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CNN Live Today
Military Preparations for Possible War With Iraq
Aired February 17, 2003 - 11:07 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: There's been no let-up in the military preparations for possible war with Iraq.
Joining us now from Washington with some more insight on all of this is former NATO supreme allied commander and CNN military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
Good to see you again, General, and glad to have you with us this morning.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Leon.
HARRIS: And what did you drive in this morning? Did you drive in a Humvee or a tank to get to the bureau through all of that snow?
I needed a Humvee, but I got a lift in a four-wheeler.
HARRIS: OK, good deal.
Well, listen, there's a lot to talk about this morning. First off, let's talk about what happened there in NATO. As you know, the ministers there did find a way to get around the impasse they were at last week when Belgium, Germany and France put a kibosh on beginning preparations for protecting Turkey. But it seems as though the way they did it was they sort of circumvented and ran an end-run around France. Do you see any broader implications of that, or any long-term repercussions that may come from this?
CLARK: Well, the long-term repercussions will come from the feelings of the nations and the diplomats, the leaders, as a result of the struggle that goes on within NATO. But NATO is a consensus engine, Leon. You feed differing national perspectives and interests into it. You chug it around. It comes out and somehow it produces consensus decisions.
And going through, in this case, the defense planning committee on which France does not sit because it's not an integrated military member of NATO, well, that's the way they produced the consensus.
So, what really has to be done is you've got to go back and look now at the respective national positions. The real struggle is going to be in the United Nations Security Council. France has not yet changed its position. I have heard informally that President Chirac is trying to find a way to reconcile French public concerns with Washington's needs. And maybe there's some formula that can be devised over the next few weeks, giving enough time, some strengthening of inspections in the near-term, recognition that there has to be a cutoff period by which Saddam Hussein must comply.
Our military forces aren't all deployed right there. Of course, we could fight on a rolling start, as it's called. But to get fully deployed we may get another three or four weeks. It depends on the situation with Turkey and the movement through Turkey, and we could wait after that.
So, there are a lot of issues up in the air right now that the administration's working.
HARRIS: Well, you bring up the matter of international public opinion. Let's talk about that, if we can, because there were just remarkable demonstrations around the around the world, rather, I should say, some 600 different cities now saying that there was some demonstration. Major demonstrations in both Rome and in London, perhaps a million people on the streets in both of those places.
I have to ask you, if you were the supreme allied commander right now, would you be concerned about the prospect of going into war with major dissent like this showing up in capitals like this, considering the fact that the two capitals that had the largest demonstrations in Rome in Italy and in London in the U.K. are the two countries that are the major allies on President Bush's side here?
CLARK: Well, I think it is a concern. When you're in the military, you want to go to war with the strongest possible public backing, because that gives you the confidence you've got staying power. And we know this operation, Iraq, it's not going to be, we don't think, a long conflict, but it's going to be a long post- conflict with lots of issues. We're going to need the staying power, we're going to need the support of allies.
Obviously, if it were a crisis situation and the governments had to take action, they could do so even though the publics weren't with them.
But here's the rub, Leon. The administration has never been able to make the case effectively and carry it through the allies about the urgency of the situation with Saddam Hussein. I think everybody on the inside understands he's a bad guy. He does have weapons of mass destruction. He doesn't have nuclear weapons. He is a long-term threat to regional stability. He does threaten his neighbors in one way or another, directly or indirectly, from time to time. But what's the urgency of this? And it's the urgency that hasn't been conveyed to the European public or, for that matter, based on my conversations around the United States, with the American public.
But, you know, this is our country and we were attacked and people are patriotic and they do want to support our troops. And so, the issues have been more muted here, although now you're starting to see the demonstrations and the issues come out here.
But abroad when you take the factor of patriotism out of it, and they look at the issues in a cold, objective light, their own country, their national interest, well, that's where the protests are coming from.
HARRIS: Well, let me ask you this with that as a backdrop here. You have also come out this weekend and have been quite critical of the Bush administration. You were saying here that they have disrespected the allies, and their kind of diplomacy may actually have contributed to the situation the way it is right now. I mean, this climate right now where opposition is mounting, if there is one piece of advice you could give to the administration to actually repair this situation, what would it be?
CLARK: Well, first of all, they've got to take the time to allow European public opinion to shift, and they've got to feed the information and the analysis and the evidence to that. I would recommend President Bush go over and talk the issue directly to European publics. Why not?
HARRIS: In a summit?
CLARK: No, not in a summit. You know, visit from capital to capital, lay out the case. But the case has to be a compelling case, and that's been part of the problem is we've heard so many different explanations of why the United States and its allies should take action against Iraq, but no single explanation seems to fully explain the administration's determination and sense of urgency.
HARRIS: General Wesley Clark, thank you very much for the insight. Take care. Travel well and safely there in Washington, all right?
CLARK: Thank you.
