ptioning sponsored by macneil/lehr productions >> lehr: good evening, i'm jim lehrer. president obama acpted the nobel peace prize today. >> brown: and i'm ffrey brown. on the newshour tonigh a report on the ceremonynd spee where the president said, wars are sometimes nessary and justified. >> clear eyed, we can derstand that there will be warnd still strive for peace . we cano that, for that is the story of human progress.

lehrer: we'll get reaction d perspective from presential historian michael beschloss, the rerend james forbes and editor joseph btum. >> brown: th, the arrests of five american muslims in pakistan: we lk at who they are and how they were capted. >> lehre the top u.s. military commanr in afghanistan talked about securi and fighting corruption, we havexcerpts from his conversatn with our s colleague, charlie rose. >> bwn: new claims for unemployment benefits rose faster than expectedfter thanksgiving. tonight, econocs correspondent paul solman talks to older americans looking fowork. >> it don't matter if you're , it doesn't matter if you'r 70 years old. you still have hopes and dams and those hopes and drea g.e.d. sidelines. >> lehrer: and, our tchwork nation sies on the economy moves west, ray suarez repor on tough times ia community that had been going strong. >> lehrer: that's l coming, on tonit's newshour. major fundinfor the pbs newshour is provided by:

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and toyota. and monsanto. and by the alfred sloan foundation supporting scien, technology, animproved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21 century. and with the ongoing sport of these initutions and foundations. and... this program w made possible byhe corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to ur pbs station fr viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: presidentbama's address about war and peac as he formally receid the nobel priztoday in norway. judy woodruff begi our coverage.

♪ >> wdruff: the president walked into the city hall oslo, a wartimleader, on hand accept the most prestigious pre bestowed on peacemakers. it was paradox not lost on him. >> perhaps the mt profound issue surroundg my receipt of this prize is the fa that i am thcommander-in-chief of the military of a nation in e dst of two wars. >> woodruff: just last wk mr. obamordered 30,000 more u.s. troops to afghantan, on top of 2100 he sent earlier this year that tension, between his actions as commander in chf, anhis advocacy of peace, animated much of the 36-nute address. >> we are atar, and i'm responsiblfor the deployment of thousands of ung americans to battle a distant land.

some will kill, and me will be killed. and so i comhere with an acute sense of the costs of med conflict, >> woodruff: the president acknowleed as he did when the prize was announced in oober, that he does n claim to have eaed the award based on his brief ti in office. >> compared some of the ants of history who've receiv this prize, schweitzer and king; marshallnd mandela, my accomplhments are slight. >>oodruff: he also repeatedly cited dr. main luther king who n the peace prize in 1964 an king's inspirati, mohandas ndhi. but he said times, a head of state must depart from their non-vient creed. >> iannot be guided by their examples alone. i face the world as it is,nd cannot stand idle in the fe of

threats to t american people. for ma no mistake: evil does exist in the world a non-violent movementould not have halted hier's armies. negotiatns cannot convince al qaeda's leaders to lay dn their ar. >> woouff: developing his theme, mr. oma forcefully dended the notion "just war" and the united stes' role in the world. >> we will not edicate violent conflict iour lifetimes. there will be mes when nations ting individually or in ncert will find the use of force not only necesry but morally justied. whatever mistakes we have ma, the plain ct is this: the united states of america h helped underwrite global security for more an six cades with the blood of our citizens and the sength of our ms. >> woodruff: the president ced

numerous threats to th global secuty in particular, the islast extremism behind the atcks of september 11th. >> these extremists are nothe fit to kill in the name of god, t cruelties of the crusades are amply record. t they remind us that no hol war can ever be a just war. such a warped view of religi is not just incompatible wh the concept of peace, but believe it's incompatiblwith the very purpose of fah, for the one rule that lies at th heart of every major religiois that we do untothers as we would have them do unto us >> woodruff: in the d, mr. oba said it is that faith and the fah that the human condition can be btered that shoulde uppermost. >> f if we lose that faith if we dismiss it asilly or naïve; ife divorce it from the desions that we make on issues

of war and peace then we le what's bt about humanity. we losour sense of possibity. we le our moral compass. like generationsave before us, weust reject that future. let us reach for t world that ought to be, that spark the divinehat still stirs within each oour souls. ( applause ) >> lrer: we get three views of the presidt's speech from the reverend james fbes, senior minister emeritus athe riversidchurch in new york. he is a ng-time pacifist. presidential htorian and wshour regular michael beschls. and joph bottum, former terary editor at the consvative magazine, the "weekly stdard" now editor of "first things" a magazine out religion and public fe. reverend forbes, a peace pze a few days after escalating war. w well did the president

