Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Obama Set To Announce Troop Increase in Afghanistan Tonight; Cyber Monday Sales Up From Last Year; President Obama to Make His Case in Sending 30,000 U.S. Troops to Afghanistan; How One Woman Escaped Sex Slavery
Aired December 01, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday, December 1st. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us. Here are the stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes here in the Most News in the Morning.
The mission and the end game after all the late nights and all the high level meetings, tonight, President Obama will publicly make the eight-year Afghan war his war, and as we speak, the Pentagon already pushing forward on his plans. We're live at the White House with new developments today.
CHETRY: And ahead of tonight's speech, we'll be speaking to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He'll be joining us in just a few minutes to talk a little bit more about Afghan strategy and also answer some questions about that uninvited couple that made their way into the State dinner.
ROBERTS: Plus, women and children victims in an underground industry that's growing and growing fast. In our "A.M." original report, "slaves in the USA," the harrowing story of one woman who survived after years in the sex slave industry.
We begin with President Obama tonight finally announcing his new battle plan, a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan. The center piece of the president's new strategy, 30,000 more troops.
But after eight years, the enemy has grown stronger and more confident while at the same time the nation has grown more skeptical and Congress more divided.
So for President Obama it's a tougher sell than in the months following 9/11. Our Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning. The president does have a tough job tonight. He has to sell the nation not only in staying in Afghanistan but increasing our commitment there.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, you bring up a very good point, and senior administration officials will acknowledge that. This is a tougher sell for President Obama.
I covered President Bush for eight years and Afghanistan was a different place back then. He made the case that it really was the headquarters for Al Qaeda. We got to see these pictures that really became kind of iconic where you see them climbing through what looks like a jungle gym there.
Well, Al Qaeda has dispersed, Osama bin Laden no longer the head of it. They have regrouped in Pakistan. It is a different kind of place and it's a different kind of enemy. And that has been part of the debate, the internal debate for the White House and what this mission means.
The other thing that you mention is the September 11th attacks, really a distant memory for many people. That was something that President Bush talked about nonstop every single time he spoke with the military. He would bring up the fact that you had the 9/11 attacks.
And then finally, this is something that the president has been very reticent to do as well as his administration, and that is to use any kind of similar tone or language than you heard from President Bush when it comes to possible terrorist attacks because they don't want to look like they're engaged in fear-mongering. That is something of course President Bush was criticized for doing -- John.
ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House. Suzanne, thanks so much.
And stay with CNN. Our special coverage of President Obama's speech begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with the "Best Political Team on Television."
CHETRY: And as the president's orders for more troops go out, a big question remains, what will it mean for the fighting men and women already there?
Our Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence is just back from Afghanistan. That's where you were able to bring us some amazing stories firsthand about what exactly life is like not only for the Afghan people but for our fighting men and women there.
So as we look forward tonight to the president's speech, what do you think people there are wanting to hear?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I think they're going to want to hear if there is a clear mission, if they have an end goal, something that they can really latch on to, to say this is why we're here and this is what we're doing.
But we've gotten so wrapped up in all the numbers -- 30,000, 40,000. The real question is how and where will these new troops be used?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Most of the new combat forces will be sent south to help shrink the huge battle spaces troops are trying to cover in places like Kandahar province. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the help down here. Even though we're handling it on our own, but we need more forces down here.
LAWRENCE: NATP has nearly 37,000 troops in southern Afghanistan, more than the rest of the country combined. But officials admit it hasn't been enough manpower to remove the Taliban from parts of Helmand province and other areas.
SPC. BRIAN SCHOENBECK, U.S. ARMY, 117TH INFANTRY: More infantry. Get another battalion or brigade to help us out.
LAWRENCE: A defense official says the U.S. marines will nearly double their numbers there, with 1,000 expected to deploy in late December and 8,000 more over the next few months. Troops say it will allow them to get to know Afghans in their area, which could encourage more of them to cooperate.
SCHOENBECK: To give us information if they have anything about where the Taliban are and what they're doing.
LAWRENCE: Roadside bombs kill more troops in Afghanistan than any amount of enemy artillery. And a key mission for new troops would be putting more eyes on Highway 1, a road known as "IED alley."
The goal is to catch insurgents planting bombs and then replanting them after route clearance teams go through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to make sure that the routes stay clear.
LAWRENCE: The Obama administration also emphasizes quickly increasing the size of Afghan forces, nearly 40,000 more soldiers and nearly 70,000 more Afghan police in the next year. That's why the U.S. troop increase will include thousands of additional trainers.
The key will be the trainers' backgrounds and how experienced they are in actual police work. Right now, units like the 82nd airborne are training Afghan police, but combat paratroopers are no experts in evidence collection or investigations.
