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American Morning

Another Dead U.S. Soldier Today in Iraq

Aired August 13, 2003 - 08:22   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: Another dead U.S. soldier today hit an explosive device about four hours ago in Iraq. That continues the daily reoccurrence we have seen there. In addition to that, temperatures in Iraq are well above 120 degrees and they've got shortages of water and fuel and electricity, and in between all that, in Basra we saw two days of violent protests.
Beyond that violence, there are reports that have been coming from Iraq that terrorists have been flocking to the country to do battle with U.S. forces there.

Alissa Rubin of the "L.A. Times" has been tracking Paul Bremmer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, ever since he arrived there in Baghdad.

Alissa is our guest to talk about her observations right now.

What is Paul Bremmer saying these days, in fact, this week, about the daily dribble that we get back in this country of another dead U.S. soldier?

ALISSA RUBIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, I think he would say, or has been saying, both to Iraqis and to Americans, that there are a variety of different problems and certainly the largest is that there have been attacks on U.S. soldiers by remnants of the former regime. There's also the question of what happened at the Jordanian embassy last week, which seems to have been different both in target and in method from what we've seen here in Iraq previously. And he's tried to convey that while the sort of broadest, broadest problem, on one level, is the former regime and there is a real strategy to try to stem those attacks, that it's a little bit harder and less clear what to do about terrorists who are coming from outside the country.

HEMMER: Fawaz Gerges is an analyst we use on AMERICAN MORNING quite often. He just returned from Iraq a few days ago. He says that we are focusing too much on the daily violence and not turning our attention to some of the progress that's been made there.

Is there a point in his statement?

RUBIN: Well, I think there has been progress and I think it is hard to see it sometimes when you're also looking at the extreme conditions people are living in here and some of the day to day difficulties, particularly with the electrical supplies still being erratic and very high temperatures. But after all lots of stores are open now. Children went back to school, university students were able to take exams. It's not a state of war here anymore. But that isn't to say that it's a normalized society and there can be a lot of turbulence and difficulty along the way to reaching something that feels more normal.

HEMMER: Yes, we've talked quite a bit, Alissa, about the whole idea about the U.S. not being able to get the power at full strength. We know that's going to take some time. But you mentioned the issue of sabotage. Are regular Iraqis aware today that the sabotage is being committed by fellow Iraqis? Or do they point the finger for that at the Americans?

RUBIN: In my interviews and discussions with Iraqis, I think the majority understand that it is fellow Iraqis and it's very distressing to them. I think they don't know what to do about it, though, and for that, they sort of look to the Americans and to some extent blame the Americans for not having anticipated the problem. Now the Americans are hiring and training a corps of people, it's going to be thousands of people, all of them Iraqi, to guard facilities, installations, pipelines. I imagine they'll also be doing, you know, water treatment plants, electrical plants.

But that's taken time. It's taken time to kind of divide up the different security issues and figure out who should be responsible for it.

HEMMER: Alissa, you've been there since the first part of April. In about the 15 seconds that we have left here, is it your belief that Iraq was in need of a lot more than the U.S. thought originally or for you what explains why the living conditions persist at the level they do today?

RUBIN: I think that they, it needed different things than what the U.S. anticipated. They had prepared for, you know, refugees. They had prepared for massive casualties. There weren't either. And they didn't -- they weren't able very quickly to shift those resources into what was needed.

They also didn't do a very good job of seeing ahead what the looting would do and that, in fact, it kind of empowered very yearly on a group of criminals, which has become a consistent and still is a large problem for most ordinary Iraqis.

HEMMER: Listen, be safe and thanks for your time.

From the "L.A. Times," Alissa Rubin live in Baghdad.

Paul Bremmer says the first priority there is to try and get this constitution well on the way. They've appointed a 25 member team to start looking at that and starting drafting that, as well.

Later in the week we'll talk about how Iraqis feel about a new constitution at some point.

For more on this story, head to our Web site, cnn.com/iraq. We are there for you 24 hours a day online.

