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CNN Live At Daybreak

Growing Dilemma Over Iraq

Aired September 04, 2003 - 05:32   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The growing dilemma over Iraq. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is heading to the region today. The defense secretary says he hopes the trip will give him a firsthand sense of how things are going. Talking with reporters on the plane, he says no additional U.S. forces are needed in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It is their country. They ultimately are going to have to provide the security for that country. And rather than flooding it with American soldiers, it seems to me, it makes all the sense in the world to have a principled effort to strengthen the size of the Iraqi security forces, whether it's police, army, the militia, the border patrol. And that is exactly what's been taking place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That trip comes as the Bush administration circulates a resolution giving the U.N. a greater role in Iraq. So, we heard Rumsfeld summarize what's going on right there.

To help us get a better sense as to what is happening exactly in terms of security and reconstruction efforts, in Baghdad, let's check in with our Ben Wedeman now, who is live from Baghdad -- Ben. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Fredricka.

Yes, as you said, Secretary Rumsfeld is on his way. He is expected in Iraq some time this afternoon, coming to see the situation firsthand. And it really is a question of glass half full or glass half empty. Now, we heard from someone in the glass half full party, that is Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who commands coalition forces here in Iraq. He described at a press conference today what he called a great week in Iraq for the efforts to strengthen the Iraqi process of taking over this country and stabilizing it.

He pointed to several examples of progress here, one of them being the handover yesterday in Babylon from the U.S. Marines to a Polish-led force of about somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000. That is a multinational force that is going to be controlling a five province area in south central Iraq. He said this is the beginning of an internationalization of the coalition's presence here and that there are up to 30 countries now providing troops and other assistance to the coalition efforts.

He also pointed to the increasing number of Iraqis involved in security operations. Up to 50,000 at this point are involved in the police force, border patrols and guarding the ministries and vital infrastructure such as pipelines.

He also pointed to the situation in Najaf at the funeral for the assassinated Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, who was killed in last Friday's bomb blast. He said that the funeral, which had more than 100,000 people, was -- the security for that funeral was exclusively managed by Iraqi security forces. It came off without incident, so he pointed to that, as well, as an example of the Iraqis gradually taking a greater role in the security of this country -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much.

Ben Wedeman from Baghdad.

An awful lot of things at issue for Iraq.

Let's turn now to our senior international editor, David Clinch.

Rumsfeld summarized it one way, saying it's up to the Iraqi people to take care of security.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right.

WHITFIELD: But clearly the U.N. resolution isn't implying that, is it?

CLINCH: Right. Here's the issue at hand, very complicated, in some ways, on the surface, but underneath it's quite simple. Are we talking about more troops, less troops, more Iraqis, more Americans, what we talking about?

Essentially what we're talking about is that the United States has acknowledged that they need to retain, either they or the U.S. or a combined force needs to be retained at a very large number of troops over a long period of time. But they've also acknowledged that they can't afford...

WHITFIELD: They need help.

CLINCH: ... to do it themselves and they don't want to do it themselves, because the American troops are targets for attack.

Now, the idea then becomes to get more coalition troops in. They've already done that with the Poles, the Mongolians, you know, Panamanians, anybody else that is there already. But obviously the significant role that the U.N. can play, if they get this U.N. resolution, is that they can get Muslim troops in from Turkey, Pakistan, elsewhere, and they can significantly reduce the amount of U.S. troops.

Now, we spoke yesterday about this U.N. resolution and we didn't really know what was going to be in that draft. We now know a little bit more what's going to be in that draft. And essentially it's a question of not much, really. There's not much in terms of the text that we've seen so far that is significantly different from things that the French and others, Russians, have rejected in the past. The U.S. still looking to maintain military command of any force. Now, the one thing I think, though, that does make a difference, and we've been thinking about this a lot as we've been looking about what's going on at the U.N., is it's not just what's in the text, it's who's presenting it. And the key point is Powell.

When you look at what role Secretary Powell has been playing on this, it boils down to effectively he is the one person in the U.S. administration who can persuade the French, Russians, Germans and others to sign onto a resolution that maybe does not even have in written form any promise of a more significant role for them, not a promise, just maybe an insinuation or a general reference to a greater role, but not a promise in writing.

But with his standing in the world and with his word, I think the idea is that he can persuade them to say all right, we've had enough of, you know, broken coalitions, we've had enough of opposition between France and the U.S. and others, it's time to stop talking about the fine detail and just come together again.

Now, that still remains to be seen. But that, I think, is the idea. Because when you look at what Powell was saying yesterday, it basically boils down to a resolution which still asks for the U.S. to be in charge, but appeals to the rest of the world to say OK, we'll come along with that.

WHITFIELD: There are some analysts who are wondering if he sort of reluctantly is now taking on this role leading up to this.

CLINCH: Well, I don't reluctantly. He, certainly he's got an opportunity and he's going to take it, that's for sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, David Clinch, thanks very much.

CLINCH: OK.