explain himself ? >> i think t president explains hself very well. he shows, number one, that h understands the complexitynd even the contriction that would seem to be present wn a war is going on and t he's receiving the peace priz i think he adequately explain why the two of these elementdo not cancelut each other but theyeflect two aspects which are esseial in actually pursuing peace. so i see him in this speec during the delicate balae that i suspect we c get used to see roughout his tenure. that is, looking at this se, that side,ut seeking to find the golden meani. now, as guy who has been so much for peace thai say that war dees every one of the ten commandments, yet respect that his teacng us how a commander in chief has to work throu those colexities to advance

e very prospect of peace. >> lehr: joseph bottum, do you agree the president naged a delicate bance? >> well, he certainlgot both elementshere. it was a lovely eech, it was highinded, it was well crafted. it wastterly incoherent, but i'm not sure that anything cld ve solved the problem that h faced. this is, after all, man accepting a peace prize whe he is at war anrhetoric won't really if i can what lic says is broken. >> lrer: that's the coherence. you thk he just underlined rather than alt with? >> he certaiy strove rhetorically to reach me kind of resolution. e speech had elements of reinhold niebuhr'shristian realm in it, we live in a fallen world. violence is metimes necessary oppose violence. and then at the same time, i had kind of standard old-fashned liberal progressive elemts in it. we're geing better, those barbarians used to go to w,

people used to war in thname of g, we see beyond that, wee getting better and better and better. those analyses and those justificatio for talking about war are inherent. they won't really together. and the rhetoricallourish that president obama brout to it isn't really going to puthem together in any coherentay. >> lehrer:ichael, do you see it t same way? rhetoric can only solve a certain numberf things things tt those didn't get sved today. >> that's always true in le i think. but my guesss that maybe a couple of people on e nobel committee wanted to ta their pre back after hearing this speech because mguess is they pected to hear a lot about gandhi and king day not very much about a just war to whi barack obamaevoted a lot of ace. and i think thfascinating thing you watch this guy, he's coming to theresidency with probably ss settled views on war and pce than certainly yone in the last 50 years. >> couric: >> lehrer: y mean based on what he said befe he became present? >> absolutel

and also without long history of national security. go back to 2002 when he ga his famous speech against the aq war inhicago, said "i'm not opposed to all wars, just du wars." didn't menon afghanistan as a war he might bin favor of. the on two he mentioned were thcivil war and world war ii. he's evolving all e time and i think in a way, he's becing moreore... at least not inclined to use rce but at least open to th. one other thing, think there's political imperative. he knowst some level of his mind what happens to a predent who in hisirst year sounds a little bit too peaceoving and too trusting operhaps the other side. jiy carter in 1977 gave a famouspeech at notre dame saying that america had en held back by our inordinate ar of communism. two years later, the sovt go into afgnistan and people said cater was ive. obama isetermined that he's not going be caught like at. >>ehrer: reverend forbes, picking up on that, yourwn views aside, do you think th

what presidentbama said about war and peace is an accura reflection of at basically the majority of the erican people feel about war and peace? >> it is difficult to asss the majority today but i do belie that preside obama has listened to th perspectives and that hthinks that in what he said today he bh honors and respects the perspectives on both sides but for the interest... best intest of th country, i think the road that he's taki is one that he's connced represents the best combined inrest of the united states at this time. and a guy on theeft like me, i justhink we have to work hardero make sure that president obama isistening to our more proessive and even pacifist i can perspectives the right may be engaged in another side. think he is president who listens and in the light of at has listened to in terms of the science of the posble, he

thin he's struck it pretty much as close tohat tightrope as is poible given the colexity. >> lehrer: do you agrewith michael, though, that presidt ama may not have had tse views until he was cononted withhe reality of war as president ofhe united states? >> i believe that correct. i belie cleay that he is ... he understands moral ambigty, 's always understood that. but you really d't know what the pressures at come from bothides, what they are like until you sit in that ov office. i've been in positions wre i look from a stance. i dohis, i do that. its also wh-pbl you are tting there that you have to wrestle with which is thbetter approach, not the perft, kpwhu is t better approach at this time. i thinthat's the way he apprches it and i think he did a pretty good job of dng what could be done ven the degree of difficuy of the dive, even

though there was a lite splash, incoherent somebodelse says. i think we give him a od grade. >> couric: givhim a good grade, jeph bottum? >> yh. this was a very american sech. >> lehrer: veramerican. >> there was mucin this speech that john kennedy could have said. there wamuch in this speech that george bush couldave said and, in fact, d say in his second inaugural address. >> lehr: which george bush? >> we're not in far of war yet wais here. this is a very american ing to do. in fact, the kd of peak moment for thesamerican tropes appeared in th interesting passage where he sd that he rejects the false choice bween realism at only looks at selfnterest and in idealism that would have us go road seeking to impose our valuesn others. he sd no, what i believe in... and then hlaunched into a laundry list of at everybody in the wld conceives of as american values. freedoof religion, freedom of speech, economic freom for

