(2 of 4)
It is fair to say that this isn't an easy problem. And anybody who claims otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about. Obviously Iran sits in a volatile region during a volatile period of time. Their own internal conflicts make it that much more difficult, I think, for them to make big strategic decisions. Having said that, our goal consistently has been to combine pressure with an opportunity for them to make good decisions and to mobilize the international community to maximize that pressure. Can we guarantee that Iran takes the smarter path? No, which is why I've repeatedly said we don't take any options off the table in preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon.
When you look at Afghanistan over the past three years--the policies you've adopted--would it be fair to say that the counterterrorism part of the policy, the killing of bad guys, has been a lot more successful than the counterinsurgency, the stabilizing of vast aspects of the country?
What is fair to say is that the counterterrorism strategy as applied to al-Qaeda has been extremely successful. The job's not finished, but there's no doubt that we have severely degraded al-Qaeda's capacity. When it comes to stabilizing Afghanistan, that was always going to be a more difficult and messy task, because it's not just military--it's economic, it's political, it's dealing with the capacity of an Afghan government that doesn't have a history of projecting itself into all parts of the country, tribal and ethnic conflicts that date back centuries ... I never believed that America could essentially deliver peace and prosperity to all of Afghanistan in a three-, four-, five-year time frame. And I think anybody who believed that didn't know the history and the challenges facing Afghanistan, because they're the third poorest country in the world, with one of the lowest literacy rates and no significant history of a strong civil service or an economy that was deeply integrated with the world economy. It's going to take decades for Afghanistan to fully achieve its potential.
As the Chinese watched your most recent diplomacy in Asia, is it fair for them to conclude, as many Chinese scholars have, that the United States is building a containment policy against China?
No, I think that would not be accurate, and I've specifically rejected that formulation. We've sent a clear signal that we are a Pacific power, that we will continue to be a Pacific power. But we've done this all in the context of a belief that a peacefully rising China is good for everybody. The only thing we've insisted on, as a principle in that region, is, everybody's got to play by the same set of rules. That's not unique to China. That's true for all of us.
You have developed a reputation for managing your foreign policy team very effectively, without dissension. So how come you can manage this fairly complex process so well, and relations with Congress are not so good?