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American Morning
Year In Review: Progress Report on War on Terror
Aired December 24, 2002 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: 2002 was dominated by the fight against terrorism and the prospect of war against Iraq.
And as part of our "2002 In Review" series, I spoke with "New York Times" columnist and Pulitzer prize winner Thomas Friedman. We begin with a progress report on the war on terror.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THOMAS FRIEDMAN, AUTHOR, "LONGITUDES & ATTITUDES": It's a good news/bad news story, to be honest, Paula. When I think of al Qaeda, the organization that perpetrated September 11, I think the best way to think about it is to think McDonald's. Al Qaeda is a franchise organization. And the good news is that we have smashed headquarters, and we have put the management into flight, and hopefully even killed some of them. That's the good news.
The bad news is that this is a franchise organization, and some of the franchisees are really inept, incapable of organizing the money, the training, the planning, the resources to launch operations that can threaten us or others. But some of these franchisees are quite adept.
ZAHN (on camera): So, given that continuing challenge, that continuing threat, what kind of grade would you give the administration for this war on terror?
FRIEDMAN: Well, I think the only grade you can give them in fairness is an incomplete, but I say that incomplete not in a sneering way. This is a really, really tough war. It's one that we're going to be at for a long time. We're on the eve of something, Paula, but I'm not sure of whether it's a war or not.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By his deceptions and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.
FRIEDMAN: You know, clearly, President Bush decided to go through the United Nations to play out the diplomatic process to, in effect, frame his threat to Saddam to either turn over his weapons of mass destruction or else, to frame that threat within the context of the United Nations and the international community, so that it is clear that the demand for him to disarm is not some American wish, not some American whim, but is in fact the demand and the consensus of the international community. That's a good thing.
But it's unclear whether or how much he's actually going to live up to that U.N. demand. And it's even more unclear if he doesn't, what are we going to do?
ZAHN: What about North Korea? How do you think this issue is going to play out, particularly given the news that it's reactivated its nuclear power program?
FRIEDMAN: North Korea is an impossible problem. It would be a Harvard Business School case study of how to deal with a crazy executive. The crazy executive in this case is Kim Jong Il. It's an objectively hard problem. The only answer is going to be to keep kind of nurturing it along, paying them off here, slapping their hand there, and hoping that somehow something changes inside and someone a little less crazy than the crazy man who is in charge there takes over.
The story of what's going on, on the streets of Tehran, I consider to be the most underreported and most important story, and in a way most hopeful story of the past year. We saw thousands of Iranian students out chanting "death to dictatorship." No, no, not death to America, not death to the great Satan, but "death to dictatorship." They've identified their real problem as the hard liners in their own leadership, not America. OK? Not the great Satan.
And those young Iranians, they just know two things. They've had enough democracy to know they want more of it. And they've had enough Islam imposed and forced on them to know they want less of it. And that is what I am hoping for. That's what I am praying for, for the year 2003. Wish those young people well, because if they succeed, it means the war within is being won by the right people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And to get more of Tom Friedman's thoughts, you can read his latest book, "Longitudes & Attitudes: Exploring the world after September 11."
And tomorrow on "2002 in Review," Liz Smith dishes the year's juiciest celebrity news.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 24, 2002 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: 2002 was dominated by the fight against terrorism and the prospect of war against Iraq.
And as part of our "2002 In Review" series, I spoke with "New York Times" columnist and Pulitzer prize winner Thomas Friedman. We begin with a progress report on the war on terror.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THOMAS FRIEDMAN, AUTHOR, "LONGITUDES & ATTITUDES": It's a good news/bad news story, to be honest, Paula. When I think of al Qaeda, the organization that perpetrated September 11, I think the best way to think about it is to think McDonald's. Al Qaeda is a franchise organization. And the good news is that we have smashed headquarters, and we have put the management into flight, and hopefully even killed some of them. That's the good news.
The bad news is that this is a franchise organization, and some of the franchisees are really inept, incapable of organizing the money, the training, the planning, the resources to launch operations that can threaten us or others. But some of these franchisees are quite adept.
ZAHN (on camera): So, given that continuing challenge, that continuing threat, what kind of grade would you give the administration for this war on terror?
FRIEDMAN: Well, I think the only grade you can give them in fairness is an incomplete, but I say that incomplete not in a sneering way. This is a really, really tough war. It's one that we're going to be at for a long time. We're on the eve of something, Paula, but I'm not sure of whether it's a war or not.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By his deceptions and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.
FRIEDMAN: You know, clearly, President Bush decided to go through the United Nations to play out the diplomatic process to, in effect, frame his threat to Saddam to either turn over his weapons of mass destruction or else, to frame that threat within the context of the United Nations and the international community, so that it is clear that the demand for him to disarm is not some American wish, not some American whim, but is in fact the demand and the consensus of the international community. That's a good thing.
But it's unclear whether or how much he's actually going to live up to that U.N. demand. And it's even more unclear if he doesn't, what are we going to do?
ZAHN: What about North Korea? How do you think this issue is going to play out, particularly given the news that it's reactivated its nuclear power program?
FRIEDMAN: North Korea is an impossible problem. It would be a Harvard Business School case study of how to deal with a crazy executive. The crazy executive in this case is Kim Jong Il. It's an objectively hard problem. The only answer is going to be to keep kind of nurturing it along, paying them off here, slapping their hand there, and hoping that somehow something changes inside and someone a little less crazy than the crazy man who is in charge there takes over.
The story of what's going on, on the streets of Tehran, I consider to be the most underreported and most important story, and in a way most hopeful story of the past year. We saw thousands of Iranian students out chanting "death to dictatorship." No, no, not death to America, not death to the great Satan, but "death to dictatorship." They've identified their real problem as the hard liners in their own leadership, not America. OK? Not the great Satan.
And those young Iranians, they just know two things. They've had enough democracy to know they want more of it. And they've had enough Islam imposed and forced on them to know they want less of it. And that is what I am hoping for. That's what I am praying for, for the year 2003. Wish those young people well, because if they succeed, it means the war within is being won by the right people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And to get more of Tom Friedman's thoughts, you can read his latest book, "Longitudes & Attitudes: Exploring the world after September 11."
And tomorrow on "2002 in Review," Liz Smith dishes the year's juiciest celebrity news.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