financial development, democracy. these are the things that was sisting somehow transcend th division between idealm and realism. well, that's a pretty idealiic laundry list. but 's also very american. it's ectly what john f. kennedy said. it's exactlyhat george w. bush said. >> lehre do you agree with thatmichael? >> well, he quotedohn kennedy at arican university in '63, a speech that was lled a peace speech with an opening tthe soviets, so think that's righ but it also unrscored for me this almost onizing balancing t that barack obama is tryin to carry off. becaushere he is on one side perhaps the dominant wing ofis party always antiwarthey're rather unhappy abo if fact that he's sendg 30,000 more troops to afghanistan. and then on the other side perhaps led by dick chey, a movement that essentially sang barack obama is shutting down guantanamo and 's ending things that healls torture,

all this is gointo make us weaker. and they will say if g forbid thers ever any kind of an attack on ameran interests that obama encourad this. so here he is trying to doll these ings at once and i think all those things were in the speech. >> lehrer: joe bottum, do yo agree there's some polits at work here as well as mality and all ese other things we've been talking about >> for the president of e uned states, there is always politicst work, that's what it means to be the prident. so of courseou're right. and that onlcontributes to the kind of intellectual incerence of the speech. the estion, i think, which the verend forbes brought out is e we actually going to see a practical result from this? for politics it's the sciee of the praccal. is can be incoherent at some high lev, if a high level at which th speech was pitched. is iactually going to issue in a practical reading of that needle of finding those o

sides and finding a y between them? i'm t sure. and i don't ink so. i think the speech actlly promis concrete action which is going to be incohert as reflective of the inciples, e incoherent principles expressed in the sech. >> lehrer: do yoagree with that, reverendorbes? incoherent action is pbably ing to follow an incoherent speech? >>ell, my thinking is that with respect to president ama, he's the guyho knows how to tack his way. so hs headed, i believe, towards a re just and democric society, security around the world. how he gs there will probably not please either sideost of the time. i think he'll go thiway, that way. but think his eyes are on the prize of aess bellicose, less warring world, a more peacul approachhen that's possible but keeping the powd dry if necessar and i thk that's... it will look incohert.

i think ere's a method to the madness ev if it appears that way. >> lehrer: finally mhael, iefly, as a matter of his i have this eech going to be remembered and does it desve to be? >> i think it will be a moment that shows what barac obama s thinking about war and peace in 2009 whh may be very fferent from the way he thin about it four years from nowr eight years from now. but, you kno one thing that's arreing about obama is to a degree tt is more than most other politicafigures, when he talks it really reflts what's in his brain andn this case i think if it seems ambigus it's beme he is. re's a guy sending 30,000 troops tafghanistan at the same te he's talking about drawing down. these desions have not yet en made and this speech actually reflected that. lehrer: got it. gentlen, all three, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> brown: and ill to come on the newshour the american muslims being held ieastern pakistan. charlie rose's interview wit

geral stanley mcchrystal. paul solman's report othe country's older job-seers. and e latest ray suarez "patchwork natio story comes fromne of america's boom towns. that's a ahead but now, for me of the day's other storie overo hari sreenivasan inur newsroom. >> sreenivan: the president faced new questions today abt aving afghanistan. he told reporters in oo he's stking to his plan to start u.s. troop withdrawa in july of 21. but he promised the pull-out will be adual. >> i think it's very impornt to understand that we' not going to see se sharp cliff, some precipitous drawdn. our ole concept here is to train and partner with afghan forces a to transfer to them en as our troops are fightin alongside each oth. sreenivasan: meanwhile, general mcchrsal the u.s. commander in afanistan, played dn concerns about the timetable. he td a house hearing that insurgents wl see the u.s. coitment and realize: "a date doesn't change anything".

defense secretary gatehas arrived in iq from afghanistan. he met today wh iraqi president jalal tabani to ofr u.s. help, after the ghdad bombings on tuesday. the attacks killed 127eople. today, thembrella group for al qaeda in iraq claimed reonsibility. and warned: "the list of rgets has no end." a week-long wint storm left much of thmidwest and nortast in a deep freeze today. at lea 17 deaths were blamed on the storm natnwide. newshour correspdent kwame holman has more. holman: after days of izzard conditions in the midwest, temperares plunged in single digits with wind chills down to5 below zero. it's so freezing cold out here, it's unbelievable! >> holman: and t northeast prepar for more snow amid bone-chilling winds gusts buffalo were cloed at 60 miles an hour. the massive storm system droed more than a fo of snow on a dozen ates this week. in northern arizona, it le some 30 elk hunts still

