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'Meet the Press' transcript for Nov. 30, 2008
First Lady Laura Bush, Afghanistan's Ambassador Said Jawad, Ted Turner
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 Netcast Nov. 30: Exclusive! First Lady Laura Bush talks about a cause dear to her heart: the lives of women in Afghanistan. She'll be joined by that nation's ambassador to the U.S., Said Jawad, to discuss the future of war-torn Afghanistan. Plus, businessman and author Ted Turner talks about his new book "Call Me Ted", the economy, foreign policy and his outlook on life. |
Exclusively on msnbc.com |
MR. TOM BROKAW: Our issues this Thanksgiving Sunday: She has been a passionate advocate for women's issues in Afghanistan throughout her husband's presidency. She's made three trips to the region. How will she continue her work after her husband leaves office? Our exclusive guest, first lady Laura Bush.
And what is the future of that war-torn nation? Also joining us, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad. Plus, he was a champion sailor, the man who invented CNN. He now wants to save the world. He's written a new book, "Call Me Ted," for the first time revealing his personal story. Our exclusive guest, Ted Turner.
And in our MEET THE PRESS Minute, another first lady with a strong interest in the world, Eleanor Roosevelt. Fifty-one years ago on this program, she describes her three-hour meeting with Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union.
(Videotape, October 20, 1957)
MS. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: I'd been told beforehand that he's an impossible person, vulgar, drinking, disagreeable. He was none of those things.
(End videotape)
MR. BROKAW: But first on this Thanksgiving weekend, we take a step away from the rough and tumble of politics of Washington to focus on global humanitarian concerns, notably life for women in Afghanistan. And with us is the first lady of the United States, Laura Bush, who has made this issue a cornerstone of her work since September 11. And she's joined here this morning by the Afghanistan ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad.
Welcome to both of you. Very nice to have you.
MS. LAURA BUSH: Thank you very much.
MR. BROKAW: Thank you.
Mrs. Bush, I thought we would share with our audience a radio address that you made, the first radio address by a first lady, shortly after September 11. And you chose Afghanistan to talk about. So let's listen to that...
MS. BUSH: OK.
MR. BROKAW: ...and then we'll begin there.
(Audiotape, November 17, 2001)
MS. BUSH: Life under the Taliban is so hard and repressive, even small displays of joy are outlawed--children aren't allowed to fly kites; their mothers face beatings for laughing out loud. Women cannot work outside the home, or even leave their homes by themselves. ... Only the terrorists and the Taliban forbid education to women. Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women's fingernails for wearing nail polish. The plight of women and children in Afghanistan is a matter of deliberate human cruelty, carried out by those who seek to intimidate and control. ... In America, next week brings Thanksgiving. After the events of the last few months, we'll be holding our families even closer. And we will be especially thankful for all the blessings of American life. I hope Americans will join our family in working to insure that dignity and opportunity will be secured for all the women and children of Afghanistan.
(End audiotape)
MR. BROKAW: Not too long after that, great progress was made in Afghanistan.
MS. BUSH: That's right.
MR. BROKAW: Women became involved in politics, they're members of the parliament. They've taken a much more active role in that country. But as we all know, the Taliban have come back into Afghanistan in larger numbers, and now there were 15 schoolgirls that were attacked...
MS. BUSH: That's right.
MR. BROKAW: ...with acid in Kandahar just recently. Some arrests have been made...
MS. BUSH: Mm-hmm.
MR. BROKAW: ...but that's pretty discouraging, isn't it?
MS. BUSH: It is discouraging. But on the other hand, there has been lots of progress. Are there steps back? Yes. And they're terrible, brutal happenings like the girls who were just walking to school and were targeted just because they were going to school, and disfigured with acid. The really good news is these--the people who did it have been arrested. There is an Afghan police force now and an Afghan army that are building up to be able to protect the people of Afghanistan internally like the--like we want them to. We all want them to. And there are many, many signs of progress. When I was in Bamiyan this year I met with a governor, female governor, I met with female police officers. Are there--are women afraid to step out and have some of these roles? Sure, to some extent they are. But these sort of happenings are more isolated than they sound when we read about them in the newspaper, because they are so horrific when we read about it.
MR. BROKAW: And it's much worse in the south and in the rural areas...
MS. BUSH: That's right.
MR. BROKAW: ...than it is in the north.
MS. BUSH: That's--and Kabul is in much better shape, I think, than it has been. Violence is down there in the city. But in certain parts of Afghanistan, because there are still so many very conservative people, women themselves are afraid. I met with a group of women, parliamentarians, members of parliament, who were in the United States recently, and they said, "This is our chance, and if we don't take this chance, if we don't succeed now then when will we ever be able to?" And I think the main thing that that says to me is that we need to stay with them, we have to continue to support them.
Recently when there was a terrorist bombing in Afghanistan, a group of people--1,000 protesters actually came out to protest. Most people in Afghanistan want to be able to build their country, live a decent life, not be afraid of a terrorist attack, and the fact is we just need to keep working with them so they can do it.
MR. BROKAW: Mr. Ambassador, part of the problem is as the Taliban come back into the country, people of good will even in the rural villages may want to do the right thing, but they worry about reprisals from the Taliban.
AMB. SAID JAWAD: This is true. The way Taliban operates is by forcing people into submission. They don't provide an alternative to what the United States or the Afghan government is doing as far as providing educational opportunities. And the way they operate is by terrorizing people. And there is no future for such a vision. They might be able to undermine a few of our...(unintelligible)...forces for as building more schools, but the people are truly determined, and the people are also very fortunate to have the support and the friendship of the United States and also the first lady of the United States.
Can you imagine for the--how the situation will be for the women of Bamiyan, an isolated, poor province of Afghanistan that have witnessed with their tears on their eye the slaughter of their children, the destruction of the magnificent Buddha, to be standing on the line to shake hands with the first lady of the United States?
So there are challenges in Afghanistan, definitely, but there's also a lot of signs of progress. We are optimistic for our future. We have made a big progress.
MR. BROKAW: I want to share with our audience what The Wall Street Journal had to say about the situation there in which you were quoted widely in the article, if we can, to give them a sense of a political reality now we're dealing with.
"The Taliban are setting up courts and other local-government institutions across southern Afghanistan, challenging U.S. efforts to pacify the country and bolster the authority of the central government in Kabul. ...
"Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad, said ... that the Taliban is expanding its reach into Afghans' daily lives.
"`It is a disgrace that seven years after the beginning of the military operations in Afghanistan we are seeing a U-turn back to how the situation was before September 11, he said.'" That's the Wall Street Journal.
What can the central government--what should the central government, your government, be doing more of to counteract what is going on in those rural areas where the Taliban have come back in, even in a nonmilitary way?
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