HARRIS: We'll see you soon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 17, 2003 - 11:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There's been no let-up in the military preparations for possible war with Iraq.
Joining us now from Washington with some more insight on all of this is former NATO supreme allied commander and CNN military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
Good to see you again, General, and glad to have you with us this morning.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Leon.
HARRIS: And what did you drive in this morning? Did you drive in a Humvee or a tank to get to the bureau through all of that snow?
I needed a Humvee, but I got a lift in a four-wheeler.
HARRIS: OK, good deal.
Well, listen, there's a lot to talk about this morning. First off, let's talk about what happened there in NATO. As you know, the ministers there did find a way to get around the impasse they were at last week when Belgium, Germany and France put a kibosh on beginning preparations for protecting Turkey. But it seems as though the way they did it was they sort of circumvented and ran an end-run around France. Do you see any broader implications of that, or any long-term repercussions that may come from this?
CLARK: Well, the long-term repercussions will come from the feelings of the nations and the diplomats, the leaders, as a result of the struggle that goes on within NATO. But NATO is a consensus engine, Leon. You feed differing national perspectives and interests into it. You chug it around. It comes out and somehow it produces consensus decisions.
And going through, in this case, the defense planning committee on which France does not sit because it's not an integrated military member of NATO, well, that's the way they produced the consensus.
So, what really has to be done is you've got to go back and look now at the respective national positions. The real struggle is going to be in the United Nations Security Council. France has not yet changed its position. I have heard informally that President Chirac is trying to find a way to reconcile French public concerns with Washington's needs. And maybe there's some formula that can be devised over the next few weeks, giving enough time, some strengthening of inspections in the near-term, recognition that there has to be a cutoff period by which Saddam Hussein must comply.
Our military forces aren't all deployed right there. Of course, we could fight on a rolling start, as it's called. But to get fully deployed we may get another three or four weeks. It depends on the situation with Turkey and the movement through Turkey, and we could wait after that.
So, there are a lot of issues up in the air right now that the administration's working.
HARRIS: Well, you bring up the matter of international public opinion. Let's talk about that, if we can, because there were just remarkable demonstrations around the around the world, rather, I should say, some 600 different cities now saying that there was some demonstration. Major demonstrations in both Rome and in London, perhaps a million people on the streets in both of those places.
I have to ask you, if you were the supreme allied commander right now, would you be concerned about the prospect of going into war with major dissent like this showing up in capitals like this, considering the fact that the two capitals that had the largest demonstrations in Rome in Italy and in London in the U.K. are the two countries that are the major allies on President Bush's side here?
CLARK: Well, I think it is a concern. When you're in the military, you want to go to war with the strongest possible public backing, because that gives you the confidence you've got staying power. And we know this operation, Iraq, it's not going to be, we don't think, a long conflict, but it's going to be a long post- conflict with lots of issues. We're going to need the staying power, we're going to need the support of allies.
Obviously, if it were a crisis situation and the governments had to take action, they could do so even though the publics weren't with them.
But here's the rub, Leon. The administration has never been able to make the case effectively and carry it through the allies about the urgency of the situation with Saddam Hussein. I think everybody on the inside understands he's a bad guy. He does have weapons of mass destruction. He doesn't have nuclear weapons. He is a long-term threat to regional stability. He does threaten his neighbors in one way or another, directly or indirectly, from time to time. But what's the urgency of this? And it's the urgency that hasn't been conveyed to the European public or, for that matter, based on my conversations around the United States, with the American public.
But, you know, this is our country and we were attacked and people are patriotic and they do want to support our troops. And so, the issues have been more muted here, although now you're starting to see the demonstrations and the issues come out here.
But abroad when you take the factor of patriotism out of it, and they look at the issues in a cold, objective light, their own country, their national interest, well, that's where the protests are coming from.
HARRIS: Well, let me ask you this with that as a backdrop here. You have also come out this weekend and have been quite critical of the Bush administration. You were saying here that they have disrespected the allies, and their kind of diplomacy may actually have contributed to the situation the way it is right now. I mean, this climate right now where opposition is mounting, if there is one piece of advice you could give to the administration to actually repair this situation, what would it be?
CLARK: Well, first of all, they've got to take the time to allow European public opinion to shift, and they've got to feed the information and the analysis and the evidence to that. I would recommend President Bush go over and talk the issue directly to European publics. Why not?
HARRIS: In a summit?
CLARK: No, not in a summit. You know, visit from capital to capital, lay out the case. But the case has to be a compelling case, and that's been part of the problem is we've heard so many different explanations of why the United States and its allies should take action against Iraq, but no single explanation seems to fully explain the administration's determination and sense of urgency.
HARRIS: General Wesley Clark, thank you very much for the insight. Take care. Travel well and safely there in Washington, all right?
CLARK: Thank you.
HARRIS: We'll see you soon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
