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American Morning
Asian Front Lines Diplomatically Delicate
Aired January 04, 2002 - 09:08 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: With Pakistan placing so much attention on its conflict with India, could that affect America's war on terrorism in Afghanistan?
Our military analyst, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, joins us this hour. He's got his insights.
Good morning, general. Good to see you.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Leon.
HARRIS: What do you make of the tensions between India and Pakistan. It seems as thought Pakistan has taken a half step back over the last couple of days or so. Have they done enough, do you think?
CLARK: I think the overnight news of arrest of a large number of militants is very important. I think Musharraf is gradually taking the appropriate steps, and I think the Indians are going to continue to squeeze to get everything they can out of this.
Nations like India, when they put that big buildup on the border, they are taking a tremendous diplomatic pounding. It's very expensive economically. They want to get out of this some kind of a resolution that will help them really come to grips with the problem of terrorism.
And so you will see a prolongation of this crisis for some time as they squeeze Musharraf.
HARRIS: Are you concerned that perhaps they could squeeze too much and maybe go take a half step too far here, or what?
CLARK: There's always the concern that when you put armed forces face to face and the units are concerned about their security, and deception, and they're sending out patrols, and there's artillery and mortar exchanges, that this could get out of hand and escalate into real fighting. There's always going to be that concern.
HARRIS: There was some escalation in Afghanistan last night. You heard Bill Hemmer's report about the bombing campaign, over 100 bombs dropped in at least one spot there. What do you make of what's going on with that? CLARK: I think that we're reacting to intelligence and that we're reacting appropriately in this case, where we have strong indications, obviously, of hostile force. But I do think that we are going to see fewer and fewer of these incidents over time, because each time it's happened there have been reports of civilians killed, and that's putting pressure on the Karzai government, it's putting pressure on the United States in its dealings with the Arab world, and we have got to be very careful about this.
HARRIS: There have been some people who think that there has not enough talking or reporting on the civilian casualties. Do we know how bad they've gotten?
CLARK: We really don't have anything other than the reports of international agencies like the United Nations, who are hearing reports from the villagers. What I am hoping we are going to see are some real investigatory teams. Unlike the operation in Kosovo which we ran, here could put people on the ground afterwards, not just to look at where the holes are, but to find out who was actually hit.
HARRIS: Let me ask you about something that our correspondent at the Pentagon, Barbara Starr, brought up last hour. Have you seen these new photos that have been put on these leaflets that are being dropped on Afghanistan?
CLARK: Yes, I have.
HARRIS: The one that's got the doctored photo of Osama bin Laden. It's got a shot of him that looks like he has got his hair cut, his beard shaved off, and he's just wearing a mustache and a suit. He looks like a salesman of some kind. There is some concern, and Barbara raised the point, that perhaps this could backfire because in the Arab world -- and perhaps in the Muslim world, I should say -- where there's still some latent support for Osama bin Laden, this doctoring of evidence by the United States could actually backfire. Are you concerned about that at all? What do you think?
CLARK: I am a little bit concerned about it. When we ran a Kosovo operation, we found out that a lot of our psychological warfare techniques, like this with the leaflets, we didn't really have enough cultural sensitivity to target them correctly.
Here's a case where we really need to look at this very closely. It will appeal to some people. It will make its point. But to others, it will backfire against us, and we need to be sure we're on the right side of the balance there.
HARRIS: Gen. Wesley Clark, thank you very much for the insight. Have a good weekend.
CLARK: Thanks, Leon.
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