MAJ. SCOTT BRANNAN, U.S. ARMY, 82ND AIRBORNE: A lot of the guys don't have that skill set, so we're working now to try to get more law enforcement professionals attached to us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: The Afghan army and police just got a pay raise last week. In U.S. dollars they're now making about $165 a month. We'll have to see if that solves some of the problems not only in recruiting but retention, because right now some estimates say about a quarter of the officers drop out.
So you're in a situation where you take two steps forward and you take one step back because you're losing these guys.
CHETRY: What were your impressions being there about how ready and able both the Afghan army and the police are to protect and secure their country?
LAWRENCE: The Afghan army seemed more capable than I initially thought. They seem more well-funded, more well-equipped, more organized.
The Afghan police, almost completely the opposite. Very disorganized, guys in and out. We were at one of the outposts where the commander was new because the last commander was hiding Taliban at the police station.
They would go to some of these combat outposts. They would come up on the Afghan police officers. And at one they had taken the plates out of their body armor and were using them to grill food on.
So that kind of tells you the level that some of these soldiers are at. They're at ground zero trying to get these guys up to snuff in some of these very remote areas.
CHETRY: Not exactly a tremendous example of force discipline there.
LAWRENCE: No. When you have to patiently explain that a bloody grilling carcass is not conducive to keeping your body armor in good condition it leaves a lot to be desired.
ROBERTS: Chris, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And also stay with us because in just a few minutes we'll talk more about the president's plan with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Then at the half hour, a lot of political capital on the line for President Obama. So in a way he's trying to sell the troop increase and some of the members of his own party are very much against it.
Our political panel, syndicated columnist Dave Sirota as well as former speech writer for President George W. Bush David Frum will break that down.
ROBERTS: It's coming up on seven minutes after the hour. And also new this morning, breaking news just coming into CNN about the manhunt for Maurice Clemmons. He is the man who gunned down four police officers at a coffee shop in Washington State on Sunday morning.
Seattle police say Clemmons was shot dead early this morning. A news conference scheduled for 7:30, that's just a little less than 25 minutes away.
CHETRY: Also, last week's White House state dinner may not be the only function that Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed. Spokesman for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation said the couple snuck into their awards dinner in September and had to be removed.
And now it looks like the Salahis tried to get an invitation to the White House dinner by e-mailing a request to a top level Pentagon official. The Pentagon official who corresponded with the couple says she never told them that she could get them into the event.
ROBERTS: Donate what you can, that's what the bell ringers ask for. Well, someone dropped in a Krugerrand. That's right, the Salvation Army found a gold coin in a red kettle outside of a Kmart near York, Pennsylvania. The gold coin valued at $1,200. The total value of the donation, though, was $1,201 because the Krugerrand was wrapped in a buck.
CHETRY: How about that, very generous.
Still ahead, we're going to be speaking about President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan with someone who knows a lot about it. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is going to be weighing in. We're going to talk to him in a moment.
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's ten minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Stephanie Elam with us "Minding your Business" this morning. She'll tell us how cyber-Monday went yesterday. I know it didn't go well for one (ph) Web site. They had some 40 percent off detail, and when I went on, it said they were closed for routine maintenance and it stayed that way for hours.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Maybe because they knew you would buy them out. They said we'll have nothing left in a size 8.
CHETRY: It would be for my dad.
ELAM: Well, anyway, let's talk a little bit about cyber-Monday. Overall it's looking a little bit better than last year, which probably isn't much of a surprise since last year was so painful.
But taking a look at it, according to core metrics, cyber-Monday sales rose 14 percent this year compared to a year ago, and there were 30 percent more items per order this year versus last year, up nearly 10 percent from Black Friday of this year.
Also the average dollar amount people were spending per order up 38 percent to $180. And the apparel retailers were really leading that charge there. The apparel retailers really did see a big jump there.
And in case you were wondering, the peak was hit between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. if you're on the west coast. But here, since it's so early on the west coast and they're probably not watching, probably noon to 1:00 p.m. here the peak was there.
But the difference this year is that the momentum actually stayed throughout the day, whereas before we saw it kind of taper off earlier last year. So things slightly stronger there. Apparel and jewelry retail saw the largest jumps in the average number of dollars that people were spending in orders. It's probably not too much of a surprise. This is online in particular.
Sports apparel, gear retailers, saw nearly a 55 percent increase in new visitors coming to their websites. Obviously, they want that because it means people are coming to see what do you have? What's going on there? But the average amount that people were spending online for those was down about three percent.
So some good, some bad, but still looking a little bit stronger than last year.
CHETRY: All the sites were offering free shipping, several percent off. I mean, you weren't paying for shipping online yesterday.
ELAM: No. And if you were, you were messing up, because everybody was offering free shipping. That's the thing right now. For people who are not procrastinators, this is the time to get that holiday shopping done because of the fact that you get the free shipping there.