WHITFIELD: We'll be watching.

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 September 4, 2003 - 05:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The growing dilemma over Iraq. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is heading to the region today. The defense secretary says he hopes the trip will give him a firsthand sense of how things are going. Talking with reporters on the plane, he says no additional U.S. forces are needed in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It is their country. They ultimately are going to have to provide the security for that country. And rather than flooding it with American soldiers, it seems to me, it makes all the sense in the world to have a principled effort to strengthen the size of the Iraqi security forces, whether it's police, army, the militia, the border patrol. And that is exactly what's been taking place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That trip comes as the Bush administration circulates a resolution giving the U.N. a greater role in Iraq. So, we heard Rumsfeld summarize what's going on right there.

To help us get a better sense as to what is happening exactly in terms of security and reconstruction efforts, in Baghdad, let's check in with our Ben Wedeman now, who is live from Baghdad -- Ben. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Fredricka.

Yes, as you said, Secretary Rumsfeld is on his way. He is expected in Iraq some time this afternoon, coming to see the situation firsthand. And it really is a question of glass half full or glass half empty. Now, we heard from someone in the glass half full party, that is Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who commands coalition forces here in Iraq. He described at a press conference today what he called a great week in Iraq for the efforts to strengthen the Iraqi process of taking over this country and stabilizing it.

He pointed to several examples of progress here, one of them being the handover yesterday in Babylon from the U.S. Marines to a Polish-led force of about somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000. That is a multinational force that is going to be controlling a five province area in south central Iraq. He said this is the beginning of an internationalization of the coalition's presence here and that there are up to 30 countries now providing troops and other assistance to the coalition efforts.

He also pointed to the increasing number of Iraqis involved in security operations. Up to 50,000 at this point are involved in the police force, border patrols and guarding the ministries and vital infrastructure such as pipelines.

He also pointed to the situation in Najaf at the funeral for the assassinated Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, who was killed in last Friday's bomb blast. He said that the funeral, which had more than 100,000 people, was -- the security for that funeral was exclusively managed by Iraqi security forces. It came off without incident, so he pointed to that, as well, as an example of the Iraqis gradually taking a greater role in the security of this country -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much.

Ben Wedeman from Baghdad.

An awful lot of things at issue for Iraq.

Let's turn now to our senior international editor, David Clinch.

Rumsfeld summarized it one way, saying it's up to the Iraqi people to take care of security.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right.

WHITFIELD: But clearly the U.N. resolution isn't implying that, is it?

CLINCH: Right. Here's the issue at hand, very complicated, in some ways, on the surface, but underneath it's quite simple. Are we talking about more troops, less troops, more Iraqis, more Americans, what we talking about?

Essentially what we're talking about is that the United States has acknowledged that they need to retain, either they or the U.S. or a combined force needs to be retained at a very large number of troops over a long period of time. But they've also acknowledged that they can't afford...

WHITFIELD: They need help.

CLINCH: ... to do it themselves and they don't want to do it themselves, because the American troops are targets for attack.

Now, the idea then becomes to get more coalition troops in. They've already done that with the Poles, the Mongolians, you know, Panamanians, anybody else that is there already. But obviously the significant role that the U.N. can play, if they get this U.N. resolution, is that they can get Muslim troops in from Turkey, Pakistan, elsewhere, and they can significantly reduce the amount of U.S. troops.

Now, we spoke yesterday about this U.N. resolution and we didn't really know what was going to be in that draft. We now know a little bit more what's going to be in that draft. And essentially it's a question of not much, really. There's not much in terms of the text that we've seen so far that is significantly different from things that the French and others, Russians, have rejected in the past. The U.S. still looking to maintain military command of any force. Now, the one thing I think, though, that does make a difference, and we've been thinking about this a lot as we've been looking about what's going on at the U.N., is it's not just what's in the text, it's who's presenting it. And the key point is Powell.

When you look at what role Secretary Powell has been playing on this, it boils down to effectively he is the one person in the U.S. administration who can persuade the French, Russians, Germans and others to sign onto a resolution that maybe does not even have in written form any promise of a more significant role for them, not a promise, just maybe an insinuation or a general reference to a greater role, but not a promise in writing.

But with his standing in the world and with his word, I think the idea is that he can persuade them to say all right, we've had enough of, you know, broken coalitions, we've had enough of opposition between France and the U.S. and others, it's time to stop talking about the fine detail and just come together again.

Now, that still remains to be seen. But that, I think, is the idea. Because when you look at what Powell was saying yesterday, it basically boils down to a resolution which still asks for the U.S. to be in charge, but appeals to the rest of the world to say OK, we'll come along with that.

WHITFIELD: There are some analysts who are wondering if he sort of reluctantly is now taking on this role leading up to this.

CLINCH: Well, I don't reluctantly. He, certainly he's got an opportunity and he's going to take it, that's for sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, David Clinch, thanks very much.

CLINCH: OK.

WHITFIELD: We'll be watching.

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