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American Morning

More Troops to Afghanistan; U.S. Troops Surge in Afghanistan; Dow at 10,471; Peace Building in Afghanistan; Windows Gone Wild

Aired December 02, 2009 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning on this Wednesday, the 2nd of December. Good to have you with us. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We have some big stories we're going to be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.

Our top story: President Obama laying out his new strategy for Afghanistan. Thirty thousand more troops, the first wave to be on the ground this month.

In a moment, will this be the decision that defines President Obama's time in office? And will the surge work?

ROBERTS: From the battlefields of Afghanistan to small town street corners here in the United States, the world is talking about the president's battle plan this morning. Ahead -- we'll have reaction from the front lines of the war, the people who are being asked to pay for it, and the man in charge of running it, General David Petraeus.

CHETRY: And markets overseas picking up where Wall Street left off. The Dow is opening this morning at levels not seen in 14 months. What is fueling this surge? And what is it all mean for your money and your financial future? Our CNN Money team is standing by with details.

But first, we begin with the first day in a new chapter for the war in Afghanistan. This morning, a war-weary public and divided Congress reacting to President Obama's announcement, one that requires 30,000 new troops but comes with an expiration date: July 2011.

And as President Obama spoke to the West Point cadets last night, he addressed the difficulties and the dangers that lie ahead, and also, the burdens a wartime president must bear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And as commander-in-chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interests to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.

I see firsthand the terrible wages of war. If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow. So, no, I do not make this decision lightly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And now that the president has outlined his Afghanistan strategy, the responsibility for implementing it and making it work belongs to General Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus. Petraeus got a great deal of credit for recommending a troop surge in Iraq in 2007 and turning that war around.

Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, I asked the general if 30,000 reinforcements can work the same way in Afghanistan especially on such a tight timetable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, EARLIER ON AMERICAN MORNING)

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: If we indeed are seen by the Afghan people to be helping them realize a better future for themselves and their families, then they will welcome that. If we are helping to improve security, to make their lives better, then they will support not just us but the Afghan authorities, Afghan forces, and the new Afghanistan. There are also very clearly irreconcilables -- these are never going to support the new Afghanistan and they have to be killed, captured or run off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, making the troop surge work is one of many challenges now facing the Obama administration. Will Congress open up the purse strings to pay for it? And will the American people be patient enough to give it time to take? War protests are already springing up across the country.

CHETRY: And joining us now to break it all down: we have Nic Robertson with us, CNN senior international correspondent; and also, CNN senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley.

Thanks to both of you for being with us.

And let me start with you, Nic, this time. What -- what did you make of it? What were the things that stood out to you last night when the president announced this strategy for adding more troops but also putting an expiration date on it?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think several things. I mean, one, I think, the Taliban will look at this and say, "OK, we can outwait you." And I also thought that a lot of the problem that exists, this threat from al Qaeda and the training camps that they have, that threat is across the border in Pakistan.

And if you look at the people who have been arrested in the United States recently, planning attacks, they've been to training -- al Qaeda training camps inside Pakistan. And there's a limit to what the United States can do. Its mandate runs up to the border essentially apart from the drone attacks, the UAV attacks along the border.

So, while we're ramping up troops in Afghanistan, we're relying on a very fragile government in Pakistan to really perform -- the very, very sharp end where we really needed them to, to close these camps.

ROBERTS: Candy Crowley, up until now, Afghanistan has been known as President Bush's war. President Obama inherited it on January 20th. After the announcement last night, does he now own it?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think they will try their best not to. I think you saw in the speech last night that there were, again, references to -- well, this was handled so badly and that's why we've got this mess, and now, we have to clean it up -- which has been sort of a standard fare for the Obama administration in this first year.

But practically speaking, if you send 30,000 more U.S. troops and now, more than half of the U.S. troops that are going to be in Afghanistan will have been sent there by President Obama, it's pretty much his war. And I think you saw that as he -- and for reasons I think that Nic just described -- this was probably a better political speech than policy speech simply because he did address some of the concerns about this war, the protesters on the street as well as those on Capitol Hill, by saying, "Well, we have to -- we have to send more troops in order to bring them home" -- which has sort of some shades of a "burning down the village to save it" sort of rationale.

But nonetheless, I mean, he was addressing his critics saying, "I realize that we need to bring them home that's why I'm sending more," as well as addressing his supporters saying, "But it's in the U.S. interests, that's why we're there. It's not propping up the Afghan government. It's about our safety at home."