Of course there will probably be another push of people saying this is your last chance, get free shipping, as we get closer to the 25th. But for the people out there yesterday on the web hooking it up, I know I got good stuff yesterday.
ROBERTS: Excellent. Good for you.
ELAM: I was trying to be like Kiran, but I wasn't going to Cohan (ph).
CHETRY: I went to Wal-Mart on Friday. That was crazy. You had to wait in line for a cart. That's just an example of how insane that was. Anyway...
ELAM: I went to the outlet malls on Sunday.
ROBERTS: Get those deals any way you can. Good to see you, Steph.
ELAM: Thanks.
ROBERTS: President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan, a lot of questions. And we will put some of those to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs right after the break.
It's 13 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Tonight in primetime, President Obama makes his case for boosting combat forces in Afghanistan by about 30,000 troops. It's a hard sell. The public and Congress are skeptical after months of deliberation.
So joining me now to talk about all of this, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Robert, good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good morning, John. How are you?
ROBERTS: Good, thank you. So this number of troops, about 30,000 as we believe it to be, is about 10,000 less than General Stanley McChrystal had wanted for Afghanistan. How did the president come to the determination that this was the right number of troops to send over?
GIBBS: We came to that determination through, as you know, a series of deliberations and getting a strategy for how we go forward in Afghanistan. We're there, John, as you know, because Al Qaeda plotted and attacked this country from Afghanistan in September --
ROBERTS: Of course.
GIBBS: On September 11th, 2001. And we know they plot against our homeland even as we speak. What the president will do tonight is announce an accelerated strategy to take on Al Qaeda and its extremist allies to ensure that the Taliban can't provide a safe haven for them to plot and plan, an acceleration of training for Afghan national security forces so that ultimately the men and women that will provide security for the Afghans are the Afghans themselves.
ROBERTS: Right. But, again, this number of troops, 10,000 less than what the general actually had wanted in his initial report about three months ago. Why did the president think this could be done with fewer troops than the general wanted?
GIBBS: Well, when the president explains what the strategy is, I think you'll see that through a series of these meetings, there have been discussions. The strategy in some ways has been changed. And I think we're also expecting that we'll get a more significant contribution from allies that understand that this is not just one country's problems. This is an international effort already on the ground in Afghanistan. It has to become more of an international effort as we go forward.
What the president will announce tonight, though, is getting an accelerated timeline into Afghanistan so that we can talk about transitioning our forces out of there quickly.
ROBERTS: Let's talk about the plan to get out in just a second. But first of all, let me drill down on this issue of NATO. The president has been phoning NATO leaders asking for more troops. Britain has said that it would send 500 more troops. You were looking to France for a commitment of about 1,400, 1,500. France has so far said, no, no new troops. So will you be able to get what you want?
GIBBS: Well, look, NATO is working directly with our allies. They have a force generation conference that will take place over the course of several days later this week and the beginning of next week. And we certainly wait anxiously on NATO.
ROBERTS: All right. The president has said, though, Robert, that this is not an open ended commitment. Is there a specific timetable for getting our troops out of Afghanistan? The president has said in the past he doesn't want to leave this to his successor.
GIBBS: And the president is very serious about that. And you'll hear him, John, tonight talk specifically about when he thinks we can begin to transition our forces out of Afghanistan...
ROBERTS: Really?
GIBBS: ... put the Afghans in the lead of providing their own security. That's the only real way forward in Afghanistan. As the president said, we can't be there forever. This can't be nation building. This can't be open-ended. We have to help clear and hold areas that the Taliban control now, but we have to transfer that to a competent Afghan government that's addressed governance and corruption issues but also understand that they alone have the responsibility to provide their own security going forward.
ROBERTS: So, Robert, let me back up. Will the president actually articulate some sort of timetable for withdrawal here or will that just be a statement of where we would like to be given the best outcome?
GIBBS: John, the president will discuss tonight the timeframe in which he believes we can transition our forces out of Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: Wow. Let me change gears, Robert, because another big issue there at the White House is what happened at the state dinner last week with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who Tareq said this morning on the "Today" show that they didn't indeed crash the party. Do you believe that they did crash the party? And how big of a security breach was that?
GIBBS: Well, I have no doubt that they were not on an invitation list. They were not on a list that, as you know, goes to every security tower here that lets you into this complex. Their name wasn't on that. If your name is not on the invitation list and you show up, in my book that's called crashing.
I will tell you this. The president was concerned about the security breach here, as was the Secret Service. He's tremendously grateful for the security that they provide he and his family and quite frankly, everybody that steps on to this complex.
The Secret Service is evaluating their procedures. The White House will look into if there's anything that we can do to ensure the safety and security of both the president, his family, and any guests that come.
