A different way of doing things

An exclusive insight into how the Democrat presidential hopeful would govern, from his senior aide.

HUW EDWARDS: Well in this exclusive interview, the only British TV interview with any senior figure in the Obama party, I asked him first about Iraq and how US foreign policy would change if Obama became president.

GREG CRAIG: He has consistently stated, and he still believes, that it was a mistake for us to go into that war. He opposed it initially.

He says it was a mistake to go in.

It's distracted us from other challenges. It's been an enormous drain on the American people as well as on the American military.

But most of all it has really taken us away from the central front against terrorism which we believe to be in Afghanistan.

HUW EDWARDS: Let's come to Afghanistan in a bit more detail ..

GREG CRAIG: Sure.

HUW EDWARDS: .. in a second. On Iraq there was talk at one stage of eliminating the American presence or certainly combat troops within sixteen months of achieving office if he achieves office. Is that commitment still in place?

GREG CRAIG: Yes it is. He believes that a responsible and effective withdrawal of troops is possible at one or two brigades a month which would take sixteen months to have us out.

He, he guarantees a certain amount of flexibility to the military on the ground. But the mission would be clear, that he wants to end the war, he wants to withdraw American combat troops within that space of time. And he's made it quite clear what his reasons for that are.

HUW EDWARDS: You mentioned the, the change of focus from Iraq to Afghanistan.

GREG CRAIG: Yes.

HUW EDWARDS: We have senior military figures in Britain who've said consistently and they were saying it when we were out there last year reporting that they thought there would need to be decades, maybe three decades of a presence in Afghanistan to sort things out. Is that a time frame that you would agree with?

GREG CRAIG: Er .. I'm, I'm not willing to put any time frame on it. I'm, what I am willing to say is that there are two or three things that are clearly vital in, in the Afghan challenge.

One is security. Secondly is this "safe haven" problem. And the third is the poppy issue. I'm not sure anybody that I'm talking to believes that Afghanistan can become Denmark or you know a little bit of England.

It's going to require not just soldiers on the ground dealing with the Taliban threat but enormous economic development as well as institution building. That process will be decades, will be decades.

HUW EDWARDS: Let's move to another grave area of concern ..

GREG CRAIG: Sure.

HUW EDWARDS: .. which is Israel and the Middle East and the conflict with the Palestinians. What hope is there in your view and in the senator's view that there can be a proper reconciliation there when at the moment I think you'd agree there are very few promising signs?

GREG CRAIG: Well I think Senator Obama believes that if it has the attention of an American president early on and it's just, you know it's consistent and sustained that this is a problem that if solved and when solved will have enormous positive effects throughout the region.

HUW EDWARDS: It needs to say the least you know advanced diplomatic skills to even get to grips with, with the problems.

How much of a mistake was it do you think when he said that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel and was then criticised for saying that? Why did he get himself into that bother?

GREG CRAIG: Well he, he immediately acknowledged that that was an unfortunate phrase. In his own mind I think what he was talking about, he had the vision of a city cut up into you know with barbed wire and barricades like Berlin.

And he didn't think that this beautiful gem of a city should ever have that happen to it. He immediately made clear that he wasn't suggesting or pre-judging the outcome of negotiations and of course how Jerusalem was used to solve major problems among the parties was up to the parties themselves.

HUW EDWARDS: Is there a danger back home that people will see these images and say here's this senator, this young senator, travelling around the world as if he's already president with his big motorcade and his entourage and all the rest of it? Isn't he presuming a little too early?

GREG CRAIG: I think the way in which this programme has been planned has been sensitive to that concern.

In fact we are taking the advice of Senator McCain. Senator McCain said "It's time for you to go to Iraq and Afghanistan" and Senator Obama says "Well that's good advice. I'll take it".

It seems unfair to criticise us now for taking advantage of the trip to those two places which are so important for Americans.

HUW EDWARDS: One of the big things that exercises so many people which is climate change, been lots of frustration within Europe as to America's attitude on that in the past seven or eight years.

GREG CRAIG: There has been frustration in the United States about that.

HUW EDWARDS: Well then what's he, well what can he deliver? What would he deliver as president which would be, which would mark a very significant change in American attitudes to this?

GREG CRAIG: Well first of all he would bring a sensitivity and an appreciation of the magnitude of the problem. I mean he, he gets it when it comes to the, the dangers and the problems associated with fossil fuel emissions.

It is an enormous political challenge because it requires very strong action domestically as well as concerted action internationally.

Now my own view is that the way you start the process of dealing with climate change is to start the process.

HUW EDWARDS: You are someone with close links in the past to the Clintons.

GREG CRAIG: It's true.

HUW EDWARDS: And yet this time you'd made a very clear decision which caused some surprise. You decided to go for Senator Obama. Why did you make that decision?

GREG CRAIG: I went to law school with the Clintons and I've known them both for almost forty years. And I worked for President Clinton in the Whitehouse.

And I then when I went back to private the law practice still stayed engaged in public issues and, and got to know Senator Obama when he was running for the Senate in Illinois. I was very impressed with him.

The premise of his campaign and actually of his whole public life is that you can identify common ground and that the American people for example are much more united on the big issues of the day than is Washington. And we've got to change not just the, the parties or the leadership but the politics and the way we approach solving these problems.

That theme and his leadership capacities, his youth, his vigour, convinced me. His inspirational abilities too may I say, his capacity to move and inspire people convinced me that he was the right man at the right time to lead the country.

HUW EDWARDS: Are the Clintons still talking to you?

GREG CRAIG: Yes.

HUW EDWARDS: There was a bit of a pause there.

GREG CRAIG: Well there was a, you know ..

HUW EDWARDS: They found it difficult to accept?

GREG CRAIG: I'm sure they were disappointed. I don't want to overstate my significance in their life. But largely because it was identified as a defection you know, which was unfair to me and to them when journalists said you've defected or betrayed or - that was not it at all.

I mean they weren't counting on me for anything in the presidential campaign. And my signing on with Senator Obama was out of enthusiasm and hope for a completely different way of doing things.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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