So, he clearly has a political line to walk here because you're absolutely right, it is his war and oh, by the way, next year, it's going to be the Democrats' war and next year is an election year on Capitol Hill. So, you have to keep that in mind as you listen to the reaction on Capitol Hill.

CHETRY: It's also interesting -- as Candy was pointing out -- the president was quick to say this is to take care of us at home and for safety and national security here at home. Yet, a lot of the success of this depends on whether the Afghan troops and the Afghan national army can get themselves up to speed to take over for their own country.

How big of a challenge is that going to pose our troops that are going there and the ones that are already there?

ROBERTSON: It's huge. The aspirations to build the army up there to 134,000, to build the police up much further, this rapid training -- I think you can put guys in the classroom, if you can find people who have the basic education and the basic commitment to the nation that tends not to be prevalent in Afghanistan, people are committed to their tribes and their regions. If you get the classrooms, you've still got to build barracks for them.

I mean, where do you put these soldiers that you rapidly training? And these building and facilities don't exist, the infrastructure to support them, the communications, the vehicles -- all of this has to be built as well for a force to be effective on the ground.

And, oh, yes, you've got to control the highways that they drive down. Obviously, that is -- that is also part of the strategy. Control the major highway between Kabul and Kandahar, and Kandahar and the west of the country. But the troops, the Afghan troops that you're putting out there, there just isn't an infrastructure yet in place for them.

ROBERTS: Candy, we did some dial testing last night. Our Jim Acosta found some surprising results that for the most part, Republicans appreciated what the president was doing. Republicans in this focus group appreciated what the president was doing more than the Democrats did.

CROWLEY: I think you showed that on Capitol Hill as well...

ROBERTS: Yes.

CROWLEY: ... in their own dial test.

ROBERTS: So, Senator Feingold is against this. Congresswoman Jane Harman is against this troop surge as well. She thinks it's going to do more harm than good.

Are they just making noise or could members of the president's own party actually be a problem for him in prosecuting this war and making this surge work?

CROWLEY: I think that they are a problem for him in the sense that they were going -- they are going to be out there and talking about it.

I think, practically speaking, the president will get the money he needs. This is an ongoing war. This is not a war he's starting and therefore we need a resolution of war. This is a war that's there, that he is saying, "Look, we're going to get out of it, but I need to send these troops here."

I think, actually, he's more a problem for them than they are for him, simply because they're the ones that have to go and get re- elected.

ROBERTS: Yes, they're the ones running.

CROWLEY: Exactly.

ROBERTS: Candy, thanks.

CHETRY: All right. Candy Crowley as well as Nic Robertson -- great to have your perspective this morning. Both of you, thanks so much.

And coming up in just a few minutes, we're going to be joined by Zalmay Khalilzad. He's the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. And we're also talking with former Defense Secretary William Cohen. We're going to get their take on how the president's plan is likely to play with the Afghan people, our troops on the front lines and then bringing Pakistan into this as well. What do we need from our ally there?

Also, at the bottom of the hour, "New York Times" op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman is going to be joining us. He's going to tell us why he thinks that the Obama war strategy might be misguided.

Also, at 8:45 Eastern, author Greg Mortenson is here. He spent a lot of time opening schools in Afghanistan. He wrote the book "Three Cups of Tea," which is now a required reading for people going to Afghanistan to help. He's going to be talking about what essential ingredients are needed to build a lasting peace in that nation.

ROBERTS: Also developing this morning, the Atlanta mayor's race looks like it's headed for a recount. The two candidates separated by only 620 votes this morning. Former State Senator Kasim Reed has the slight lead in yesterday's runoff election. Councilwoman Mary Norwood says she is not conceding and is open to a recount. Norwood is trying to become the city's first white mayor in 35 years.

CHETRY: Well, in e-mails that have just surfaced between the White House party crashers and a Pentagon official, Tareq and Michaele Salahi claim that they missed a voice mail telling them not to come to last Thursday's state dinner. In the exchange, the couple says that they showed up just in case their invitation went through. They claim that their names were on the invite list, it's something that the Secret Service denies.

ROBERTS: Tiger Woods legal troubles appear to be over this morning. And according to his attorney, Woods has paid a $164 fine for careless driving and will have to deal with a 4-point infraction on his driver's license. The Florida Highway Patrol says its investigation is over. So, $164 for careless driving in a vehicle, careless driving on the golf course cost him a lot more than that.

CHETRY: Yes, that's very true, very true.

Well, still ahead: the shoe is on the other foot, I guess you can say. You remember the Iraqi journalist jailed for hurling his shoe at former President Bush. Well, the same thing happened to him. Duck and cover yet again.

