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American Morning

"Daisy Cutter" Bomb is Introduced in Afghanistan Campaign

Aired November 07, 2001 - 11:11   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to go back to the military front now. And American bombs started raining down on Afghanistan about a month ago, starting today. And the Pentagon will tell you the military campaign on track as they like but it will take time.

However, two facts do remain: The Taliban still controlling most of that country, and Osama bin Laden nowhere to be seen or found at this point.

Retired General and CNN Military Analyst, Wesley Clark now with us live in Little Rock, Arkansas. General, good morning to you.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Tell us this, and I talked with Don Shepperd last hour about this. There is some criticism in some corners that the number of sorties flown are not nearly the capacity or capability of the U.S. at this point. Do you see concern there? Or do you see a ramp up on that effort at some point soon?

CLARK: Well, I see a ramp up. I think that it's always going to be the case that we could have flown more sorties than we actually flew. Remember we're trying to conduct a precisely-targeted campaign. There's no point in dumping bombs in the desert. We want the bombs to hit the Taliban. So as we get more special forces troops in, we'll get more target information coming up and we'll be delivering more ordinance on them. I think in that respect, the campaign is proceeding exactly right.

HEMMER: Let's talk long-term strategy. And here is what I envision. According to the reports, the Taliban, Al Qaeda hiding out in homes, different buildings and certain villages staying out of the way of the air fire and the bombs that are being dropped there on the ground. If that's the case, eventually you're going to have a massive buildup of U.S. coalition forces, mainly U.S. on the ground there, and, ultimately, you're going to see troops move from village to village to find these people and root them out. Fair assessment?

CLARK: Well, it's one course of action. And there's another course of action, and that is, simply, that the Northern Alliance will swell its ranks with the defections from the Taliban, and they, supported by U.S. air power, will be able to move through most of these villages and themselves rout out the Al Qaeda. There may be some American troops on the ground with them in an advisory role or in a role of special operations, but in the scenario I just sketched out, there wouldn't be a major ground presence.

And I think it's too soon right now for the administration to have made a decision on which way it has to go. The characteristic of warfare today -- modern warfare -- is that you have multiple options and what you want to do is avoid a failure. You want to keep your options open, and you want to move down several different paths simultaneously. Seems to me that's exactly what we're doing.

HEMMER: You helped run a coalition in the air war over Yugoslavia. And that -- that air war and that campaign involved a number of different troops from a number of different countries, primarily western European countries. We're starting to see more contributions -- the French, the Germans, the Italians come in here, possibly the Japanese as well. How difficult is that? I think it's nice to see from military standpoint when you draw interest from other nations. But does it present difficulties as well when you try and incorporate other people, cultures and languages.

CLARK: Well, of course it does. And, for this reason, most of the military purists probably would say they'd rather do it themselves. But the actual truth is that we'll be much stronger and more effective as we bring in more allies, and they get their troops on the ground. We can work through the language and cultural problems. We can assign the right troops to the right task.

But what's important is, get these governments -- the total government, the total people there -- committed, on our side. They've got to take domestic actions. They've got to work their banking systems. They've got to go after the arrest of Al Qaeda members. They've got to use their law enforcement agencies. They've got to be fully committed to what we're doing. Words aren't enough. And their actions, to putting these troops with us, and if we go on the ground, with us on the ground, in Afghanistan, will be the actual glue that holds it all together. So it's a very, very significant step. And a very important step that's being made by the Bush administration.

HEMMER: Two questions ago, we were running videotape underneath your answer. It was nighttime video from Al Jazeera. It was -- massive explosion here on the ground here, believed to be possibly one of those 15,000-pound Daisy cutters. You know, back in Vietnam, this weapon was used. Tell us about it and how ferocious it can be.

CLARK: Well, it's a terrific weapon. It's got about 500, 600 yards of destructive potential in it from where it hits. And we used it to clear landing zones. So, the idea was, you drop in the jungle; it goes off, it knocks down trees in every direction a quarter of a mile out from where it hits. It's what you need to be able to quickly get in with helicopters in a jungle. Obviously it's not used being for that here. It's got tremendous destructive power.

HEMMER: Yeah, I've heard two have been dropped. Have you heard that as well?

CLARK: Yes, I have. HEMMER: And how many do we have, possibly, as a U.S. fighting force?

CLARK: I wouldn't know what the actual inventory is. That would -- that would be classified. But you can be sure there are more than that and they will be used whenever there's an appropriate target. This is an area target weapon.

HEMMER: Wesley Clark, thank you, General. Appreciate it. We'll talk again.

More on the Daisy Cutter now. We know it's ferocious. It can have a major impact on the ground, and for that, Kyra Phillips with us with more. Kyra, good morning.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill, good to see you again. Well, we are seeing more evidence of the use of brute force in this war against terrorists in Afghanistan. And you'll see what I mean as I tell you now about the use of this biggest -- actually the world's biggest conventional bomb. Take a look at this video.

Recently, the Al Jazeera television network showed these pictures of a huge explosion near Kabul. Now, the blast produced what looks like a mushroom cloud, with flames reaching 1,000 feet, maybe even more.

So, what is it? It's the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter. One of the United States' most powerful weapons. Now General Peter Pace, Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs, confirmed yesterday that the U.S. forces did use this giant 15,000-pound bomb in Afghanistan. The U.S. has used the BLU-82 before, in Vietnam and in Desert Storm. And it was used to clear mines, blast landing fields, and force devastating effect on em -- enemy morale.

Officially known as the "commando vault, " the BLU-82 is 17 feet long and weighs as much as three SUVs. Now, the only thing is it's more -- well, the only thing with more explosive power is a nuclear blast. And this is how it works. I'll show you here.

It's dropped from an MC-130. This is the only aircraft big enough to carry this huge bomb. There we go -- here it is right here. There it is right there. It drops right out of the MC-130. And the fall of this bomb is slowed by the giant parachute as you saw, and it ensures the aircraft's safe getaway from a massive shock wave, as you can see right here.

And as it gets closer to the ground, it released this mist of aluminum powder in a solution similar to napalm. You'll see it here, as it hits the ground. You can see all of it right here. And then it's -- you know, the droplets are scattered around, and it's very, very flammable. When it ignites, this becomes liquid fuel, and the explosion is tremendous, as you can see by the graphic here that we've been showing you.

The blast incinerates everything within 600 yards, and the shockwave can be felt miles away. You can just imagine, this is not just -- you know, has a physical impact -- an enormous physical impact, but it would have tremendous psychological impact on anyone who's seen it, even from a great distance.

Now, for an interactive look at other U.S. weapons and equipment being used in the war on terror, log on to the war room at CNN.com. AOL Keyword is CNN.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Alright, Kyra, thank you. More on the daisy cutter. Much appreciated.

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