Senator Webb Interviewed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe"

Mika Brzezinski - Welcome back to Morning Joe. Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle are headed to the White House today to talk about Afghanistan and Pakistan. And here with us now to weigh in on President Obama’s options is Democratic Senator from Virginia, and member of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Jim Webb. Thank you for coming on, and good to see you again.

Senator Jim Webb - Good morning.

Brzezinski - Let's start with the McChrystal story. Ddo you think he should have backed off and kept his points of view to himself in terms of troops and what the need is there?

Webb - I think that General McChrystal's actions have been a little bit confusing, quite frankly. There was a comment earlier about what General Shinseki had done in a previous administration. And when General Shinseki did that he was actually testifying at a congressional hearing and he was asked for a view. General McChrystal has been receiving, I think, some very quiet warnings over the past few days, if you read closely what Jim Jones said and what the Secretary of Defense said. He is off on "60 minutes," and here is something very curious to me, at a time when the national security advisors were meeting in the White House, he was off giving a speech in London. I thought that was pretty odd. He should have been one of two places; he either should have been in that meeting sharing his views inside a collaborative process or back in Afghanistan running the war.

Joe Scarborough -  Senator let's talk about this in case some people are confused regarding Shinseki. You are right, there’s a time and a place for everything. If a United States Senator or a Congressmen asks you as a general “What do you think about the strategy moving forward in Afghanistan?” You answer the question and answer it truthfully. You are obligated to answer the question. But if a reporter comes to you and asks you to whisper something off the record, that's clearly out of bounds, isn't it?

Webb – Well, and if you are giving an interview in "60 Minutes" or off doing a speech in London at a time when a collaborative process is going forward -- I want to be clear about the process. I think we need to make sure people understand the process as well. We have a National Security Advisor, Jim Jones, who undoubtedly has more actual combat time than any general in the military today - he has been Commandant of the Marine Corps, he’s been Commander of NATO, including responsibilities for forces in Afghanistan. We’ve got a Secretary of Defense who has done a fine job with now two administrations. We have a group of people able to sift through all of the information, and at a very critical time in our history,  try to decide whether to move forward in a nation-building posture in afghanistan, or do something more directly related to counter terrorism. We are doing this at a moment as General Jones said where there are fewer than 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We are clearly shifting toward nation building in a very overt way as a national policy. General McChrystal's recommendations are only one piece of the deliberation. I think General McChrystal needs to be clear that he understands that.

Brzezinski - Let me bring Mike Barnicle into the conversation. I just wonder, the confusing messages the senator talks about here, wouldn't the White House know that General McChrystal is doing a "60 minutes" interview?

Barnicle - I don't know whether the White House knew beforehand about the “60 Minutes” interview -- I am sure they knew about the speech in London, but the response came during a q & a session in London.

Webb – The question is whether he should have been in London? General Jones was, in his very careful and deliberative way, trying to point this out the other day when he talked about how General McChrystal should be using the chain of command. General McChrystal has his own opinions. Secretary Gates yesterday, when he again addressed the responsibility of people in the process to communicate their views in a responsible way. It’s not that people don't want to listen to General McChrystal, it's that he should be talking to the people that should be listening to him.

Barnicle – Senator you just mentioned the chain of command, which is something I want to ask you about. We have General Jones, National Security Advisor in the White House, and a great man of broad experience as you just described, but where does General Petraeus fit in in the chain of command as far as General McChrystal in concerned?

Webb - He is his operational commander. General Petraeus has been quiet in terms of General McChrystal's actions, as well. The most important thing for us as a country right now is this deliberative process will set us in motion in terms of how we approach a situation in Afghanistan that has never been done successfully before by any other country. We are trying to are trying to build the national army and police force up to 400,000 people when the most they have had in history is about 80,000. I have asked this question to Petraeus, to McChrystal, to Admiral Mullen; “The largest actual national army has been 80,000. We say we are going to 400,000 at a time when we don't have a viable national government. Can we do that? And if we increase our military up to the level we say we are going to, it does have the potential of being counter productive in terms of the the way the civilians view us as an occupying force?” It's a delicate proposition. We have the right people in this Administration to come up with solutions.  General McChrystal ought to get inside the tent and make his views known.

Barnicle – Senator, nobody in the United States Senate has as much experience serving and fighting in a country where the government is suspect in South Vietnam at the time. What is your gut instinct about our role right now in Afghanistan because of their government?

Webb - I had the privilege of serving as a journalists in Afghanistan, in '04, I was in nine different places embedded with the United States Military, and I believe that the most important thing that an outside force like ours can do is to kill the bad guys, quite frankly. We are going to have very little control in terms of assisting these local governments in their ability to control what is going on in their villages. the difficulty and the transition and the thing people are working on here is can you either gain the confidence of the local government or grow a national government in the time period that we are there doing these other things. That is, I think, what people like Jim Jones and Secretary Gates are seriously looking at right now.

Brzezinski - Senator Webb, thank you so much. It's good to see you again.