ROBERTS: What were the top searches on Yahoo! in 2009? You might be surprised. We'll tell you what the people were looking for on the Internet.

CHETRY: That's right. And also, we're going to be speaking once again to Ambassador Khalilzad, as well as former Defense Secretary William Cohen about the Afghan plan. What are the implications? And did the president make his case?

Ten and a half minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHETRY: And welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're coming up on 13 past the hour right now.

President Obama presenting his war plan to Congress, and the American people, and our troops on the front lines, and the world. The president wanting 30,000 soldiers to ship out as soon as possible, and he wants them to get the job done quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: These additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Here to help break down the president's war plan are two men who have their quite unique insights. Zalmay Khalilzad, a former -- is the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ambassador, great to have you with us this morning.

And we also have former Defense Secretary William Cohen, now, chairman of the Cohen Group.

Secretary Cohen, great to see you as well.

And I'd like to start with you, Secretary Cohen, your reaction to the outline of the strategy for Afghanistan. Will this work?

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, we don't know if it's going to work. But what we do know, according to General McChrystal, that the current strategy is not going to be sustainable because we don't have the resources necessary to carry out a counterinsurgency strategy.

So, the status quo was not acceptable, the president had the choice of either pulling troops out and just saying, "You're on your own," or trying this increase on a temporary basis to see if we can at least to give some incentive to the Karzai government to start making the kind of changes that need to be made, and also sending a signal to Pakistan that they have to change their way of conducting the counterinsurgency strategy as well on their side of the border.

CHETRY: And, Mr. Ambassador, the president is also saying that he wants to start pulling out troops in about a year and a half, in July of 2011. And there's been some criticism from that, saying that if you put down a deadline, all you're doing is telling the Taliban and al Qaeda forces to wait it out.

What's your take on whether or not a timeline is effective?

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN: I think I understand the president's reason for having that timeline, in part domestic and in part also perhaps to incentivize the Afghan government to get back together.

But I believe that it sent the wrong message as far as the Taliban and the regional players are concerned. They are likely to see this as lacking the resolve to stay the course for the long-term. The Taliban have always said that the United States has all the watches but they have all the time. Their strategy is to -- could be to wait us out. So, I am concerned about that.

CHETRY: And, Secretary Cohen, our correspondents on the ground in Afghanistan have outlined many of the challenges and seen them first-hand facing our U.S. forces not only in fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but in training the Afghan army and getting police up to speed and getting the infrastructure there, in many cases you are dealing with rural areas where there's not a lot of literacy, in some areas it's a matter of not being able to have enough translators to even start the training. How do you tackle all of that within this time frame, it seems pretty tight.

KHALILZAD: I may be mistaken on this, but in terms of the time frame and the increase or the surge in troops, my understanding is that that limitation, starting in 18 months to two years, would be my understanding, rather than saying there is a hard and fast 18 months, but assuming there is a reduction in the numbers of troops I don't believe that the President has the intent of removing all of our troops in that region.

I think what he has sent a signal to the region is we're there for the long term, not in the numbers that he is suggesting today but there will be a significant residual force of American troops and hopefully NATO and other troops that will be in that region by virtue of the fact it's such a tinder box and will remain so for many years to come.

So, there is a long term strategy in terms of a presence there, but a reduction in the surge numbers and the surge numbers designed to provide an immediate jolt to say can we turn the momentum around and give -- and put the Al Qaeda and some of the Taliban on the move in the other direction now to try and capture, kill them, and in the process try to change the minds of those in the troubled provinces.

CHETRY: And Mr. Ambassador, some of the other challenges of course the Karzai government right now, last time you were there, what was your sense of the assurances that our government has gotten from President Karzai that yes, they can do this, they can be strong enough partners and that the central government isn't too weak to help make this surge work? KHALILZAD: Well, of course at times in the past we have worked very well with President Karzai and his government and in recent times this has been a difficult relationship. I believe that there is a need to reach a clear understanding with the Afghan government as to an exchange for what we're doing, what it is that they will do and if you like a timeline of action by the Afghan government. I think this is going to be one of the most difficult issues facing the president's strategy, to get the Afghan government to do what our strategy now requires, quite a lot in a very short period of time. And I think this is going to be one of the main challenges facing the president.

CHETRY: Well, I want to thank -- go ahead. Quickly. Go ahead.

