<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>A not-bad appearance on Aaron Brown's CNN show last night:</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>BROWN: We're always pleased when David Halberstam joins us. He has joined us on more than one occasion. Mr. Halberstam is a well respected writer. And many years back in other wars he was a legendary war correspondent in both Vietnam and in the Congo, as I recall. David joins us from New York tonight. <BR><BR>It's nice to see you. I don't want to spend all of our time or even most of our time talking about the reporters here. But just a quick minute. Is there something about this war in this situation that makes it particularly dangerous for journalists? <BR><BR>DAVID HALBERSTAM, AUTHOR: I think, one, the immediacy, the fact that the journalists are right up there, and so much of it I suppose is done by photographers, that they have to be at the cutting edge. I mean there's not much in the way of being back at the cable head the way you were, say, in World War II or other wars. <BR><BR>You do it by being there. The technology has made that possible. You can report from the very cutting edge, and it's always dangerous. <BR><BR>I mean this is a very ugly, mean war. Both sides -- the Americans have a lot of technology, and the Iraqis are on their home territory and are probably going to break into guerrilla units. <BR><BR>BROWN: Well let's talk about the future here. One of the things -- one of the great questions in this is how will we know as a country that we have won the war? Do you see that answer in the next year, five years, the next generation, ever? <BR><BR>HALBERSTAM: I'm afraid that I think that there's -- I heard that today, you know, talking about when we've won or when the war's won. And getting to Baghdad and even sort of seemingly pacifying -- seemingly pacifying Baghdad may not end the war. And what we may think is the 15th round of a 15-round fight may be round one in that region. <BR><BR>And I want to specify region rather than just Iraq. Because the impact of what we're doing is regional. The recruiting may happen elsewhere in other Arab Islamic countries. mot necessarily just in Iraq. <BR><BR>The powerful impact of these images going through that region may have a slower fuse than we Americans tend to expect. We've become a supremely impatient country, and we want it clean, over, militarily done. <BR><BR>I don't think it's going to work that way. I think, for instance, the most important technological advance when we look back 25 years from now may not just be the reporters up there at night with the night cameras on them, or the awesome new weaponry, it may be the fact that, for the first time, this war is going out live and in color in the Arab world, with Arab networks, with Arab voices commenting on these images. <BR><BR>That may be, in fact, the most important technological development since Gulf War One. And, therefore, the fuse may be a much slower burning fuse. <BR><BR>BROWN: David, hang with us for a second. Let me bring General [Wesley] Clark in, because I know he is chomping at the bit to get in on this -- General, go ahead. <BR><BR>HALBERSTAM: Hello, General. How are you? <BR><BR>CLARK: Hello, David. Good to see you tonight. <BR><BR>HALBERSTAM: I see you have been embedded in CNN, Wesley. <BR><BR>CLARK: It's a great privilege to be able to compliment the troops and watch this operation unfold. But I share your concerns on the potential for expansion here. <BR><BR>One of the reports that came out in the press today reported some 5,000 Syrians are now engaged in the fight, according to one of the Syrians who surrendered at the airport. And this may be just the tip of the iceberg. We don't know the durability of it, but clearly the longer the fighting goes on, the greater the potential to draw in others.<BR><BR>And Aaron, just one additional point of sort of the flipside of what David is saying. If you look at our objectives in this, to unravel the chain of proliferation, it's going to lead to other nations in the region. And we're already telling them, as the secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense have said, look at the lesson of Iraq. That lesson means it could happen there. <BR><BR>BROWN: David, let me give you the last word. Do you think Americans by and large are focused on this long view of what means peace? Or have they focused to this point on the narrow view, let's take Baghdad, let's get rid of Saddam, however you frame it? <BR><BR>HALBERSTAM: Well, I think the administration has taken the latter. I think the American people are more uneasy, they are wary. I think when I go out and say -- and you know I'm somewhat melancholy about this because the prism through which I see things is Vietnam. I have a feeling that we have punched our hand into the largest hornet's nest in the world, and therefore the consequences in the region are very -- are likely to be very difficult in other countries. <BR><BR>I have a feeling that people are ready to hear that. I think they support the troops and are very uneasy about anything that pulls us into a larger and perhaps escalating confrontation in a part of the world they don't know much about. But when they learn more, they are very uneasy with. They see lots of dangers there. <BR><BR>BROWN: David, as always, we look forward to see youing you back in New York soon. Thank you.<BR><BR>HALBERSTAM: Nice to be here.<BR><BR>BROWN: Author and reporter David Halberstam. </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><<A href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/08/asb.00.html">http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/08/asb.00.html</A>></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>DP</DIV> <DIV><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>