ROBERTS: You say that the president was concerned about this security breach, as you have described it. Was he angry about it? GIBBS: Well, look, I think you can assume, John, that when people get on a very secure complex that aren't on a list to get on here, that is very disconcerting for the president, the first lady, and, quite frankly, the staff here at the White House.
ROBERTS: So who dropped the ball here, Robert? Was it the Secret Service? Was it the social secretary's office, combination of the two?
GIBBS: Well, look, I think the security is provided by the Secret Service and they've acknowledged that these individuals shouldn't have gotten past their security checkpoints. I will tell you, John, we are also evaluating our support for the Secret Service from a staff level, and we'll do anything that anybody has asked of us in order to provide better help for the Secret Service in doing their job. He's tremendously grateful, the president is, for the sacrifice that the men and women of the U.S. Secret service make each and every day on his behalf.
ROBERTS: One other point I wanted to ask you about regarding national security -- it's actually global security more than anything. Iran's proclamation that it is going to start construction on 10 new uranium enrichment facilities. You said yesterday during your briefing that, quote, "Time is running out for Iran." What does that mean?
GIBBS: Well, the Iranians have responsibilities to the international community, responsibilities that for the last many years they've stepped away from. If they don't stop their enrichment activities, if they don't forsake their nuclear weapons program, then the international community will continue to take steps united together to address those problems. And I think everybody is making preparations that the next steps forward would be sanctions against Iran.
ROBERTS: All right. Does that mean more of the same or could we see a sharp escalation in those sanctions?
GIBBS: Well, look, I think the international community, our allies are serious about addressing this head-on. I think it would be wise for the Iranians to understand and to uphold their responsibilities. This is up to them. If they won't do it, we will take steps because, as I said yesterday, time is indeed running out.
ROBERTS: Does that include up to military force?
GIBBS: I certainly wouldn't take anything off the table, but I will tell you this, John. I think first and foremost, we will examine what type of sanctions will have an impact on Iran.
ROBERTS: All right. Robert Gibbs, press secretary for the White House this morning. Robert, good to see you. Thanks so much.
GIBBS: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: And stay with CNN. Our special coverage of President Obama's speech begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with the best political team on television.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And as the president makes the case for a troop surge in Afghanistan, there are many in his own party disappointed with that decision. And what about the American people with problems piling up here at home? Is there an appetite for an increased presence in Afghanistan?
We're joined by David Frum and David Sirota with two different points of view.
Twenty-four minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Human trafficking, it's a fast growing, illegal industry that's so far underground it's actually hard for police to track it. The majority of victims, though, they say, are women and children, many used for sex.
ROBERTS: They're young Americans often drug addicts and runaways picked right off of our city streets. But some are lucky and manage to make it out. Our Sean Callebs joins us live with one woman's story in an "A.M. Original," "Slaves in the USA."
Good morning, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning John and Kiran. Exactly. There are the few that do make it out.
We're here at a busy industrial highway just outside of Atlanta. The FBI tells us this is actually a pretty popular spot for women who are forced into the sex trade by human traffickers. And these are women, as you mentioned, who just get off the bus and they are looked at as a commodity, not as people by these pimps. So often, their stories end up in simply horror but there are those exceptions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS (voice-over): She asked not to be identified. Her first name is Melissa.
MELISSA, FORMER SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIM: I thought I would be dead. I never thought I'd live to be 22 or 24 years old.
CALLEBS: Her story begins when she was 17. Living with another runaway, she says a pimp promised them a better life.
MELISSA: And he started to pay our rent, pay our bills, make sure that, you know, we had food in our house.
CALLEBS: In exchange, she says, he held her against her will and forced her into the sex trade. MELISSA: Within a day, my whole life changed. I had to sleep with people. He would tell me where I had to be, when I had to be there.
CALLEBS (on camera): Human rights advocates tell us that right now there are about 25,000 young women in the United States who have been forced into sex trafficking. Along with the horror stories we hear about women brought here from Latin America, Asia and Europe, advocates tell us that a large percentage of those forced into sex trafficking are actually runaways from right here in the United States.
(voice-over): Melissa's story fits the profile. Trying to escape a broken home, she says she was sexually abused at a young age. Pimps prey on women like her.
LUIS CDEBACA, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO FIGHT HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Our girls are at risk.
CALLEBS: Luis CdeBaca is the the U.S. ambassador at large fighting human trafficking. He says it's time for the U.S. to step up its crackdown on sex trafficking with more aggressive investigations and prosecutions.
CDEBACA: It's a problem that's happening right here and it's happening to people's daughters. It's happening to people's nieces, nephews, grandchildren and it's plaguing every community in the United States.
CALLEBS: For Melissa, she says she was held captive by intimidation, fear and physical abuse.