stranded today. and nationwide, the were more schoollosures, airport delays, power tages, and traffic accidents some deadly. >>hen it comes right down to itpeople gotta understand that on a day like toda if you dot need to go out, stay home. >> holman: as the bulkf the storm shed into canada, parts of northern new york bracefor a total of tee feet of snow by week's e. d southwest michigan was und a blizzard warning of itown. regions spared snowfall had their own struggles with win and rain. in ohio, a tmpoline was blown onto this man's roof >> how did it ev get through there? >> holman: and drirs in parts of t mid-atlantic and southeast faced flooded stres again. the storm also lefa long trail of debs from downed trees to blown-down buildings to clned up. >> sreenivasan: the s. house has appred a huge spending bill to fu 10 cabinet depaments on a party-line vote. the bill ran 1100 pageand cost

$1.1 triion. demoats said domestic programs were starved in the sh years and ne help now. republicans id the spending ans the era of big governmen hareturned. the bill also needs sete approv. the wall street banking gian goldman sachs wi not give cash boses to 30 top executives thisear. the company pa back its federal rescue lns last summer, lowing it to escape curbs compensation. just yesteay, britain announcea one-time tax of % on bonuses for high-paid bankers ere. and today, the leadersf france and germy embraced the idea as well treasury secretary geithne today defeed his decision to extend the bank rescue progr until octor. the $700 billionarp program d been set to end this month but geithner tola federal oversit panel he needs more time to wind down the efrt without doing onomic damage.

>>e will keep the government out of the busess decisions of these companies and we wilexit om our investments as soon a is practicalnd return owrship to private hands. is strategy requires a limit temporarextense of the authority ovided by by the coress under the emergency economic stabilizati act. it wou be irresponsible to do otrwise. questioned >> sreenivasan: the oversit group was cread by congress. chrwoman elizabeth warren and others questioned e need to keep t tarp going. she id it prevented a financial collapse, but fail in aumber of key missions. >> tarp has beenar from an unmitigated succs. credit f consumers and small bunesses remains scarce, the foreclosurcrisis continues unabatednd treasury's tigation programs have not achieve had scope, the scale, or the permanence necessarto stabilize the using market. >> senivasan: on wednesday, the treasury estimatedt will lose about $60 bilon on aid to insue giant a.i.g., and to

chrysler and geral motors. it will make a profit nearly $20 billn on assistance to banks. on wall street today theow jones dustrial average gained more than 68 points tolose at 10,405 the nasdaq rose seven ints to close at190. those e some of the day's main stors. i'll be back at e end of the broadcast with a look what you'll fintonight on our website. but for now, back to jef >> brown: and we turn to the storof a gro of young americans who may have bee preparing to joiterrorist groups. the five americans we arrested wednesy at this house in eastern pakist. a laptop computer and extremist literature were also szed. >> they re u.s. nationals, one was from egypt, one was om algeria, one was from hiopia, but they had u.s. passrts, valid passports, with vad pakistani sas and two of them were pakistani-born ericans, and they were here for jad,

>> brownpolice said the men told them they wanted train with a milant group tied to al-qaeda, but were turneaway. the arrests to place in the ci of sargodha, 125 miles south of the capital, lamabad. >> ( translated ): the were four forei people in the hoe, and we thought they were from america. thowner of the house also lives outside of theountry. he came here recently and somebody called the lice that foreigners were living he now. >> brown: u.s. oicials believe the five men, aged 1to 25, are the me individuals reported missing byheir families more than a wk ago in the washgton, d.c. area. yesterday, the head of t councion american-islamic relations id the families contacted s organization and the fbi. they'dound a farewell video om the young men with scenes of war and demandshat muslims be defended. >> i recall the deo is about eleven minutes andt's like a farewell, and they didot

specify what thewould be doing, but just heing and seei videos similar on the internet, it just made me uncomforble. >> brown: in nway today, presidt obama declined to commenon the arrests. instead, he saidtwisted ideoloes" could affect young people in the united stas, especially via the internet. and ba in pakistan, police said they are still trng to learn morebout the men and ether they'd established any firm contacts witherror groups. >> brown: and i'joined now in oustudio by nihad awad of the "council on americ-islamic relation. alsoith us is josh meyer, who's covering this storfor the "los angelesimes." >> tell us a littlbit more about what concern you when you saw the video anwhen the parents cameo talk to you. where there specific thrts there? what did you see? >> well, t elements. the first concern ishe disappearance the young people to their familiesnd to

all of us. and thsecond part is the fact that a video was left behind raised the concerns mo. and the content of t video that i watched also disturbe , juxtaposing images of war and putting with them next to them verses of the kan that sotimes people misunderstand and misuse. that madme and the families worry and that's why they moved to l us know. brown: and how much have you come tknow about this group ofoung men ? hotight-knit were they? how d they come together? >> well, i personally do n know the families orhe young people. but fr my first impression when i m with the families, we asked them me questions,hey seemed to very typical families. they're proud of tir kids, mainstreamno sign of

