trial of the 1960s music kingmaker uttered the words: I think I killed somebody. We begin, however, with the former president of the United States. Safe to say, whenever Bill Clinton sits down to talk, the conversation can go in almost any direction. The man is known for knowing something about nearly everything and he's got plenty to talk about. His wife is running for his old office, his party is now running Congress and he, himself, has built a new career that makes his big buck political speaking -- public speaking and high ambition public service. We talked about his latest effort, a public/private initiative to help stop global warming.</s>COOPER: What is the initiative? I mean, I read it's rehabbing office buildings. How does that make a difference?</s>BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we're going to start with government buildings, with the municipal buildings in the 16 cities. The biggest -- among the biggest cities in the world that are participating. And then we're going to make available the same sorts of things to private buildings, to office buildings. And we're going to basically go in and redo the glass, redo the insulation, redo all the lighting, to get rid of the incandescent bulbs and go to automated climate controls. And the climate firms that are helping us are willing to give performance guarantees to these buildings so they'll know how much their power bill will go down. Then we have five big financial institutions committing $1 billion each to finance this and to be paid back by the buildings not with front-end cash, but in the savings from their utility bills.</s>COOPER: How do you think the current administration -- what kind of a grade would you give them on the environment on their policies?</s>CLINTON: Well, on the environment I wouldn't give them a good grade because they tried to reverse everything I did on -- like, you know, preserving the</s>COOPER: He did say that we're addicted to oil, which is, you know, it's a great headline. And it certainly is a national security issue. But it doesn't seem like the next step has been taken.</s>CLINTON: And when he was governor, interestingly enough, he offered the requisite subsidies in Texas to make Texas I think now the number one producer of wind power in America. We have 36 states in America producing wind energy. So I think on the clean energy front, he's -- I disagree with his unwillingness to support the Kyoto climate change limits and even stricter limits and then to create a market for doing that. But I do think he knows we've got to get off oil for security reasons, for environmental reasons and for economic reasons.</s>COOPER: I want to ask you about politics a little bit. A recent piece in the "New York Times" described you as a fundraising machine for your wife's campaign, as a master strategist. I think they also said you were sort of a consigliore. What kind of advice do you give?</s>CLINTON: The story also said a couple of times I tried to pontificate about something going in New York and didn't know what I was talking about, and Hillary told me...</s>COOPER: She told you to get out of the room. Well, I was actually going to ask you about that...</s>CLINTON: She told me...</s>COOPER: The story claims that while preparing for a Senate debate, you were giving too much advice and she basically kind of scooted you out of the room. Is that true?</s>CLINTON: That was back in 2000 actually, when she was nervous about it. We get so nervous at each other's debates. It's very interesting.</s>COOPER: Really?</s>CLINTON: Oh, she used to get so nervous that she could hardly bear to come to my debates.</s>COOPER: Really?</s>CLINTON: Yes, and it's very interesting because she's very calm when she's on the line. But -- and when I was on the line, I was always calm. But when she is in the line of fire, I get nervous. I think it's -- you know, it's a husband/wife thing. You know, it's just -- so that was true. I'm just trying to help.</s>COOPER: I met her for the first time when we did an interview a couple months ago at a hospital. She's very different in person than she appears on television. And I've read that as well. People say they wished the person they meet in person could get out on television more. Do you see that? And is that part of the advice you give?</s>CLINTON: Well, I think she did very well on television in the South Carolina debate. And I saw her in -- I thought she did well in Selma and I thought she did well when she spoke to the New Hampshire state Democratic dinner.</s>COOPER: I mean, do you think America knows who she is?</s>CLINTON: No. But if you look at New York, when we ran in New York, a lot of people think New York's a big Democratic state. New York City's a big Democratic city, but President Bush won two-thirds of our counties against John Kerry in 2004. He won 40 counties, I think, and Senator Kerry won 22. Even though Kerry won the state handsomely. In those 40 counties that President Bush won, Hillary got re- elected with about 60 percent of the vote because they know her. And I still see people from all these places all the time that say she's the only person that ever did anything for us, what a wonderful person she is. So, I think that she's going through the process in America now that she went through in New York, where the people are getting to know her.</s>COOPER: Are you surprised by the strength of Barack Obama's campaign?</s>CLINTON: No. No. Because in the beginning, there was this impression that he was the only one that was really against the president's policy in Iraq, which I don't think is accurate, but it nevertheless had some legs out there. His voting record and Hillary's are almost identical, I think, on all the relevant issues. And also, he's just a very gifted man. I mean, he's an attractive, compelling charismatic guy who has not been in politics very long, therefore has not had the time to pick up the enemies that you pick up or at least opposition you pick up if you stay around and actually, you know, are in the fray and you're fighting to do things. And I think he's a very -- he's running a great campaign. So I'm not surprised.