MELISSA: I was too scared to do anything, to leave or to go anywhere. I had no money. I had nothing. So, I mean, they were all that I had.
SUSAN COPPEDGE, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: It's the same story over and over. The pimps almost have a handbook, the traffickers, as to how to catch a girl, is the term. And they'll try this on 10 or 20 girls and only maybe get one that will fall for it, but it's that one that becomes the victim of sex trafficking.
CALLEBS: Melissa says it was an arrest for a traffic violation that eventually saved her life. The FBI convinced her to testify against her pimp and enter rehab for therapy and drug addiction. She's now married and hopes to start a family, something she once could not have imagined.
MELISSA: All it does is take one person to actually really care and have pure motives and give you everything that they were taught.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Yes. Getting back to that handbook, authorities say it was amazing that young women still fall for that. But John and Kiran, they say these are young women who are looking for hope, looking for a better life. And quite often the women and the pimps are leaving these streets and are moving to the internet. And that, we're told, is making the authorities' job that much more difficult -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: Hard to believe this sort of thing is actually taking police in the United states. But as you said, Sean, it's fairly prevalent here.
CALLEBS: Exactly. Exactly. Some 800,000 people turn up missing every year and authorities tell us 85 percent of those are young people under 18. So it's a very big problem and one the authorities are having difficulty getting a handle on.
ROBERTS: All right. Sean Callebs for us this morning. Sean, thanks so much.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department says the shrimp industry of Southeast Asia is just like modern-day slavery. That's right, the shrimp industry. So what does it take to get that delicacy on to your plate? Find out on Thursday, right here on the most news in the morning.
CHETRY: Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories, we have breaking news this morning.
Police in Seattle now confirming that officers shot and killed Maurice Clemmons in a Seattle neighborhood early this morning. Clemmons has been the focus of an intense manhunt after four officers were gunned down in a coffee shop Sunday. A news conference is scheduled any minute now and we will bring it to you live when it happens.
ROBERTS: Voters in Atlanta head to the polls today to pick a mayor. It's a very tight runoff election that could give the city its first white mayor in 35 years. Councilwoman Mary Norwood opposed by former lawmaker Kasim Reed. Norwood got 46 percent of the vote to Reed's 36 percent in November.
CHETRY: And for the first time, we're actually hearing from the couple accused of crashing last week's state dinner at the White House. Tareq and Michaele Salahi appearing on "NBC'S Today Show" this morning claiming they did not crash the president's first official state dinner. Tareq saying that the past week has been a horrible ordeal for him and his wife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAREQ SALAHI, BEING INVESTIGATED FOR CRASHING WHITE HOUSE STATE DINNER: I can tell you that this has been the most devastating thing that's ever happened to us. We're greatly saddened by all the circumstances that have been involved in portraying my wife and I as party crashers. I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: They're also accused of crashing September's Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's award dinner. The foundation spokesman says the couple was caught and escorted out. We'll be hearing more from the Salahis throughout the morning.
Tonight, President Obama will make the case for increasing the military commitment in Afghanistan. Live from West Point. He'll be speaking to cadets who he could send to the front lines. Voters with problems piling up at home and allies who are facing their own political pressures, also lawmakers, some in his own party, who want no part of any troop increase. So how does he sell it tonight?
Well, joining us to talk more about that from Denver, syndicated columnist David Sirota; also in D.C., former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum. Thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.
DAVID FRUM, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you.
CHETRY: And David Frum, let me start with you.
How does the president make the case to the American people tonight when he gives that speech at West Point that this is the right answer? I mean, we're hearing so much about the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, the problems with the increased drug trade and also questions about whether we have a partner or a weak corrupt government instead in that nation.
FRUM: Well, the classic way would be to make the argument about how important this is and why it's worth it and give a declaration of commitment that you are going all in, that this is going to be a job that you're committed to winning. The problem is that the early information we have is that the president is not going to do that, the speech is going to focus on the exit, not the entrance.
Well, if it's so important to get out, that raises the question of why get in. If in the speech he sends a message to America's enemies in Afghanistan that there's a time limit, if they can only last what 10 rounds, eight rounds, 15 rounds, they win. That is going to be a devastating message that will undermine the very mission he's now calling the country to fight.
CHETRY: Well, all right. We'll have to hear what he does talk about. As we know, an exit strategy is something that is expected to be highlighted tonight. And part of the reason - David Sirota, you can weigh in on this one as well - is that many Democrats are not happy about this increased U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
In fact, it's Republicans that could be the strongest ally in this. Yet, the president did campaign on fighting the right war, which he said was Afghanistan, not Iraq. Are liberals surprised that he's following through on that campaign promise?