SECRETARY WILLIAM COHEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE COHEN GROUP: We have to send that signal that we don't have that much time. I think Tom Friedman is coming along he's going to point out we're bleeding here at home. So, we can't have an open-ended commitment of that magnitude without dealing with the domestic problem, and that is our deficit and growing credit problems, et cetera.

So, there has to be some timelines and I think it's the right signal to say that there is a limitation here, and we need your help and we need you to move as quickly as possible.

CHETRY: Yes, and I think that's the fine line the President was trying to balance last night as he tried to explain his reasoning moving forward in Afghanistan. Secretary Cohen and Ambassador Khalilzad, great to have both of you with us today. Thanks so much.

And also we want to know what you think. You can weigh in on our blog, cnn.com/amfix and also for all of the news happening in Afghanistan head to cnn.com/afghanistan, first person accounts from the front lines and much more, from the worldwide leader in news.

ROBERTS: The markets going up despite the crisis in Dubai last week that had sort of shaken a bit of confidence. Where are they going to go to today? Our Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business." She'll check in with us in just a couple of minutes. 19 minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, THE TONIGHT SHOW HOST: The Florida highway patrol says it will give Tiger Woods a careless driving citation that will cost him $164. Yes. Tiger was shocked and said I didn't know they made money that small. I had no idea.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're watching what has been a gold rush on Wall Street. The price for precious metals and particularly gold pushing into record territory again yesterday. Surging above $1200 an ounce for the very first time. The climb coming after concerns of weakness in the U.S. dollar.

CHETRY: Still amazing to see all those gold bars. You know, it doesn't even look real, does it? Grab a couple of them, you have got 3,000 bucks in your pocket. They will weigh you down a little though. A move that stunned the auto industry, General Motors CEO, Fritz Henderson, out after eight months on the job. He took over in March, back when the government forced out Rick Wagner, the Obama administration says the latest change was entirely the board's decision. Board chairman, by the way, Ed Whitaker is going to be taking over as interim CEO.

ROBERTS: And the late King of Pop is now the King of Yahoo! after news of Michael Jackson's sudden death, the entertainer became Yahoo's top search term for the past year. Jackson's rise to number one put an end to Britney Spears' four-year reign and helped bump President Obama from the top ten.

CHETRY: There you go. All right. Stephanie Elam is here "minding Your Business". She joins us now with more on a lot of things that we've been talking about including that big, big rally that doesn't show any signs of going anywhere.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Looks like it's going to be another good month, which will be a nice way to end the decade, this horrible decade we're talking about, it looks like it will end in a better note.

But, take a look at where the Dow is starting today, at a 14-month high, you take a look at the charts, since March 9 when we hit our market lows, we have had a nice little run up here from 6,547 to yesterday's close at 10,471. The Dow up nearly 60% during that time, NASDAQ up 72% and the S&P 500 up 64% over that period.

So yesterday's number for the Dow was the best showing that we've seen since October 2, 2008. So a lot has changed over that time. You remember this time last year people were feeling extremely nervous, not that all of the nerves are out of the market now, but things are looking a little bit better there.

And I can tell you that there were a few things that played into this. The fact that we were talking about the whole Dubai credit crisis seemed to be an issue, this debt issue, whether or not they were going to pay it back or not, that seemed to be completely contained in other parts of the world. Not a lot of exposure here in the United States, that is easing people's nerves here. Also you did see that little bit about gold there, people concerned about the weak dollar going to gold. That's one factor.

And then also pending home sales yesterday hitting a nine-month high in October so showing that we're all of our crisis started in the housing market things are looking a little bit more stable there. But, John and Kiran, as we talked about all the time here, you've got the numbers looking better on the Dow, which is a leading indicator, one of the first things to turn around in the market. But, if you take a look at the jobs which is one of the lagging indicators, one of the last things to turn around, still about 10 percent. It's still a really high number so there's still a lot of nerves in the marketplace.

But today it's looking pretty mixed right now. Not looking like we're going to see a big jump in the numbers.

ROBERTS: All right. Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Thanks so much. There are a lot of people who are plotting the President's new strategy in Afghanistan, there are some people, though, who aren't happy with it, downright disagree with it. One of those people is coming up on the Most News in the Morning. "New York Times" columnist Tom Friedman joins us in just a few minutes.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: 28 minutes past the hour. We took our top stories now, Iran has released five British sailors who were captured last week when their racing yacht apparently entered Iranian waters. Iran's news agency says, the men were let go after interrogators determined that their entry into Iran's territory had been a mistake.

