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CNN Live Today

Analysis of Pending Military Combat

Aired March 19, 2003 - 11:15   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: Well, we will turn our focus now to this pending military combat there and the conflict there that may be in the offing there soon. Expect this war to open, when it does, with a thunderous air assault and near simultaneous ground sprint toward Baghdad.
Let's talk about these plans and the strategy and consequences involved with CNN Military Analyst Brigadier General David Grange. He joins us from Chicago this morning. Good to see you again, general.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Same to you.

HARRIS: Now, let's talk about -- the talk that we've been hearing in the last couple of days is from the south, because Turkey is pretty much now, still has yet to resolve the issue about whether or not there's going to be any access allowed to aircraft or the troops on the ground that are coming from the north. So the focus now, coming from the south. Basra is the first location that troops may actually encounter any kind of resistance. But from what I'm hearing, the expectation is that it will be very low level resistance, correct?

GRANGE: I believe you're right, and I believe that the majority of the forces will just bypass Basra, moving north, and a smaller force would handle Basra, any type of small engagements they may encounter there. But I think most of the people around Basra are going to support the coalition forces.

HARRIS: All right. If that is the case, it means it's going to be a pretty easy sprint all the way to Baghdad from there?

GRANGE: No. Nothing will be easy. The simplest things in war are always the most difficult. There's rivers to cross, there are canals to cross. There's berms, there's mine fields. There may be some contaminated areas that initiated by Saddam's forces, oil fields burning, etcetera, so...

HARRIS: You mention that -- I want to cut you off at this point, because I have actually heard reports about that already being seen and evidenced. Have you heard those same reports?

GRANGE: I have, and so there's a lot of obstacles, Leon, that have to be encountered, even if they're not getting shot at. And so the forces are trained to do that. They're organized in teams of foot soldiers on armored personnel carriers, on tanks, engineers to get through obstacles as well as constant air support from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, but it still -- it still takes some time. And the enemy will probably defend the most difficult locations to get through, because of the geography or urban built-up areas or whatever. So that's going to be a challenge.

HARRIS: Let's talk about that challenge of the urban warfare. First of all, that is the one concern that has perhaps gotten the most attention, and perhaps the most concentration in terms of coming up with a strategy to deal with it. How soon do you think it will be after the launch of all of this before you get to a stage where there will be urban combat?

GRANGE: Well, there may be urban combat right off the start if they go by a small village. Let's say -- some of the roads have to go through villages, and I'm not saying that all these forces go through villages, but a lot of the terrain only supports traffic on roads, and so you may just have snipers firing out of buildings or a machine gun in the building that has to be cleared, whatever, and there may be civilians around the area, so you just can't destroy it. You have to go in there and take out the opposition with foot soldiers, and then it may get bigger and bigger as you get closer to the larger cities. And so it just depends on where they're set up, and how they're using terrain to their advantage to encounter the coalition forces.

HARRIS: Well, of course, the center of attention with the urban warfare, at least, is going to be in Baghdad. I want to know what your concerns are at this particular point before we go in, and I want to also know whether or not you've heard some of these other concerns that have been aired in the media lately by some former military officials who have said they're concerned that this could possibly, possibly turn into another Mogadishu situation. The folks may recall what happened in Somalia where some -- I believe it was 19 U.S. troopers ended up dying because of mass confusion and because what was called mission creep, I think, at that time.

GRANGE: Well, in this fight, I think in Baghdad, there will be casualties on both sides. There's no doubt about it. It's not going to be a Mogadishu, because in this case, you have resolve to complete the mission. In Mogadishu, we just left. And so that was the biggest issue there. Not so much that you had people get wounded or killed. It's terrible. But that happens in war, and it's going to happen in this war.

The thing is, you're not going to see a house by house, street by street clearing of the entire city of Baghdad, of 5 million people and all these homes with canals going through, the Tigris, Euphrates River. It's a substantial area. It's like clearing Chicago. And so what's going to happen is you're going to see pieces of Baghdad being taken down that support the accomplishment of the mission. It doesn't mean they have to go everywhere in Baghdad. And it is a concern. It's probably the biggest concern that there is.

But remember, a lot of the people in Baghdad, though we see different things on television, do not support Saddam.

HARRIS: All right. Let's leave there and go up north. As we said going into this, there is not going to be, at least at this particular point, there is no provision being made yet for U.S. troops to be based in Turkey for an assault to come from the north moving south as had been hoped for, but there is still some hope that there perhaps will be released by the Turkish folks access to their airspace. Now, at this particular point, is it too little too late, or is it possible to still take advantage of that? Is it going to be strategically important to have that?

GRANGE: Yes. The air space is critical, at least in the front side of the war. Later on, even moving ground troops from Turkey would benefit the operation because there's going to be a lot of second, third phase requirements for ground troops, especially up north. And so that will help. Even if it's a little bit later. But you are still going to see ground activity up north because of the coalition's robust airborne and air assault with helicopter capability, which still brings in some awesome fire power, though it be lighter than across the board or ground option.