DAVID SIROTA, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, I think people are asking the budgetary question and I think they're asking the question about what the mission is all about. I mean, "The New York Times" estimates that the defense budget will now be with an Afghan escalation $700 billion a year, which is only a little bit less than it would cost to do the entire 10 years of universal health care in terms of the bills being debated in Congress.
So people are asking budgetary questions and I think they're asking what the mission actually is. People are wondering, Democrats in Congress are wondering what the exit strategy is, what are we actually trying to achieve there? Is there even local support in Afghanistan for this.
And people are looking back and saying, is this another Vietnam. We learned a lesson in the Vietnam war about what "going all in" does when you don't have a mission and people are very, very concerned that that's exactly what this is going to be.
CHETRY: And David Frum, speaking about the cost that David Sirota is speaking about, you know, health care reform critics are making a quite convincing case that we simply can't afford to a pay for a costly reform bill while we as a nation are struggling right now with unemployment or struggling to get out of this recession. So how do the same people then say that we can afford this war that as we said is costing billions?
FRUM: Well, the national security is the first business of the government. The way you do budgeting is you say what does it cost to keep America safe and secure. You pay that bill. Then you pay for everything else after that. You don't say, well, here are the things we'd like to have, here are the decorations and the flowers in the White House and let's see if we have money left over with which to do what government exists to do.
CHETRY: And David Sirota - my other question about...
SIROTA: Can I respond to that?
CHETRY: Yes. Go for it.
SIROTA: Can I respond to that, because here's the issue here, 45,000 Americans are dying every year for lack of health care, for lack of health insurance. That is a verifiable fact. Nobody has made the case that putting more Americans at risk for death and injury in Afghanistan is going to save more than 45,000 American lives per year.
So the case to be made about what is in our "national security interest," I defy David Frum or anybody else to say that it's somehow in our national security interest to allow 45,000 Americans to die every year for lack of health insurance. At the same time, we're escalating a war in Afghanistan and the case hasn't been made about how that's going to save more than 45,000 American lives every year.
CHETRY: David Frum, weigh in.
FRUM: OK. First, that number is not a reliable number. Sorry, that's an estimate...
SIROTA: That number is from Harvard University. Tens of thousands of Americans a year.
FRUM: I went to Harvard University, believe me.
Even supposing it were true, however -- look, let me give you an accurate number. Many of tens of thousands of Americans die each year because they're overweight. Is coming up with a government policy on that a top priority over defending the nation? That's in the first line - those are the opening lines of the constitution.
SIROTA: The point is...
(CROSSTALK)
FRUM: That's why the government exists, to provide for the common defense. That's job one. It's President Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
SIROTA: ... national security of this country...
FRUM: Look, it's President Obama himself who campaigned on this issue. It is the president elected who is saying this is going to be my top priority. And the problem so many of us would like to support this president have with his policies is it sounds like what he's going to do tonight is wiggle.
That having made this commitment, he is now not going to go all in. And if you decode Robert Gibbs' interview a few minutes ago, the president is going to lay out a strategy that is the strategy we used unsuccessfully in Iraq in 2004 and 2007, which is build up the Army, go after individual terrorists, but do not provide security to the population as a whole.
That's a strategy that failed in Iraq. Who knows. Maybe it will work in Afghanistan. But there is a lot of signs of wiggle here of paying half the bill and going halfway to success and halfway to success is what's called failure.
CHETRY: And you both are highlighting exactly the struggle for this administration. I mean, who can be happy when you take a look at the situation? I mean, one thing that David Sirota is concerned about and you pointed out in a recent column is, the money that we're spending on defense, the frustration that this health care reform package is a fraction of the cost, as you are talking about, and concerns I guess that other major domestic initiatives will be sidelined.
At the same time, David Frum is saying if we don't go all in in Afghanistan, we're going to end up in a worse situation than we were in the first place. But speaking about these domestic issues, David Sirota, are you concerned that the focus of Afghanistan means forget health care reform, some of the stimulus initiatives, job creation and all of that will not be able to be paid for?
SIROTA: Well, I mean, I'm concerned about those specific items. I'm concerned about the economy as well. When we spend tens and tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars in adventurous wars like we did in Afghanistan -- like we are in Afghanistan and like we did in Iraq, we are not investing in our economy.
We are not building the economy. That is money that is sent overseas and is gone. And we need right now more than anything to be investing in priorities in this country that rebuild our economy, whether it's a stimulus package, or jobs bill or health care initiative, that's what we need right now.
CHETRY: All right. Last word, really quickly, to David Frum. The American people have seen their confidence in this war and whether or not we can win it waning. What does the president need to say tonight to convince people that this is the right move?
FRUM: Look, the people will follow their president if the president is sure and if the president offers them a plan to win. But if the president looks like he's really looking for the exits, the country will look for the exits with him.
CHETRY: All right. David Frum and David Sirota. Great to hear from both of you this morning. Thank you.
