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CNN Live Today

War Strategy

Aired March 18, 2003 - 11:41   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: One would think that General Tommy Franks is putting the final touches now on his war plan in his headquarters in Qatar. Let's talk now about the likely U.S. war strategy.
Joining us now is our own military analyst, General Don Shepherd. He joins us now from Washington with more on this.

Good to see you again, general. How are you?

GEN. DON SHEPHERD, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I'm very fine, Leon. How are you?

HARRIS: All right, I'm very well.

I want to start off first of all with a couple of places mentioned in the last few hours of the news that many folks may not have heard about. We're talking about the H-2 and H-3 airfields. Explain those for us, and their significance.

SHEPHERD: Those are airfield in western Iraq named by the British way back when they were in control of the area there. Basically the airfields are airfields from which Saddam reportedly launched scud missile attacks against Israel in the previous Gulf War.

The idea, of course, could be to seize those airfields, take control of western Iraq as soon as possible, because having the Israelis drawn into this conflict in reaction to SCUDs fired at another country would really complicate our lives -- Leon.

HARRIS: So that's going to be a target area that will be amongst the first targets hit?

SHEPHERD: It will be hit and also probably seized. We want to seize Western Iraq very quickly to eliminate the ability of any SCUDs to be launched from that area, as they were during the Gulf War.

HARRIS: Having said that, which divisions of the military, do you think are going to be the first ones activated, and where do you think they will go?

SHEPHERD: Well, basically, if you look at the ground order of battle in Iraq, what you have is the third infantry division down in the Kuwait area, you got the 82nd Airborne, at least brigade of the 82nd Airborne down in that area. You also have the 101st Airborne down there. You have the British. They're all concentrated in the south. The idea was to have the Fourth Infantry Division in the north. Because of the delay over Turkey and the 4th infantry division is not in the north, and so probably what you'll see the simultaneous movement of the forces north and those forces branching to the west to seize western Iraq, and then moving up the Tigris, Euphrates Valley toward Baghdad, and you probably will see lighter forces flown in to the northern area to move south toward Baghdad -- Leon.

HARRIS: Speaking of Baghdad, what we've been observing there the last week or so has been this compiling hornet's nest of defenses that have been put in around that city. Has anything that we've seen or that we've been able to talk about at least that's been go on around there, does anything present any kind of a special concern?

SHEPHERD: It all presents a very special concern. Hornet's nest is an apt term, because what he's been able to do is take the air defenses that would normally defend the entire country and concentrate them around Baghdad. The things we're very concerned about is his ability to command and control his air defense forces as well as talk to his ground forces, and then we're concerned about the high altitude surface-to-air missiles, the SA-2 and SA-3 surface-to-air missiles sites. We're also concerned about his SA-6 and SA-8 mobile sites that he can move around at will. And of course we're also concerned about his stationing them next to targets that will cause high collateral damage if and when we strike them.

And again, when I say we, I keep saying we, I mean the United States forces.

SHEPHERD: Of course, understood.

Let me ask you something else about another item popped up in the news, and that is this talk we just heard Fredricka Whitfield mention just a moment ago, that perhaps the Turkish parliament may actually reverse the vote they had a couple of weeks ago that kept the U.S. from installing any troops there in Turkey, that would actually form the forces that would make the northern front move down into Iraq.

If they do reverse that vote, is it too late to actually take advantage of that, or is it possible still to take advantage from a spot or some kind of location there within Turkey to launch an attack from?

SHEPHERD: Turkey remains important. Now the idea was the port of Iskinvin (ph) was going to unload the 4th Infantry Division equipment, move it to the east across Turkey about 350 miles and down into northern Iraq. It's probably too late for the United States to do that. On the other hand, you can fly forces in to the northern part of the country. There are three key airfields up there that the U.S. would like to launch strikes from, Batman (ph) and Yarbiter (ph), that have been used for pilot rescue and also perhaps special forces. The United States would find it very important to have overflight rights to resupply forces to Turkey. So Turkey remains important.

HARRIS: Finally, one of the strategic plans involves this shock and awe method of just actually unleashing a massive bombardment, as well as this infusion or massive intrusion of forces as well. This is actually from what it looks like, this is going to impress not just those in Iraq, but also those around the world watching this whole operation as well.

SHEPHERD: Yes, this is a Tomahawk missile that is being shown here. It can be launched from the United States ship in a Red Sea, as a matter of fact in the Mediterranean if we had overflight rights of Turkey, and also from the Persian Gulf toward targets in Iraq. You're going to see a lot of these launched, as well as air launch -- conventional air launch cruise missiles from United States bombers. You'll see a lot of these precision weapons. And the rumor has it, that there will be as many as 3,000 in the first 48 hours, which would be ten times as many targets as were hit during the Gulf War.

HARRIS: We keep saying all of this is going to happen once the war is declared and actually is officially commenced. But is there anything happening right now that we can talk about?

SHEPHERD: Basically, what you're seeing is the forces preparing to move out, both -- all the coalition forces preparing to move out, waiting for the president to kick this off. The things that the military always wants more time, and you'd like to have more forces close, and you'd like to have 350,000 forces if you could. Right now, there is about 230,--- to 250,000 forces in the area. Weather becomes a factor. You have to watch all of those. You may launch some preemptive strikes if Saddam Hussein begins to unleash attacks on his own oil fields, or chemical, biological, or amasses his troops in any fashion -- Leon.