disturbanc anxiety or anger overhings. >> brown: so they were completely surpred by it? >> they were cpletely surpriseand they pieced it together after the weeke was ov. ey stayed all night just trying to understand where ty could be. but when they found the deo d watched it, they made the colusion that they have to turn over to the government d talk to us and get advice. >> brown: josh meyer, what have you learned so r about what happened xt when the f.b.i. got invold and then wh these young men went to pakistan? well, there's sort of a before and after. they know whe they went. they know they g off the airport... outhe plane in karachi, they nt to lahore after that and tn onward from the. but think from there the investigation is stillnfolding and there's a lot that remns unknown out it, who they met wi, what these people purported to be,hether they we connected to any pakistani militant groups so there a lot of unkwns at this point. >> brown: it was rorted that they were first reject by a

group theyried to get in coact with. >> right there. 's been a lot conflicting infoation. that's one of the things the said. there's also some rerts out of pakistan that they werat a safe house or a housowned by a guy from skwraurb, ... jah-i-muhammad, one of the many militangroups in pakist. so the other groups are tryi to figure t what happened and what didn't and theyay they're still trying to run this t ground as they spe . >> brown: at's known about w seriously they take these guys. as serio would be terrorists or as wannes in the jargon ere? how are they bng taken? >> well, thas a good question. i thk any time somebody gets radicalized to theoint where they want toeave their homes the united states and go to pakistan to hook up withhese people, that's of rious concern to the united stes, especially becausehey can turn around and come ba to the unitedtates and launch tacks. but they might ao be there to learn the ways of jihad. i thk there was some specation they might have gone to fig in

afghanistan, casey kotchman, kashmir. ... kevin chia. ansome guys from long island, for instance. brown: there were also reports that they were ung facebook, youtube, tget in touch with jihad i groups. >> that's true and i thi this is not the first case where they'vbeen reports of people from t united states going to pakistan and tryinto hook up with these groups and beg rejected. i think these groups, espeally ones considered pipenes to al qaeda arvery, very concerned right w that these people might be spies f the c.i.a. or informanfor the f.b.i. or just wannabes that have no ace there. so, you know, there's...hey have their o operational security a they've rejected americans for not having the right references. >> brown: now how worrieare you and your community aut the potential for more cases le this? >> well, first of all, we ha to make re that this is a all problem, it's not widespread, but to us its a serious probm. it is ere.

it is not wispread, does not reflecon the muslim community or even young muslimnationwide because the overwhelmi majority are iegrated, they're americ citizens, they're okay with their les. but also we take iseriously that we have to prevent it fm happening. e good thing is, i see this a successtory. the fa that the families came forward, trusted us d we worked witthem to report it to the f.i. in the presence of lawyers shows anquation there that needso continue to be balanced . going out, informing... ging the information to the vernment, intervening in the right time and also knowledging that this proble ishere. we're going to launca major initiati. >> brown: is there aay to inrvene at an earlier point? that would be thobvious question, to reach tse people earlie >> definitely. looking at minneapolis, yog somalis gointo spol ya and other incidents. i thk we have done a good job

a community and as a countr that we intercepted this aa good time. neighbor the fute we can prevent itven from happening by owning up tthis problem, dealing with this issue, lting peoplealk about the issues th they're frustrated and give em the space and go to the point of r calization and y to rebutwhether theologically, spitually, socially and politically. make it diffult for them to think about ese bad options. >> brown: just iour last minute, you're talking with w enforcement he. we had a colleague of urs on our show lt night talking about the americ implicated in the mumbaittacks. this is another case wre they clearly must be worrd about the pontial here. >> absolutely. they're very worri about this and woied about the guy from somalia. they're worried about two pele from the new yorarea. they've very, very worried tt these guys a... why would they be moved tgo to pakistan for this? why kind of peline is there rhaps even in the united states thasends people there and what they can do about stopping them either befe they leave or once they gethere.

but they don't feel li they have a good hale on all of the amicans who are going back and forth to places like pakista . >> brown: arthey considering a success ory as he puts in the this case? >> i don think so at this point. they're ry grate to feel the families for helping but ihink they're glad thecaught this at the stage ey have but i don't think they wld call a success story. >>rown: josh meyer, nihad awad, thank you very muc >> lehrer: next tonit, excerpts from charlie rose's convertion about going to the people, th u.s. army general stanley mcrystal head of allied forces in afghanistan >> the core your philosophy is you have to convince e afghan pple that they have a reason to lieve that they can live in peacwith some security and some manner of governce that procts them. >> absolely. at the end of the day, the people who jge success or

ilure will be the afghan people, who will make cisions on how ty go forward, who they support. so it's critical that convince them that tir government canrotect them and ll protect them, and then me their basic eds. >> what's the metr? how do youeasure that? >> there are a numr of ways, chare. one, of courseis polling; you ask them. but therare a number of other ways, as well. people make decions that reflect theioutlook on the future, whether a farmerlants a crop, whether meone makes an investment, whether inviduals will join the vernment, whether they wilbet their future with e government, join the police, joinhe army. in fact,oin the government, cept a government position. all of thosere indicators of nfidence, when they believe that things argoing in that direction, themake very, very portant life decisions, and try to look at a of those.