FRUM: Thank you.
SIROTA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So a lot of people out there in America have gone to a hospital and been very sick and they give them the quick test for the swine flu. And sometimes they say, yes, you got the swine flu. And sometimes they'll say no. But like there is with a quick strep test, there's problems with this swine flu quick test.
Our Elizabeth Cohen is looking into what's wrong coming right up. You'll want to hear about this.
Twenty minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes to the top of the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
In a fast-paced emergency room, if your child comes in with swine flu symptoms, doctors may get what's called a rapid test. As the name suggests, the results are quick. One problem, though, they're not always accurate.
Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen live in Atlanta this morning with one little girl's story for us. Good morning, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
John, these rapid flu tests are often wrong and many are concerned that doctors are missing the mark. They think someone doesn't have the flu when actually they're quite ill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): Medical tests are supposed to help people. But this rapid flu test may have hurt nine-year-old Haley Murphy.
(on camera): Haley wasn't just sick with H1N1. She was...
JULIE MURPHY, MOTHER: She was right there. She was on death's door.
COHEN (voice-over): Back in September, Haley first started showing signs of the flu, so her mother, Julie Murphy, took her to the emergency room.
(on camera): When you brought Haley into the emergency room the first time, they did a test and they told you...
MURPHY: She's fine. She doesn't have the flu. She's got a virus with high fever. Take her home.
COHEN (voice-over): At home, Haley's temperature climbed to 104 degrees. The next day, her mother took her back to the ER where again this rapid test said she did not have the flu.
(on camera): You expect when a test says negative that it's negative.
MURPHY: Yes.
COHEN: What did you find out?
MURPHY: I found out different.
COHEN (voice-over): The next day, Haley was so sick, her mother had to carry her into the emergency room. Haley spent the next six weeks here in intensive care. Doctors used a different, more reliable test, and it turns out Haley did have H1N1.
(on camera): This is the test that was used on Haley Murphy and twice missed her H1N1 flu. It's relatively inexpensive, it's very quick., and it's wrong a lot.
When these tests say you don't have the flu, how often are they wrong?
DR. RHONDA MEDOWS, COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH: Anywhere from 90 percent to 30 percent of the time.
COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Rhonda Medows, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health, warns doctors in her state not to use rapid flu tests because they're wrong so often.
MEDOWS: I'm telling them that they don't really need to use them. They need to focus more on their clinical exam. I don't see the value. COHEN: We contacted three big makers of rapid flu tests used in the United States. One gave us a statement. The company, BD, said, "As with other rapid tests, doctors should be aware that a negative result does not fully exclude the possibility that the patient has influenza. Following a negative rapid test, physicians have the option to proceed to more advanced tests."
Dr. Roberto Monge was one of the first doctors who treated Haley in Fort Myers, Florida.
COHEN (on camera): So twice Haley received this rapid flu test and twice it was wrong.
DR. ROBERTO MONGE, HEALTHPARK MEDICAL CENTER: This test is - is not - not as good, you know, as we would like for it to be.
COHEN: Do you think in Haley's case, this test might have misled the doctors?
MONGE: No, I don't think so. This was handled very well.
COHEN (voice-over): Monge says doctors did not solely rely on the rapid test but also on physical exams and their best judgment, all of which led them to believe Haley did not have H1N1.
COHEN (on camera): If you had listened to those tests...?
MURPHY: I would - she would have been dead the next - within the next 24 hours.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: So if you go to the emergency room or your doctor's office and you get a flu test that says you don't have the flu, how likely is it that it's wrong? One expert we said - we talked to said there's a 50/50 chance that that test is wrong, and that's why it's imperative that parents know the signs that a child has swine flu and that it's getting out of control.
You can go to cnn.com/empoweredpatient to read about and hear about all of those signs - John.
ROBERTS: Elizabeth, this sounds an awful lot like the rapid strep test where if a child comes in with a sore throat, they give a rapid - swab for the rapid strep test and they say, OK, it came back negative. But doctors have learned to go to the other test.
So - so if a - if a parent brings in a child, the rapid H1N1 comes back negative, what should a parent do? Insist on a secondary test?
COHEN: It's a little bit tough to insist on the secondary test, John, because that test is very, very expensive. It's only done at a handful of labs in the United States and it's - it's very complicated. It's not easy to do. What a parent can say is, look, doctor, I know the test says my child doesn't have the flu, but I also know that 50 percent of the time that's wrong. So let's talk about why you think my daughter doesn't have the flu or my son by looking at my child. Forget about the test. Look at my child and tell me why you think my child doesn't have the flu.
ROBERTS: All right. So then if the doctor conducts a physical examination, looks at the child and says, you know, I - I still don't think the child has the flu, but you're convinced, what do you do then?