The army is ordering a mental evaluation for the man accused in last month's shooting spree at Fort Hood. Major Nidal Hasan's lawyer says the military wants a formal psychiatric review to determine whether Hasan can stand trial. Hasan is charged with 13 counts of pre-meditated murder. His lawyer says the exam is premature because his client is still in intensive care and could face more charges.

It seems like what goes around, comes around, Mumtazer Al Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Former President Bush was nearly beaned with a shoe at a Paris press conference Tuesday thrown by a man claiming to be an Iraqi journalist in exile. Al Zaidi became a hero to many in the Arab world after throwing insults along with his size 10s at our Former President last December. He served nine months in prison for that move. John.

ROBERTS: Well, there is a new way forward in Afghanistan. President Obama says he hopes 30,000 extra American troops can turn the tide there and do it in the next 18 months. Our next guest says we should be thinking about making our footprint smaller there, not bigger. He is New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. Tom, good to see you again.

TOM FRIEDMAN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" COLUMNIST: Good to be here, John. Thank you.

ROBERTS: So, why do you think that your column was about this today in the New York Times. Why do you not agree with the President's plans?

FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, first of all, this is a very close call. I think the President is doing the best he can given the circumstances. My sense about it John, is this. What is the President basically arguing is that we need to get a surge in Afghanistan like we got in Iraq. That's really when changed began in Iraq in our favor. What he says, in attempts to get that surge, basically have to do is rebuild the Afghan government.

Because right now, the Afghan people don't trust their government led by Karzai. It's been corrupt. It's been venire. It has not delivered. So the basic Obama argument is we got to go in, rebuild the Afghan government and the people will support the government, join the army and they will in effect lead the surge against the Taliban. Well, that's good work if you can get it. I think, it's a huge investment.

It's not illogical, it's not crazy but my argument, John, is at a time when we desperately need nation building at home, should we be doing nation building in Afghanistan? Is there a smaller, more limited way to do it. Work with the regional leaders, pay them off, do what you need to do, keep Al Qaeda out of the country? The president says that's his main focus, depriving Afghanistan from Al Qaeda.

ROBERTS: That's part of the plan at least. You had lunch with him yesterday. He sat as close as we are together to you and he still couldn't convince you.

FRIEDMAN: No. Well, I had written this actually before lunch. I mean, I had written this a couple weeks ago. I was just in the wake of his speech saying it again. So it takes more than some sea bass to change my mind.

So I thought about this. Look, it's a very hard call. I think you have to be humble about. It's not like I think, boy, I'm sure I got this right, I'm sure he's got it wrong. This is about nuance.

It's really me saying in the balance of all of these things, what we need here at home, what would require to change Afghanistan, I'd opt for small there and big here, rather than try to do big there and big here.

ROBERTS: You raise concerns about doing big everywhere and the amount of money that it takes to do big. In your column today you say that you're worried about the U.S. becoming weak and feeble by economic decline and debt, which may allow other nations like Russia, China, Iran, to start assuming a leadership role.

And you say that when the U.S. is not in a leadership role, bad things can happen.

FRIEDMAN: A lot of bad things happen in the world without us. But not a lot of good things, not winning World War II or the Marshall plan or protecting the sea lanes of Asia. And we are the straw that stirs the drink. And if we are weak, if you didn't like a too strong America, I say to the rest of the world, you really wouldn't like a too weak America.

ROBERTS: You pointed out in many columns, and one I particularly liked, the way America is deteriorating in terms of infrastructure. You took a flight from Hong Kong, went to the new airport there, and landed at JFK, and you say it was like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. FRIEDMAN: You feel it more and more when you're in Asia. Buildings are modern, steel, glass, lights, a sense of growth and dynamism.

And I took the train yesterday from Washington to New York, and your cell phone goes out 15 times in three hours.

ROBERTS: You're going 85 miles an hour instead doing 200.

FRIEDMAN: I can ride on a donkey from Huran to Shanghai and get better cell phone reception.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Back to Afghanistan. The president saying that he wants to begin to draw down troops July of 2011, drawing a lot of fire from Republicans. But does that give you confidence that this is not a blank check, not an open-ended commitment here?

FRIEDMAN: What will make this work, I think there are three determinants that will make this work, the president's plan. One, you have to have a different Karzai. The reason we have this problem you have a corrupt government that has alienated the people.

Two, you had to have a different Pakistan. Pakistan is playing a double game. They support Taliban in Afghanistan to control that place, and they fight Taliban in Pakistan. You can't play that double game.

And you need different allies. We have to have allies who are with us and not just symbolically.

So that's the president's bet. His bet is I can change the Karzai government, change Pakistan, and get the allies I need to buy the time I need to trigger that Afghan surge.