>> why are youonfident that prident karzai, with all the allegations ofraud, with all the allegations ofembers of his family, is gng to be up to the task that you have gen him? at the afghan people are expecting from him >> i think your lastoint is key. i think esident karzai absoluly understands what the afghan people desi from him and expect of him, and ihink he has deeply-held sen of responsibili to deliver for them. and don't believe that the government is onman. no government . i thk that the government of afghanisn has a tremendous numberf leaders who come together as a team juslike the i.c.a.f.ommand is certainly not me. it's a team of peopl and i think thathat government increasingly is fosed on providg for the afghan people,

and so im confident at they will movforward in a good partnership. >> but this is the sampeople who evybody accuses of being in a massive, fraudulent election. so all of a sudd, even though they did that, y now believe th they can take confidence- building measures wi the afghan people. >> there are clear steps that haveot to be taken, and that's what it >> absolutely. there have got to be stepsaken to reduce couption, particully high-profile corruption. there is a perception in my in the populati that there is a nse of protection of many corrupt officials byhe government, anthat's got to be ped away. i meanthat's got to be rectly addressedalthough i know tt its difficult to do that. they're ing to have to take that on to regain their credibilitwith the people. >> lehrer:cchrystal said the next 18 months wilbe decisive in rersing the taliban's momentumn afghanistan. >> brown: now finding a b when you're over .

the number oworkers seeking bless benefits rose by 17,00 last week to a seasonall adjusted 474,000hat was more than expected. as the nation's unemployment rate stands near itsighest level in more than 25 years newshour economicsorrespondent paulolman looks at the unique problems facing older woers. it's part ofis ongoing reportg on making sense of financl news. >> reporter: how many of y are going to rete later than you otherwise would ve? >> retire from what? ( laughs ) >> reporter: a rect meeting of a 50lus job search group at jewish vocational serves j.v.s. isan francisco. no one looki to retire. no o with a job to retire from. for law firm billing spealist patricia wson, age is the roadblk. >> i wasold during the interview:s you can see were a very yng group, and our main concern is that you are over qualified for this job and w

uld be concerned that you wouldn't stay. >> reporter: did you believ them? >> no! of coue i didn't believe them. i ju felt that they didn't think that i would fit iwith the younger group. >> reporter: the joblessate for workers over5 has more than dbled since the start of the recession hitting a reco 7.5% last month, the higst since 48 when data were first collected. many are losing out to youer, cheaper counterpar. >> ictually had the experience of losing a job an unpaid younger worker becse of the evalence of internships. >> reporter: ike mcgui is a journalist. >> at no time nce slavery have so many people word for free in america and've even heard theye started some people have actually startedo pay people to go work for them! >> reporter: in 1986he late congressman claude pepper, tn 85, sponsored a ill that outlaws st mandatory retirement. yet an a.a.r.p. surveyeleased

last year found that 60% o workers aged 45-74 h either seen or experienced age discrimination in the woplace. ab snay of j.v.s. people cannot be discriminated against cause of their ag that doesn't mean that olderorkers aren't losing jobs ilarge numbers and competing for bs with people half theirge and knowing that their skillsay not be as competive. >> reporte workers 45+ are more lely to be among the ng-term unemployed, those unemploy at least six months. in november over 50%f the older unemoyed were out of work f at least 27 weeks, after hang worked for decades. ke photo stylist sandy gasse >> wre very good at many other things, excellent as a matteof fact but we'reot skilled at looking for work. we've, we've bn doing our caers all this long time. >> reporter: moreover,ays abby

snay. >> the lastime they looked for work the whole wayf looking for wo, all the methodology of job search was complety different. now somebody is tellg you, you have tuse linkedin and you don't know what it is,aybe your kids, your grandkids us facebook. but you have to len linkedin and th figure out who your network is. >> reporter: linkedin is computer netrking website. but some olderorkers need more basic traing. >> you want to move it from is location and p it into the job arch folder. >> i click over he to bring that copy orust copy or paste, rather >> reporter: j.v.s. teaches e older employed to navigate the job rket via computer. but what job market? asworkers like accountant melanie einbund, looki since january. >> looking f a job is a job that not necessary you want to ha. i want to be dng my numbers. i nt to be working with my team. i want tbe adding value to my company. >> reporter: but you don want the job looking for a job? >> you've got it! i don't want the job of loing for job.