HARRIS: Always a pleasure, sir. Always an education as well talking to you. Appreciate it. Take care. 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 March 18, 2003 - 11:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: One would think that General Tommy Franks is putting the final touches now on his war plan in his headquarters in Qatar. Let's talk now about the likely U.S. war strategy.
Joining us now is our own military analyst, General Don Shepherd. He joins us now from Washington with more on this.

Good to see you again, general. How are you?

GEN. DON SHEPHERD, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I'm very fine, Leon. How are you?

HARRIS: All right, I'm very well.

I want to start off first of all with a couple of places mentioned in the last few hours of the news that many folks may not have heard about. We're talking about the H-2 and H-3 airfields. Explain those for us, and their significance.

SHEPHERD: Those are airfield in western Iraq named by the British way back when they were in control of the area there. Basically the airfields are airfields from which Saddam reportedly launched scud missile attacks against Israel in the previous Gulf War.

The idea, of course, could be to seize those airfields, take control of western Iraq as soon as possible, because having the Israelis drawn into this conflict in reaction to SCUDs fired at another country would really complicate our lives -- Leon.

HARRIS: So that's going to be a target area that will be amongst the first targets hit?

SHEPHERD: It will be hit and also probably seized. We want to seize Western Iraq very quickly to eliminate the ability of any SCUDs to be launched from that area, as they were during the Gulf War.

HARRIS: Having said that, which divisions of the military, do you think are going to be the first ones activated, and where do you think they will go?

SHEPHERD: Well, basically, if you look at the ground order of battle in Iraq, what you have is the third infantry division down in the Kuwait area, you got the 82nd Airborne, at least brigade of the 82nd Airborne down in that area. You also have the 101st Airborne down there. You have the British. They're all concentrated in the south. The idea was to have the Fourth Infantry Division in the north. Because of the delay over Turkey and the 4th infantry division is not in the north, and so probably what you'll see the simultaneous movement of the forces north and those forces branching to the west to seize western Iraq, and then moving up the Tigris, Euphrates Valley toward Baghdad, and you probably will see lighter forces flown in to the northern area to move south toward Baghdad -- Leon.

HARRIS: Speaking of Baghdad, what we've been observing there the last week or so has been this compiling hornet's nest of defenses that have been put in around that city. Has anything that we've seen or that we've been able to talk about at least that's been go on around there, does anything present any kind of a special concern?

SHEPHERD: It all presents a very special concern. Hornet's nest is an apt term, because what he's been able to do is take the air defenses that would normally defend the entire country and concentrate them around Baghdad. The things we're very concerned about is his ability to command and control his air defense forces as well as talk to his ground forces, and then we're concerned about the high altitude surface-to-air missiles, the SA-2 and SA-3 surface-to-air missiles sites. We're also concerned about his SA-6 and SA-8 mobile sites that he can move around at will. And of course we're also concerned about his stationing them next to targets that will cause high collateral damage if and when we strike them.

And again, when I say we, I keep saying we, I mean the United States forces.

SHEPHERD: Of course, understood.

Let me ask you something else about another item popped up in the news, and that is this talk we just heard Fredricka Whitfield mention just a moment ago, that perhaps the Turkish parliament may actually reverse the vote they had a couple of weeks ago that kept the U.S. from installing any troops there in Turkey, that would actually form the forces that would make the northern front move down into Iraq.

If they do reverse that vote, is it too late to actually take advantage of that, or is it possible still to take advantage from a spot or some kind of location there within Turkey to launch an attack from?

SHEPHERD: Turkey remains important. Now the idea was the port of Iskinvin (ph) was going to unload the 4th Infantry Division equipment, move it to the east across Turkey about 350 miles and down into northern Iraq. It's probably too late for the United States to do that. On the other hand, you can fly forces in to the northern part of the country. There are three key airfields up there that the U.S. would like to launch strikes from, Batman (ph) and Yarbiter (ph), that have been used for pilot rescue and also perhaps special forces. The United States would find it very important to have overflight rights to resupply forces to Turkey. So Turkey remains important.

HARRIS: Finally, one of the strategic plans involves this shock and awe method of just actually unleashing a massive bombardment, as well as this infusion or massive intrusion of forces as well. This is actually from what it looks like, this is going to impress not just those in Iraq, but also those around the world watching this whole operation as well.

SHEPHERD: Yes, this is a Tomahawk missile that is being shown here. It can be launched from the United States ship in a Red Sea, as a matter of fact in the Mediterranean if we had overflight rights of Turkey, and also from the Persian Gulf toward targets in Iraq. You're going to see a lot of these launched, as well as air launch -- conventional air launch cruise missiles from United States bombers. You'll see a lot of these precision weapons. And the rumor has it, that there will be as many as 3,000 in the first 48 hours, which would be ten times as many targets as were hit during the Gulf War.

HARRIS: We keep saying all of this is going to happen once the war is declared and actually is officially commenced. But is there anything happening right now that we can talk about?

SHEPHERD: Basically, what you're seeing is the forces preparing to move out, both -- all the coalition forces preparing to move out, waiting for the president to kick this off. The things that the military always wants more time, and you'd like to have more forces close, and you'd like to have 350,000 forces if you could. Right now, there is about 230,--- to 250,000 forces in the area. Weather becomes a factor. You have to watch all of those. You may launch some preemptive strikes if Saddam Hussein begins to unleash attacks on his own oil fields, or chemical, biological, or amasses his troops in any fashion -- Leon.

HARRIS: Always a pleasure, sir. Always an education as well talking to you. Appreciate it. Take care. 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