CBS NEWSMAKER TRANSCRIPTS
TV Programs
Nov. 30, 2008
SCHIEFFER:
And joining us, this morning, Bob Woodward, Michael Eric Dyson, Jane Mayer and Fareed Zakaria.
Fareed, I want to start with you. We've been spending so much time talking about the economy, but were we ever reminded, this weekend, that terrorism is still there, and it still must be dealt with.
What is this all about, what has happened this week in India? ZAKARIA:
Well, at some level, I mean, this is actually quite personal for me. My mother has an office at the Taj Hotel. SCHIEFFER:
Really? ZAKARIA:
She's the editor of the Taj Magazine. And the office was destroyed. Luckily, she wasn't there.
But I think, if you step back, what's happening now is the problems of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India are bleeding into one another, so that what you have is a kind of South Asian terrorism, where these groups are feeding off each other, finding pockets where they can train in lawless parts of the country.
And you really have to ask yourself, if you are looking at this from Washington, what can we do about it?
Because, in many cases, these are parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan that those governments have not had control of for 200 years.
But the key is -- if there is a key -- is that the Pakistani military has created, trained and sustained groups like this for three decades.
I don't think the government is involved in this one, the Pakistani government. But they have to really reorient themselves strategically to say, you know, there are no good militants and bad militants.
The Pakistani military used to feel the good militants are the ones that destabilize India and Afghanistan, which is good for Pakistan, and the bad ones are the ones that kill Pakistani citizens.
The problem is they're all blurring into one another. And can we effect a strategic reorganization in Pakistan?
There are some good signs. The Pakistani government seems more understanding of this reality than in a long time. But that's the real challenge. SCHIEFFER:
What can we do -- or should we do? ZAKARIA:
Well, we've given Pakistan $10 billion of aid in the last -- over the last five or six years. We have close relations with the military.
If any outside player can play a role here, it's us. And I think it would be to try to make the Pakistanis understand that, you know, it is not in their interest that Afghanistan be unstable, that India be on edge, that they will prosper as a nation.
It's a sort of broader, you know, economic understanding of national security than a narrow, competitive political-military one.
And there's a really interesting question of, can you get the Pakistani military to see their national security in this broader way? SCHIEFFER:
Bob Woodward, the president, if all goes as expected, at 10:50 Eastern Time tomorrow, will announce his new national security team, to be headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state. WOODWARD:
She never goes away.
(LAUGHTER)
She and her husband. It's an amazing national security team that Obama appears to have selected. It's, kind of, like Goldilocks and the three bears. You've got "too cool," which might be -- or at least "appropriately cool" General Jones as the national security adviser; Gates is, kind of, just right, in the middle; and Hillary Clinton, hot.
This is going to be a whole new center of gravity for the news media, for the world. My assessment, without having any knowledge, really, is that the economists and the economic team around Obama convinced him that the economic crisis is so deep and going to require so much time, go ahead and give Hillary and Bill the world. DYSON:
It may not be his race as much as his community organizing background that will play a significant difference here, because a person who has organized poor people, who has attempted to get their interests and concerns as part of his bailiwick, will exert a profound influence over those issues when it comes to the economy, when it comes to making America safe, when it comes to protecting borders, and when it comes to trying to articulate ideas that will resonate not simply with African-Americans but more broadly.
I mean, the fact that you have a black first family, two beautiful children, an intelligent and brilliant wife and an intelligent and brilliant president, does an enormous good to people. The psychological advantage of waking up every morning, seeing that this is the most powerful man in the world does an incredible amount of good to people who look on.
But what he proves is that, look, OK, that got me in the door in terms of my skill and talent, but now I have got to really go forward here and govern in a way that respects all Americans, because all of America elected him president. SCHIEFFER:
Do you think having an African-American president will have more of an impact on black people or white people? DYSON:
Well, I think certainly for the broader society, the mainstream society, I think white Americans certainly probably never felt they'd see this day. They always say black people say, boy, I'd never thought I'd see the day that a black man would be in the White House, but many more white Americans perhaps felt the same thing.
In realistic terms, black Americans don't expect much from an Obama presidency that specifically targets them. What Mr. Obama has shrewdly comprehended is that if we're going to help everybody, we're going to help African-American people, we have to help everybody. So that his policies will be geared in a universal way.
In terms of <affirmative> <action, certainly he continues to be a supporter of that, but more in terms of class than in race. He talks about policies for poor people that will benefit the working class and the working poor, but also the middle class.
So I think that for white Americans to see an intelligent, articulate, sophisticated, cool, black man who whose feathers are not easily ruffled, who is able to carry himself with a matter of self- possession and confidence without bleeding into the Bush swagger that ended up being quite reckless, I think is an example that black people can, when chosen, perform a job, and that when they perform and execute that job, they do so with passion and intelligence. And I think that's a tremendous signal to the broader world.
Full Transcript: http://www.cq.com/displayalertresult.do?matchId=68706823#speakers
No comments:
Post a Comment