i want my b. >> it'very frustrating it's also very deaning for older people to be in a supplicant position th people who cod be half their age. >> reporr: so maybe older workers should just give up d retire. no, just the oosite, argues stanfordconomist john shoven considering older people a actually much yoger than they've ever been. >> today's 65 ar olds have less than half the chancof dying thin a year as 65 year oldsid in 1950. ey are not the same age; they are healthr; they are much rther from death; they're younger. a year of life tod is not the same unit as it wain 1950, just like a doll today is not the samenit as a dollar was in 1950. so, i'm "65" now. how old am i? >> so you are out the same age as 56 year old was in 1950. a 9 year austment. that's aretty serious adjustment. >> reporter: ts according to

shoven, since people live longer, they shoulretire later. in 1900, the average lgth of tirement for men was 2 years years! men worked until they couldn work, they were al sick and they died within 2 years by 200 retirement length was 20 yrs. >> repter: now not every economist thinks peoplshould work longer. teresa ghilardci, author of when im 64, says the da show that retirement is actuay good for people. >> when women retire the mental well-beg and their physic well-being increases. th're improved. their health impves. you mean theactually live longer >> reporte you mean they actuallyive longer? >> it addso their longevity. and for men, their deterioraon just slows dow so if n kept on working they'll die soer, if they retire ty have longer lives. so oly this idea that we should bworking longer because suppedly were living longer could acally be reversed. ife made people work longer, longevity wod decline. all ofur improvements would be wiped out.

>> i'd feel more cfortable in a larger company >> reporter: but en if the traditiol retirement age were beneficial, given their low d in the lt year dwindling vings, those we spoke with didn't feel they haduch choice. they can afford to retire, especially ilaid off in their 50s or 60s like our friends san fransco. >> i have en dipping into my retirement fund and th is an added ress for me and the clock is kind of ticking othat ich means can only take that so far and then can't keep going cause what i have built up over thyears is going away. >> reporter: and on toof the financial ress, says teacher laura grossmann, unemploymen takes an emotion toll too. both she and h husband are lookinfor full-time work. >> we are who we are becausef our work and our expience and not having thais the most

demoralizing and ifeels, i felt bereft. >> when you do le your job and it doesn't matter if you'r50, it doesn't matter ifou're 70, you still ha hopes and dreams and those hopes and dreams g side-lined. >> reporr: the hopes and eams of older workers these days, however: jusfinding a job. >> lehrer: and finally tight we continue the economy with part four of our "patchwork nation" sees. it's an on-air andnline collaboratn with the christian science monitor that explos hodifferent communities across the country are peorming during the recession. tonight, rayuarez looks at the country's boom towns with th report from eagle, coloro. >> suarez: adam's rib ranch stretches over600-acres of speccular rolling teain, ringed bsnow-capped mountains. there'an 18-hole golf urse. a 40,000 squarfoot luxurious club house, surrounded by 99

homesites, each costing the land.o $2 miion just for thonly thing missing? buyers. >> we've definitely se a downturn from the spaling yearof the 2006-2007 growth. suarez: like most boom town l across america this development s planned in a euphoricra when the mantra was "build it and they will come now salespeople ke john helmerli are struggling to make a sale. so far jusone house has been purchased, and only 11 of th 300 available go course memberships ld. still, helmering remns cautusly optimistic. >> i think is going to take a shorr time for this valley to recovethan some of the others, but i would still put on a 3- 5 year te frame. >> suarez: walk down broway eagle's mainommercial street d you can't really see that anytng is wrong. there aren't rows empty shops

or going-out-of-business sns. but what a tcamera can't show you is all the things that aren't hapning. the buildings that aret being redevelod. the condos thaaren't being built. all on the boards and with business plans beforthe crisis hi >> inventory is high on the rket now. >>uarez: real estate agent doug seabury took me tough the neighorhd of eagle ranch a middle class housing developnt started in 199 the plan was for,300 housing uns. about 800 have been buil but many are now sitting empty. >>f you look at what eagle's population ds for a living, a large percentage of them are builders. moves in, they bld another house tkao that cycle. the ople that have bn really hurt werthe ones that were in that cycle, xt thing you know they own two homes, couple lots, can't affordhe payments,

can't ll the homes. >> suare so that was one of those siations where you need that kind of economy to keep on going. >> absolely. they just ilt too many homes too quick and o many people gostuck holding more than one home for themselves. >> suarez: the crisis also taking a huge toll on busisses and pele in related fields. ray perez is a mecnic who fixes ennes on construction equipment. hiwork virtually disappeared this summer. we met h at a dinner the thodist church holds every monday, to help people ineed. it's been a struggle. i've rested to mowing lawns. do tree trimming. day i was painting. >> suare so i guess coming here helps? >> absolutel being able to co here was a great help.