COHEN: What you need to do is you need to be specific about what you're seeing in your child. Say, I have seen my child day after day go downhill. I'm seeing this symptom and this symptom and this symptom.
Be specific. If they're lethargic, say they're lethargic. If they're having trouble breathing, mention that. You have to be specific and you have to advocate for your child.
ROBERTS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Some good advice. Thanks very much, Elizabeth.
Tomorrow, what should you look for? How do you know if your child has the seasonal flu or if it could be the swine flu? Elizabeth will go with a pediatrician to the home of a child sick with H1N1. That's right here tomorrow on the Most News in the Morning -Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. And still ahead, Tiger Watch, I guess you could call it. YouTube now teaming with Tiger humor and advice after Friday night's crash. Jeanne Moos with her take coming up.
Forty-eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: That's a pretty shot this morning of New York City and the Hudson River.
It's 51 minutes past the hour right now. Sunny and 36 degrees. Got a lot chilly in just a day, didn't it? A lot chillier in just a day. Yesterday it was nice and 50 degrees and now it's quite cold. Anyway, going up to a high of 48 today. I guess we'll take it.
ROBERTS: Why not?
CHETRY: It's December 1st.
ROBERTS: Better than 6 inches of snow, right?
CHETRY: Yes. Absolutely. Much better than that.
Rob Marciano is tracking all of this for us this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT) CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: So, after Friday morning's incident, of course, the internet is abuzz with what's going on with Tiger and what happened outside of his home when he got into an accident without really leaving his driveway.
Our Jeanne Moos takes a look as only our Jeanne Moos can, coming right up after the break.
It's now 6 minutes to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
He's not talking and now he's not playing. Tiger Woods will not appear at his own charity golf tournament this weekend because of injuries from his car wreck.
CHETRY: Yes, the one-car crash right outside of his driveway. Of course, it's still shrouded in mystery and a lot of questions and all kinds of speculation about what happened and why.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prepare for the "Tiger should have used a driver" jokes, for the headline puns, for the instant polls. "Is Tiger hiding something?" asked TMZ. "Yes," said practically everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something's fishy.
MOOS: Here come the juvenile web videos, featuring everything from a tiger puppet...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a cheater?
MOOS: ... to Barbie Dolls in an imagined reenactment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got five seconds to get out of here before I start smashing your precious Escalade with your 3-iron. . MOOS: Reenacters on YouTube went into overdrive, donning Tiger masks and getting behind the wheel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave Tiger alone!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave him (ph) alone!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's none of our business. Until he comes forward and say I'm getting beat up by my wife, let him do what he got to do.
MOOS (on camera): We in the mainstream media can't resist the story. We're being extra careful, using all kinds of wiggle words.
MATT LAUER, THE TODAY SHOW: ... that perhaps linked...
JOY BEHAR, PANELIST, THE VIEW: If that's true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's true.
MOOS (voice-over): But comedians don't have to tiptoe.
WANDA SYKES, FOX LATE NIGHT HOST: She gets mad, punches Tiger in the mouth. Tiger goes, "Oh, [bleep], let me get out of here before I kill this [bleep]."
MOOS: Regular folks had their own theories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that he left in what Clouseau used to call "a writ of felous jadge."
PETER SELLERS, ACTOR, A SHOT IN THE DARK: And killed him in a writ of felous jadge!
MOOS: People were skeptical about Tiger's story...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd never use a golf club in a rescue.
MOOS (on camera): And do you think she tried to rescue him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Or, no, I think maybe she tried to hit the car.
MOOS (voice-over): The "Metro" newspaper provided advice on which golf club to use if your man's been chasing the wrong kind of birdies, and in a bit of advertising irony, this ad for Accenture ran Monday, "The road to high performance isn't always paved."
But what seemed to strike most folks...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had (ph) a golf club and -
MOOS: ...was the use of the club.
MOOS (on camera): But do you think that she tried to rescue him with that golf club?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she was trying to bury it somewhere.
MOOS (voice-over): Could Tiger have been laid low by a piece of equipment that's taken him to such heights?
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Did we - did we ever find out what type of club it was?
CHETRY: No. ROBERTS: Is it just like a low iron, like a 3-iron or was it a (INAUDIBLE)...
CHETRY: Was it a 9-iron?
ROBERTS: ... with a big, fat bounce on the bottom to...?
CHETRY: I'm not sure. What did you say? Rescue club. All right. Well, we'll see about that one.
I'm always - you know, I always think it's amazing how quickly these things pop up on YouTube. I mean, how fast people just turn this stuff around the pop culture machine.
ROBERTS: Well, you know, it was a holiday. People were sitting around the house, didn't have anything else to do, so -
CHETRY: All right. We're going to take a quick break. We're back in 90 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