ROBERTS: We should mention that Tom is here today because his famous book has come out in paperback version. Of course, it's not just a reissue, you updated the thing.

You talk a lot about the greening of the economy and the way that if America starts looking at alternative fuel sources, alternative energy sources, greening up the economy, that we can potentially change things around the world because we take a lot of the oil revenue away from the despotic regimes that are keeping their people suppressed.

There's a job summit coming up on Thursday at the White House. They will talk a lot about green jobs. But does America really have enough of a commitment, Tom, to greening this economy, searching for alternative forms of energy? It's kind of like we heard a lot about it when gas was $4 a gallon but we don't hear much about it now.

FRIEDMAN: We're investing a lot in the stimulus in green, but what really will launch a green revolution is a gasoline tax or a carbon tax. I live in Montgomery County, Maryland where gasoline was $4.50 a gallon. You couldn't buy a Toyota Prius in Montgomery County, Maryland. They wouldn't take names on the waiting list anymore.

When gas is $2 a gallon you can't sell a Toyota hybrid Prius in Montgomery County, Maryland.

ROBERTS: You can sell a lot of pickups.

FRIEDMAN: Exactly. So it's really price matters. And until and unless we imposed that fixed long term durable price signal, we will not have a green revolution at the scale we need. We'll have hobbies. I like hobbies. I used to build model airplanes. I don't try to climate or energy policy as a hobby.

ROBERTS: You could get that donkey back from China.

(LAUGHTER)

FRIEDMAN: With my cell phone.

ROBERTS: Tom Friedman, it's always great to see you.

FRIEDMAN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Thanks so much for dropping by.

Tom Friedman's bestselling book, by the way, as we said, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" now out in paperback. And not just a reissue of the original one, this is updated, what do you call it version 2.0. He's got some additional thoughts in there, so well worth picking up. Tom, great to see you. Thanks so much.

FRIEDMAN: Thanks for having me.

ROBERTS: Kiran?

CHETRY: Yet another take on what it will take to make things work in Afghanistan. We'll be joined by author Greg Mortensen. He wrote the bestseller "Three Cups of Tea," helped build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He talks about the essential element to peace -- education.

Also we have Rob Marciano standing by with extreme weather information for us, including a tornado threat in the southeast. He'll have details on that.

And also, a Marilyn Monroe unscripted. A new home video surfaces. This is the first time many have seen it. We'll show it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 5:38 in San Francisco this morning. Good morning if you're up. It's cloudy, 46 degrees right now, partly cloudy, going up to 60 for a high today. Last fast forward through some of the stories that will be making news later today. This morning at 10:00 eastern, the controversial breast cancer screening recommendations by a government task force will now be the focus of a subcommittee hearing.

You remember the task force said women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms if they don't have a family history of breast cancer and instead wait until they are 50 to get them.

Baltimore's mayor is promising to fight a guilty verdict for taking gift cards intended for the city's needy children. Sheila Dixon was cleared yesterday of three other charges, but this single conviction could force her from office. Prosecutors say she Dixon the gift cards to buy an X-Box and a PlayStation 2 for herself.

A sure sign the holidays are here. It is time to light the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. This is the 76-foot Norway spruce this year coming from Connecticut. It's going to be lit up with more than 30,000 bulbs, so it should be pretty cool.

And then the good news, a lot of people say you cut down the tree, it's up for a couple months, and what a waste. They are going to reuse it. Habitat for Humanity is going to recycle it.

ROBERTS: Excellent. They are going to plant it in somebody's yard?

CHETRY: They are going to make a yard, or at least a house.

ROBERTS: Some pine straw there, some lumber. It will be terrific.

A new home movie of Marilyn Monroe unscripted has surfaced. The quick clip from the 50s shows her acting casually on the couch with friends, smoking, drinking wine. The copyright to the film will be offered on eBay this week by a collector who paid $250,000 for it.

The Macy's window display, world famous here in New York City. Well, move over Macy's, because we have a different display to show you.

And we're tracking some extreme weather that's developing in the south that's going to cause problems down there today and maybe some problems up there in the northeast in the next few days. Our Rob Marciano is tracking that for us. He'll have it for us coming up right after the break.

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ROBERTS: They are relaying in New Orleans. It's cloudy and 57, and later on today, windy with a high of 57. Not exactly a great day.

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CHETRY: NASA is breathing a sigh of relief this morning. Scientists have kept a close eye as a chunk of space debris cruised by the international space station while the two crewman on board were sound asleep. The so-called space junk is really an old piece of a Russian rocket only about four inches wide.