</s>COOPER: Iraq, is the war lost?</s>CLINTON: Well, I don't believe that we have the capacity to stop the Iraqis from fighting each other. Only they have that capacity. We never had that capacity.</s>COOPER: Do you think that's inevitable that...</s>CLINTON: So if that's the measure of defeat and victory, then we can't win. On the other hand, they've had an election, they've got a government. They've got to take responsibility for themselves and they've got to figure out a way to do this. I think our presence there has probably minimized -- well, it's maximized death and destruction for Americans and played an enormous role in undermining our -- the readiness of our military and our flexibility to meet some unforeseen challenge. I think that our people are good. They've been brave and good, and I think their presence there has probably led to fewer Iraqis dying and fewer Iraqi refugees. And so, as we take our presence down as we must -- you know, they're all fighting about this now, but -- we don't have any choice. We've got to bring a substantial number of those troops home.</s>COOPER: And we're stretched too thin?</s>CLINTON: Yes, it's stretched way too thin. And you know, if we had a problem today, we'd have to meet it with the Navy and the Air Force. We have naval reserve units doing target practice on their drills now. We have active Navy personnel doing target practice on their drills because we don't have enough ground forces left in the Marine corps and the Army, after our commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. So we've got some serious challenges here.</s>COOPER: Former president Bill Clinton. Members of that overburdened Army tonight are pushing themselves to the limits of physical endurance. They are doing it to locate three soldiers who disappeared -- three Americans, our troops. During an ambush they disappeared in a part of Iraq known as the Triangle of Death. CNN's Arwa Damon is the only correspondent with troops on the search. Here's her exclusive report.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pushing themselves to the limit, some soldiers are collapsing from the oppressive heat. But the hunt continues, defined by long hours and glimmers of hope. They have trudged across miles and miles of fields and farmland, navigated the harsh terrain to avoid the roads and the bombs. They even drained this canal parallel to the attack site to look for clues.</s>LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN VALLEDOR, U.S. ARMY: Yesterday, our soldiers, those in the brigade, physically walked the canal, and on both sides, to make sure -- you know, make sure that there isn't anything in here related to our missing soldiers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need your help.</s>DAMON: They have said the same thing hundreds of times since Saturday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any information will help us.</s>DAMON: Information that leads to the missing soldiers is worth $200,000. And they have been receiving tantalizing tips, but none have panned out. It's a hunt for three men in an area about 330 square miles.</s>COLONEL MIKE KERSHAW, U.S. ARMY: A piece of U.S. equipment which we think could possibly be from the soldiers that were abducted or -- or could have been just equipment abducted from the site.</s>DAMON: Nothing is taken for granted or left to chance.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in here almost every day, so that this is -- this is kind of a -- just -- just covering all the bases. We're out of -- we're just making sure. We're checking every -- every house again.</s>DAMON (on camera): It's day five in the search for the missing soldiers. These men have been out for about seven, eight hours now. They are both physically and mentally exhausted. But no one is even talking about giving up. (voice-over): These men have been fighting out here in an area better known as the Triangle of Death for nine months now.</s>KERSHAW: This sector has historically been one of the most lethal in -- in -- in Iraq. And there are some very capable insurgents out there. And we do not underestimate them.</s>DAMON: The military doesn't underestimate them, but it is determined to defeat them.</s>CAPTAIN DAN HURD, U.S. ARMY: All the motivation they need is -- is what they're -- they're going after. You know, we -- we -- we talk about the soldiers. And, you know, they know who -- they know who they're -- they're looking for. They know their names. And that's as -- that's as much motivation as they would ever need. Every time they get tired, they think of that, and -- and then keep going.</s>DAMON: All these soldiers have sworn to never leave a man behind. Arwa Damon, CNN, Yusufiyah, Iraq.</s>COOPER: Let's hope those missing Americans know there are a lot of good people out there looking for them. Up next, faith and fury.</s>COOPER (voice-over): Praise from the faithful. A public school district approves a bible class for high school students, but critics are firing back with a lawsuit.</s>DAVID NEWMAN, PLAINTIFF: I think there is potential for an enormous amount of harm.</s>COOPER: Is the class unconstitutional? You decide. Plus, uncovering America. Stereotypes of Asian Americans.</s>YUL KWON, CNN SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR: The perception is that -- especially Asian American men -- are math geeks. They lack social skills. They lack leadership skills. Either that or they're kung fu masters who can kick butt, but they can't speak English.</s>COOPER: The winner of "Survivor" breaks down the stereotype, when 360 continues.