Nora : You have heard the secretary of defense say critics are essentially like Nazi era appeasers.

Pelosi: i have long thought that the secretary of defense's judgement has been impaired. two and a half years ago i called for his resignation. he speaks for the administration, so i can only assume they are the words of the president. if they are not, it behooves the president to reject this characterization of political debate in our country. the reference is interesting. we have been in europe -- we have been in iraq- longer than in europe for world war ii. for him to talk about moral clarity when abu ghraib happened on his watch and destroyed our moral credibility in the world is interesting as well.

Nora: You have called the iraq war a grotesque mistake. secretary rumsfeld said that those types of comments are helping the enemy that the media over there takes them and emboldens the enemy.

Pelosi: what the secretary must be forgetting is that what emboldens the enemy is sending our troops into the line of fire without the equipment they need to protect themselves and get the job done. what emboldens the enemy is sending them there without the military intelligence to get the job done. what emboldens the enemy is our lack of knowledge of the ground truth. or maybe we are in denial about what is actually happening there. democrats are deadly serious about providing for the common defense, in order to do so, you must know your enemy. clearly the bush administration did not when it went to iraq. in order to protect the american people, you have to know your power. and we are diminishing that power by this war on iraq. this is the wrong war. it is not the war on terror. we should have stayed in afghanistan with fuller force longer to get the job done there.

Nora: As a democratic leader in the house, i am sure you saw the comments by vice president cheney where he accused them of self proclaimed pesism. the president is expected to address the american legion on thursday. there is a series of speeches that will kick off a third round of the defense of the iraq war as we are getting ready to commemorate the 9/11. how do democrats plan to respond to that?

Pelosi : it is not a question of responding to it. it is assuming our responsibility to protect the american people. don't take it from me, the 9/11 commission has given the president d.'s and f.'s in providing for homeland security. independent analysts have said the war in iraq is weakening our military strength to protect america against threats to our national security wherever they may appear. five years after 9/11 our first responders in most parts of the country, police, fire, and emergency services people do not have the equipment they need to communicate in realtime. ports are not secure, borders are not secure. the administration has a lot lot to answer for. we will not be swift boated by them. we again call for a military second to none to protect the american people. diplomatic alliances to maintain the peace, stop terrorism, to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. this administration has hampered our ability to do that by losing the credibility we have lost because of the war in iraq.