NASA said it passed just over a half a mile from the station.

ROBERTS: That's a close call in space terms.

CHETRY: Yes. But even and just thinking four inches wide could make such...

ROBERTS: Huge. Specks of dust can go through things.

CHETRY: Amazing.

ROBERTS: They're traveling very quickly.

CHETRY: The fact that they can keep an eye on it from that far away is also amazing.

ROBERTS: And it's pretty amazing, too isn't it?

CHETRY: Well, still ahead. We're going to be speaking with Greg Mortenson. You may remember him, he wrote the bestseller "Three Cups of Tea"; a required reading now for all officers and counter insurgency training in Afghanistan. He has a new book now, "Stones into Schools" and he talks about the need to promote peace with books, not bombs.

We're going to talk to him about what he thinks about the surge strategy and what needs to go along with it to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan.

It's 45 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Its 48 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

Along with 30,000 more troops the president's new Afghanistan strategy also calls for what he referred to as a civilian surge, a tripling of the number of people on the ground that are trying to help build infrastructure and lead to a lasting peace.

Greg Mortenson has spent a lot of time building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He's also the co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and has a new book, this picks up where the bestseller "Three Cups of Tea" left off, I guess you could say, "Stones into Schools: Promoting peace with books, not bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

And Greg, it's our pleasure to have you with us this morning.

GREG MORTENSON, AUTHOR, "STONES INTO SCHOOLS": Thank you, Kiran.

CHETRY: I'm sure you were listening closely last night when the president laid out this new strategy for Afghanistan. You are somebody that is extremely familiar with the country and has an opinion about what it's going to take to be a success. What did you think of what the president proposed?

MORTENSON: Well, unfortunately I was giving a talk last night so I'm going to have to catch up, what I did I like catch up a little this morning. The surge, a lot of it is based on McChrystal report.

One thing that I have great respect for the military; General McChrystal and the military met extensively with the tribal elders. And unfortunately, I think that the decision made by our government, the missing component is that the elders, the Shiras (ph) weren't involved in that decision.

I think their voice needs to be heard. This is not the central government; these are the tribal elders who over thousands of years have had power there.

The other thing that is important to consider is there's a lot of good things happening in Afghanistan. In 2000 there were 800,000 children in school. Today there are 8.5 million children in school including 2.5 million females.

There is a central banking system. There is an Eisenhower air road building program. Many of these things happened while we were busy off in Iraq and Afghanistan was on the back seat.

So, I do think there will be some things happening, unfortunately it's going -- the tension, the violence will escalate...

CHETRY: Right.

MORTENSON: ... more U.S. soldiers will be killed but I do think there needs -- absolutely needs to be an emphasis so that every child can go to school. If you educate a girl you educate a community. And I really think the long term solution needs to focus on education.

CHETRY: You know, when you talk about education, there are some key women's groups especially for Afghanistan that say we don't want to go backwards in terms of progress. They are very concerned that if we do outline an exit strategy and let's say we do start a drawdown in 2011 that Afghanistan is going to fall right back into a pattern that we saw under the Taliban in which women and girls were subject to violence and were held down in society.

How do we make sure that doesn't happen? You mentioned the progress made and of course more needs to be done, to get education and to be able to have both sexes in Afghanistan, boys and girls, feel safe and be able to be part of their community.

MORTENSON: Well, it's -- if you have the relationships, you don't necessarily sometimes have to have foreign military troops. So the elders were ensured that the schools are safe, Thomas Friedman you had on earlier, we were just speaking about that. He has visited our schools. The -- though, when we set up our schools we give the skilled labor, the materials, and obviously the teacher training but the community has to give free land, free resources and free (INAUDIBLE) so what that does is it get as local buy-in.

And one of the main problems I see is that the U.S. we're too busy just throwing money at problems. You have to get reciprocal agreements from the country, from the provinces and get the local buy- in. And unless that happens, you don't really get the viability or sustainable of a project like a school.

CHETRY: Well, we saw one report, in fact, where one of our correspondents was there as the military leaders our U.S. troops were going there to talk to tribal elders. And in one of the cases there was still a fear of the Taliban, a fear that he would be -- there would be repercussions, that he would be killed if he appeared to be cooperating with U.S. forces.

How do we make a dent in that? I understand that we are going to be bringing a surge of troops in and are going to be able to protect some of these areas more. But is that enough?

