Transcript for the Piece Audio version of What To Do in Iraq

McCain: "We need a commander in chief who will end the war in Iraq??
Obama: ?My view, based on the advice of military experts is that we can redeploy safely ? ?
McCain: ??but we'll end it the right way and that's by winning it?."
Obama: "?so that our combat troops are out of Iraq by 2010."

Roberts: My name is Andrew Roberts, and I'm an Iraq war veteran. (pause)
I don't feel that Iraq is stable enough to make any guarantees about anything at this point or any decisions about pulling out or staying there forever either. People know that things are gonna change.

Obama: "The most important thing in keeping you safe is first of all making sure that we've got the best military on earth?. ?
McCain: "? the bravest and best and most professional military is the one we have today?. "
Roberts: I entered Iraq shortly after Baghdad had been taken by the third infantry division so although it was at the very beginning of the war, at the time we felt that the war was about to be over and we wanted to get into Iraq quickly because we thought we might miss it."

Obama: "We've now been in Iraq longer than World War 1, World War 2 and the civil war, with no end in sight?."
McCain: "We really had a terribly flawed and failed strategy for four years. We paid a heavy price for that..."
Marr: The Iraq war was a real crisis last year, things were not going well, a lot of people were getting killed, and getting the troops out was a very big campaign issue.
I'm Dr. Phoebe Marr, a scholar and historian of modern Iraq. I came to Washington and started to work in government in ?85...
McCain: ? ?and we will win this war and we will defeat Al Qaeda?"
Obama: "?a war that's cost us over 4,000 of the bravest young Americans
McCain: "we will not have their deaths be in vain, we will come home with victory and honor??
Marr: I think the Washington insiders have a greater sense of realism on what's possible, what can be done. I do not want to see inflexibility. Promises that can't be broken are not very good in an election.
Roberts: When I hear candidates running for office right now, I don't think that anybody takes everything they say as policy or exactly what they're going to do.
Obama: "Initiate diplomacy, start talking even to folks we don't like,
Roberts: I fully expect our leadership to adapt to a changing environment. You know, you can't just maintain a policy just because that's what you thought was right four years ago if things start to change on the ground.
Marr: What I want to see is a candidate who does sketch out the philosophy, who gives me some ideas but is willing, the day after he becomes president to sit down, get his advisers together, and come up some options? If then, the electorate is going to say to him well, you made this promise and you shouldn't change, I think were in real trouble.
McCain- ?We risk an all-out civil war, genocide and a failed state in the heart of the middle east.?
Roberts: I want to see the right thing done.... it's not as easy as saying let's go and let's stay?.

McCain: "We will bring our troops home, but we'll bring them home with honor and victory, and not in defeat... ?

(Applause)
Obama: "We need to bring this war to a close, bring our troops home in an honorable and careful way."
Roberts: If we walked away from Iraq and there was a catastrophic meltdown, and I was watching these people that I consider friends being, you know, slayed in the streets, I'd feel pretty bad about that.

McCain: "Al Qaeda terrorists are on the run, and our troops are going to make sure they never come back." (Applause)
Obama: "If we responsibly end the war in Iraq, we can strengthen our military, and succeed in leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that can take responsibility for its own future."

Marr: I expect my president to be responsible. If he can?t step back to the drawing board and say look, we have some changed circumstances here we have to think about something different to do -- we've had that. We've had that in this presidency. I don't want any more of it.