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 August 13, 2003 - 08:22   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Another dead U.S. soldier today hit an explosive device about four hours ago in Iraq. That continues the daily reoccurrence we have seen there. In addition to that, temperatures in Iraq are well above 120 degrees and they've got shortages of water and fuel and electricity, and in between all that, in Basra we saw two days of violent protests.
Beyond that violence, there are reports that have been coming from Iraq that terrorists have been flocking to the country to do battle with U.S. forces there.

Alissa Rubin of the "L.A. Times" has been tracking Paul Bremmer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, ever since he arrived there in Baghdad.

Alissa is our guest to talk about her observations right now.

What is Paul Bremmer saying these days, in fact, this week, about the daily dribble that we get back in this country of another dead U.S. soldier?

ALISSA RUBIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, I think he would say, or has been saying, both to Iraqis and to Americans, that there are a variety of different problems and certainly the largest is that there have been attacks on U.S. soldiers by remnants of the former regime. There's also the question of what happened at the Jordanian embassy last week, which seems to have been different both in target and in method from what we've seen here in Iraq previously. And he's tried to convey that while the sort of broadest, broadest problem, on one level, is the former regime and there is a real strategy to try to stem those attacks, that it's a little bit harder and less clear what to do about terrorists who are coming from outside the country.

HEMMER: Fawaz Gerges is an analyst we use on AMERICAN MORNING quite often. He just returned from Iraq a few days ago. He says that we are focusing too much on the daily violence and not turning our attention to some of the progress that's been made there.

Is there a point in his statement?

RUBIN: Well, I think there has been progress and I think it is hard to see it sometimes when you're also looking at the extreme conditions people are living in here and some of the day to day difficulties, particularly with the electrical supplies still being erratic and very high temperatures. But after all lots of stores are open now. Children went back to school, university students were able to take exams. It's not a state of war here anymore. But that isn't to say that it's a normalized society and there can be a lot of turbulence and difficulty along the way to reaching something that feels more normal.

HEMMER: Yes, we've talked quite a bit, Alissa, about the whole idea about the U.S. not being able to get the power at full strength. We know that's going to take some time. But you mentioned the issue of sabotage. Are regular Iraqis aware today that the sabotage is being committed by fellow Iraqis? Or do they point the finger for that at the Americans?

RUBIN: In my interviews and discussions with Iraqis, I think the majority understand that it is fellow Iraqis and it's very distressing to them. I think they don't know what to do about it, though, and for that, they sort of look to the Americans and to some extent blame the Americans for not having anticipated the problem. Now the Americans are hiring and training a corps of people, it's going to be thousands of people, all of them Iraqi, to guard facilities, installations, pipelines. I imagine they'll also be doing, you know, water treatment plants, electrical plants.

But that's taken time. It's taken time to kind of divide up the different security issues and figure out who should be responsible for it.

HEMMER: Alissa, you've been there since the first part of April. In about the 15 seconds that we have left here, is it your belief that Iraq was in need of a lot more than the U.S. thought originally or for you what explains why the living conditions persist at the level they do today?

RUBIN: I think that they, it needed different things than what the U.S. anticipated. They had prepared for, you know, refugees. They had prepared for massive casualties. There weren't either. And they didn't -- they weren't able very quickly to shift those resources into what was needed.

They also didn't do a very good job of seeing ahead what the looting would do and that, in fact, it kind of empowered very yearly on a group of criminals, which has become a consistent and still is a large problem for most ordinary Iraqis.

HEMMER: Listen, be safe and thanks for your time.

From the "L.A. Times," Alissa Rubin live in Baghdad.

Paul Bremmer says the first priority there is to try and get this constitution well on the way. They've appointed a 25 member team to start looking at that and starting drafting that, as well.

Later in the week we'll talk about how Iraqis feel about a new constitution at some point.

For more on this story, head to our Web site, cnn.com/iraq. We are there for you 24 hours a day online.

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