MORTENSON: Well, I think, if the local Shira (ph) the elders are involved they will protect the school with their life. One of our schools, we've only had one school attacked by the Taliban. The local Shira got together, they came in and they killed two Taliban and they now appointed 12 guards there. And their orders are if anybody harms any girl, any teacher, just shoot them. You know that's not how we run a school but because of the local buy-in they are willing to protect the school with their lives.

And again, I think it's about we have to listen more, we have to build relationships and we have to have respect.

We are there to serve the good people of the country, but their voice does need to be heard and especially I think the children need to have that right to go to school.

CHETRY: And for people sitting at home saying we are facing a terrible situation here in our own country, we have a jobless rate now above 10 percent in double digits, we have so many people struggling, homes foreclosing.

Why should I care about what's going on thousands of miles away in Afghanistan? And why should my money and resources that's coming out of my local community and our troops go over there?

MORTENSON: Well, the world is a global community. I think we can spend 99 pennies here in the U.S., 99 workers can stay here, but one penny out of one dollar could go overseas and one person per hundred and just even with that small formula I really think a big difference could be made. You know just one percent.

I have two children, my kids go to school and we struggle with funding especially in public schools. But I do think at least some, one percent I think is a key, that we'd have a good formula and... CHETRY: Keep it in perspective, right?

MORTENSON: ... yes the perspective.

CHETRY: Well, we see how much difference just you as one person had been able to make in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, building more than 130 schools to date.

It's great to have you with us, Greg. Thanks so much.

MORTENSON: Thank you so much.

CHETRY: And again you can check out his new book, Greg Mortenson, author of "Stones into Schools" and it's -- your first book required reading for people dealing with the counter insurgency, so a lot of good stuff here.

Thanks Greg.

MORTENSON: Well, thank you very much. Thanks.

CHETRY: John.

ROBERTS: Well, it's not exactly a miracle on 34th Street, unless of course you're talking about a miracle bra. Our Jeanne Moos with the latest twist on window dressing coming up right after the break.

It's 55 minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's not your mother's holiday window display, not by a long shot. It might be your father's, though.

CHETRY: Exactly. And his cell phone camera. One New York City store is drawing big crowds because of the window undressing that's going on. A little bit more peep show than Winter Wonderland and Jeanne Moos has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The traditional Santa in the window is known for his red outfit. But changing outfits is what the women in this window are known for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable. They should do it on every corner.

MOOS: Here at the corner of 38th and 5th Avenue they are changing their clothes at night, they're changing their clothes during the day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we change as soon as the shirt comes off the crowd triples.

MOOS: They are this season's hit holiday windows.

Spectators are sparse at the department store windows across the street. But here there's a constant crowd, mostly male, pressing up against the glass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What could be more Christmas than two beautiful women?

MOOS: In bath robes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In bath robes.

MOOS: Brushing each other's hair, jumping on the couch, kissing the mirror, tossing their hair. They are actually promoting a clothing line, XoXo, but once you step in this window...

I'm feeling very overdressed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Take it off.

MOOS: They are under instructions not to interact with the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I don't make eye contact but I see them in the corner of my eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can cheat by looking in the mirror.

MOOS: The show goes both ways, looking in and looking out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They write notes and press it up to the window.

MOOS: What kind of note?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have yet to read it.

MOOS: We're pretty sure they are not like the letters to Santa in Macy's windows.

See how they preen. Santa doesn't get requests like this. Put on the shoes. Put on the shoes. That would be the high heels. And when Helena zipped up Nicky, brakes squealed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have the nicest legs I think I've ever seen. I wish I had a pair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's too much. It belongs inside a studio, not the store front.

MOOS: Some onlookers think the glass is one way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All these guys can't conceptualize that the women are ignoring them. So it must be a special glass. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like they can't see from the other side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She dropped something.

MOOS: She dropped something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to bend over.

MOOS: Is that it. They want you to bend over.

Don't be naughty. It's not nice. 'Tis the season for windows that feature holiday trains, one good caboose deserves another.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Tight squeeze but she got it on.

ROBERTS: Something wrong with men. Just is.

CHETRY: You think?

Well, still ahead, a quick programming note, AMERICAN MORNING will be live from Brussels tomorrow morning for upcoming NATO talks and our own John Roberts is heading there today.

ROBERTS: Yes, I'll be joined tomorrow by Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, America's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He'll be briefing NATO ministers about the president's war plan in Afghanistan.

Our live coverage begins tomorrow right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Continue the conversation on today's stories including that window thing, go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.

CHETRY: And meanwhile thanks so much for being with us.

The news continues now, "NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins. Good morning Heidi.