>> suarez: cynthiaibley helps co-ordinatthe dinners which serves about 50-60 people a we. >> it's surprising aot of us. and alof us here are feeling it in one way or another we know people w have lost their home lost tir jobs. it's shaking us to t core. >> suarez: eagle, like other boom towns across e country -- had en a comfortable place to live. the tony vail resorts just 30 miles away, and in 200 the median household income eagle county was20,000 higher than the national avera. >> didou get it from grandpa? and grandma? >> suarez: but tt's changing as me and more people have lost their jobs. 28-year old avis barton had a promising reer as the operions manager at a local lumberyard. a ther of two young children, he and his wife we planning to buy house when the bottom fell out.

in march, the lumbyard announced itas going to shut wn. barton was out of a job. it's been a tough time. we're all just trying get thugh it. anthe thing is, it's not like you can get up andove because the ole country i think is is way right now. >>uarez: barton worked diligely to find another job, and got one with orkinest corol services. he says he loves the work, a is happy to be o of the boom- st-cycle of construction. >> actlly, i had a job offer the same day i gothe job offer om orkin for a job with similar pay, abouthe same benefits but at one was in construction here for aaterial supply coany. and i was thinking, the are alwa going to be bugs. i think m going to be smart and takehis job instead. >> how are you? >> suarez: even bunesses far removefrom construction have been affected.

erin seabury, real eate agent doug sbury's wife, owns a women's clothing sre. she says sheas had to make chges to her business since people have less mey to spend. i stted looking for things that people coulstill pick something up but ithe 20-30 range, speople could still pick something up but t have to spend $0 let's say. >> suaz: seabury says her family has made somehanges as well, ich has helped them weather the onomic crisis. >> we simplified our lifover the last two years. we moved into a smaller use. that change was prrecession and we got lucky. but we'll never go bacto a different way of living whe we wanted a bigger house. >> suarez: it's kely that many people in boom tow will be making silar changes, says dante chinni, direct of the patchwork nationroject.

>> eagle and the bm towns in neral are kind of a symbol o the exubance of the economy for the first half of this decade. everytng was going great guns it seems and it seemedhere would be no down. >> suarez: were ey built too much on e idea that there were enough buyers for high endomes with expensive finiss and appliances and all tha >> right. for every home a graniteounter top. i think that was thinkin look, i think it's too ear to say where we areoing to end up en everything shakes out and the recession is de and we've moved forward. but it does seem like that concept of americalife is going to change somewh. >> suarez:ynthia sibley says one silver lining out ofll this is strengthenedense of communy is emerging, one that was missing when the tn was expanding at such a fastate. >> our church is growi and i thinthat we are providing a little bit of that expanded

familytmosphere. >> suarez: it was built recession seitive businesses, housing and the rert industry. it's uncle whether eagle and the towns liket have learnd fr this downturn and the k grow other iustries to avoid the boom/buspsych until the futu. >> brown: tomorrow nig, ray wraps up t "patchwork nation" series with a report from lincoln ty, oregon. >> lehrer: againthe major develoents of the day: presidenobama accepted the nobel peace prize, in oslo, norw. he defded the concept of just war but urged the worlto strive f peace. and the winter storm that' plaguethe u.s. this week left much of the midwest an northeasin a deep freeze. the newshour continues now onli. for what's there this ening on our new bsite back to hari sreenivasain our newsroom. hari.

>> senivasan: on our web site tonight u can watch all of president obama's speech in oslo. and on our ecation page, newsho extra, there's an interview th this year's wier of the international childr's peace prize. onaul solman's making sense page a web exclusiveideo on retireme. is it good or d for your health? and on jeff's art beat blog,he first in a series abouthe future of reading it on writing short stories for twitter and other w media formats. speaking onew media, you can now follow us on ttter. friend us on facook. find us flickr. and watch us on youtube ere there's a spial welcome message from jim lrer. you'll find l those links at wshour.pbs.org. jeff. >> brown: and that the newshour f tonight. i'm jeffrey brow >> lehrer: we'llee you on-line and again here tomrow evening withark shields and david brooks, among others i'm jim lehrer. thank you and od night.

major funding fothe pbs newshour is ovided by: >>his is the engine that connects abundant grain om the american hrtland to haran's best selling whole wheat, whe keeping 60 billion pounds carbon out of thatmosphere every ar. bnsf, the enne that connects . >> what makes an engine for theconomy? plants aoss america. near 200,000 jobs created. we see beyond cars.

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