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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Taxpayers Will Be Paying Bigger Role to Fight Terror

Aired September 08, 2003 - 06:51   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.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity and the responsibility to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. taxpayers will be paying a bigger role, too, perhaps an $87 billion bigger role to fight terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mark Plotkin, political commentator for WTOP Radio in Washington is back with us live for party politics.

Good to see you, Mark.

MARK PLOTKIN, WTOP RADIO: Glad to be back.

WHITFIELD: Well, Mark, will Americans be interpreting the president's speech as acknowledgement that this war is costlier and a little bit more difficult than first thought?

PLOTKIN: Oh, absolutely. You know, Fredricka, on May 1st, the president went on that carrier under the banner "mission accomplished" and he said major combat operations have ended. Obviously they haven't ended. You have the second ranking senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Democratic side, David Obey, calling for the secretary of defense's resignation. You have his approval ratings at 52 percent. He felt he had to say something and say something quickly and be very specific.

WHITFIELD: And did he say enough to now convince the American public that the war in Iraq is one that is a war on terror, when there are an awful lot of critics who say it only became a war on terrorism once the borders became a little bit more porous and foreign terrorists started making their way into Iraq once the war began?

PLOTKIN: Well, he had to, yes, he had to provide a justification. You know, before the justification was to find weapons of mass destruction and a threat to the whole region. Now it's, the rationale seems to be that this is where terrorism is, that we can't show weakness. He used words like "this is a just cause." So the rationale and the justification and the reasoning for the war seemed to shift. But he's still got to get the money. Congress has to approve it. And, finally, he did make one very important point that at least for now, the 130,000 American troops, there won't be more American troops. But he surely wants U.N. troops.

WHITFIELD: He didn't elaborate on the weapons of mass destruction, but he didn't exclude it from his speech. Were you taken aback that he did remark on it?

PLOTKIN: Well, he just remarked on it very briefly and in almost a scant way. They want to look for any type of basis that they can for continuing this and they'll try out different theories and different bases for it. But in the end, the American people have to go along and, as you saw, eight Democratic candidates in Albuquerque, there's a debate tomorrow, Tuesday. People are piling on to him.

He has the support of his own party and his own congressional leadership, but the Democratic Party is not wrapping their arms around the president and, in fact, they're attacking him frontally. And he felt, when he said I'm coming to inform you, they didn't think it was going to turn out this way. And there are casualties every day. More people have lost their lives since the war ended and the president had to say something.

This was a damage control operation, there's no doubt about that.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mark Plotkin of WTOP Radio in Washington, good to see you this morning.

PLOTKIN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be talking about the president's speech and Iraq and Afghanistan all day. And we want to remind you that you can watch some of these stories on their premier programming this evening on CNN. Anderson Cooper, "360 Degrees," begins at 7:00 Eastern with a special report, "Al Qaeda: Where is the Leadership?" And "Paula Zahn Now" kicks off with an exclusive interview with the first President Bush. That show airs at 8:00 Eastern time.

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 September 8, 2003 - 06:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity and the responsibility to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. taxpayers will be paying a bigger role, too, perhaps an $87 billion bigger role to fight terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mark Plotkin, political commentator for WTOP Radio in Washington is back with us live for party politics.

Good to see you, Mark.

MARK PLOTKIN, WTOP RADIO: Glad to be back.

WHITFIELD: Well, Mark, will Americans be interpreting the president's speech as acknowledgement that this war is costlier and a little bit more difficult than first thought?

PLOTKIN: Oh, absolutely. You know, Fredricka, on May 1st, the president went on that carrier under the banner "mission accomplished" and he said major combat operations have ended. Obviously they haven't ended. You have the second ranking senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Democratic side, David Obey, calling for the secretary of defense's resignation. You have his approval ratings at 52 percent. He felt he had to say something and say something quickly and be very specific.

WHITFIELD: And did he say enough to now convince the American public that the war in Iraq is one that is a war on terror, when there are an awful lot of critics who say it only became a war on terrorism once the borders became a little bit more porous and foreign terrorists started making their way into Iraq once the war began?

PLOTKIN: Well, he had to, yes, he had to provide a justification. You know, before the justification was to find weapons of mass destruction and a threat to the whole region. Now it's, the rationale seems to be that this is where terrorism is, that we can't show weakness. He used words like "this is a just cause." So the rationale and the justification and the reasoning for the war seemed to shift. But he's still got to get the money. Congress has to approve it. And, finally, he did make one very important point that at least for now, the 130,000 American troops, there won't be more American troops. But he surely wants U.N. troops.

WHITFIELD: He didn't elaborate on the weapons of mass destruction, but he didn't exclude it from his speech. Were you taken aback that he did remark on it?

PLOTKIN: Well, he just remarked on it very briefly and in almost a scant way. They want to look for any type of basis that they can for continuing this and they'll try out different theories and different bases for it. But in the end, the American people have to go along and, as you saw, eight Democratic candidates in Albuquerque, there's a debate tomorrow, Tuesday. People are piling on to him.

He has the support of his own party and his own congressional leadership, but the Democratic Party is not wrapping their arms around the president and, in fact, they're attacking him frontally. And he felt, when he said I'm coming to inform you, they didn't think it was going to turn out this way. And there are casualties every day. More people have lost their lives since the war ended and the president had to say something.

This was a damage control operation, there's no doubt about that.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mark Plotkin of WTOP Radio in Washington, good to see you this morning.

PLOTKIN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be talking about the president's speech and Iraq and Afghanistan all day. And we want to remind you that you can watch some of these stories on their premier programming this evening on CNN. Anderson Cooper, "360 Degrees," begins at 7:00 Eastern with a special report, "Al Qaeda: Where is the Leadership?" And "Paula Zahn Now" kicks off with an exclusive interview with the first President Bush. That show airs at 8:00 Eastern time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com