HARRIS: All right. We'll wait to see whether or not that access is actually granted. Should be -- word on that should be coming within a matter of hours from now. General Grange, we sure do appreciate the access to your mind. As always, appreciate the education. Take care. We will talk to you later on.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

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 19, 2003 - 11:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we will turn our focus now to this pending military combat there and the conflict there that may be in the offing there soon. Expect this war to open, when it does, with a thunderous air assault and near simultaneous ground sprint toward Baghdad.
Let's talk about these plans and the strategy and consequences involved with CNN Military Analyst Brigadier General David Grange. He joins us from Chicago this morning. Good to see you again, general.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Same to you.

HARRIS: Now, let's talk about -- the talk that we've been hearing in the last couple of days is from the south, because Turkey is pretty much now, still has yet to resolve the issue about whether or not there's going to be any access allowed to aircraft or the troops on the ground that are coming from the north. So the focus now, coming from the south. Basra is the first location that troops may actually encounter any kind of resistance. But from what I'm hearing, the expectation is that it will be very low level resistance, correct?

GRANGE: I believe you're right, and I believe that the majority of the forces will just bypass Basra, moving north, and a smaller force would handle Basra, any type of small engagements they may encounter there. But I think most of the people around Basra are going to support the coalition forces.

HARRIS: All right. If that is the case, it means it's going to be a pretty easy sprint all the way to Baghdad from there?

GRANGE: No. Nothing will be easy. The simplest things in war are always the most difficult. There's rivers to cross, there are canals to cross. There's berms, there's mine fields. There may be some contaminated areas that initiated by Saddam's forces, oil fields burning, etcetera, so...

HARRIS: You mention that -- I want to cut you off at this point, because I have actually heard reports about that already being seen and evidenced. Have you heard those same reports?

GRANGE: I have, and so there's a lot of obstacles, Leon, that have to be encountered, even if they're not getting shot at. And so the forces are trained to do that. They're organized in teams of foot soldiers on armored personnel carriers, on tanks, engineers to get through obstacles as well as constant air support from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, but it still -- it still takes some time. And the enemy will probably defend the most difficult locations to get through, because of the geography or urban built-up areas or whatever. So that's going to be a challenge.

HARRIS: Let's talk about that challenge of the urban warfare. First of all, that is the one concern that has perhaps gotten the most attention, and perhaps the most concentration in terms of coming up with a strategy to deal with it. How soon do you think it will be after the launch of all of this before you get to a stage where there will be urban combat?

GRANGE: Well, there may be urban combat right off the start if they go by a small village. Let's say -- some of the roads have to go through villages, and I'm not saying that all these forces go through villages, but a lot of the terrain only supports traffic on roads, and so you may just have snipers firing out of buildings or a machine gun in the building that has to be cleared, whatever, and there may be civilians around the area, so you just can't destroy it. You have to go in there and take out the opposition with foot soldiers, and then it may get bigger and bigger as you get closer to the larger cities. And so it just depends on where they're set up, and how they're using terrain to their advantage to encounter the coalition forces.

HARRIS: Well, of course, the center of attention with the urban warfare, at least, is going to be in Baghdad. I want to know what your concerns are at this particular point before we go in, and I want to also know whether or not you've heard some of these other concerns that have been aired in the media lately by some former military officials who have said they're concerned that this could possibly, possibly turn into another Mogadishu situation. The folks may recall what happened in Somalia where some -- I believe it was 19 U.S. troopers ended up dying because of mass confusion and because what was called mission creep, I think, at that time.

GRANGE: Well, in this fight, I think in Baghdad, there will be casualties on both sides. There's no doubt about it. It's not going to be a Mogadishu, because in this case, you have resolve to complete the mission. In Mogadishu, we just left. And so that was the biggest issue there. Not so much that you had people get wounded or killed. It's terrible. But that happens in war, and it's going to happen in this war.

The thing is, you're not going to see a house by house, street by street clearing of the entire city of Baghdad, of 5 million people and all these homes with canals going through, the Tigris, Euphrates River. It's a substantial area. It's like clearing Chicago. And so what's going to happen is you're going to see pieces of Baghdad being taken down that support the accomplishment of the mission. It doesn't mean they have to go everywhere in Baghdad. And it is a concern. It's probably the biggest concern that there is.

But remember, a lot of the people in Baghdad, though we see different things on television, do not support Saddam.

HARRIS: All right. Let's leave there and go up north. As we said going into this, there is not going to be, at least at this particular point, there is no provision being made yet for U.S. troops to be based in Turkey for an assault to come from the north moving south as had been hoped for, but there is still some hope that there perhaps will be released by the Turkish folks access to their airspace. Now, at this particular point, is it too little too late, or is it possible to still take advantage of that? Is it going to be strategically important to have that?

GRANGE: Yes. The air space is critical, at least in the front side of the war. Later on, even moving ground troops from Turkey would benefit the operation because there's going to be a lot of second, third phase requirements for ground troops, especially up north. And so that will help. Even if it's a little bit later. But you are still going to see ground activity up north because of the coalition's robust airborne and air assault with helicopter capability, which still brings in some awesome fire power, though it be lighter than across the board or ground option.

HARRIS: All right. We'll wait to see whether or not that access is actually granted. Should be -- word on that should be coming within a matter of hours from now. General Grange, we sure do appreciate the access to your mind. As always, appreciate the education. Take care. We will talk to you later on.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com