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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Pentagon: War May Take Longer Than Many Anticipated

Aired March 26, 2003 - 22:00   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.


AARON BROWN, HOST: Baghdad at 6:00 in the morning, on a day when, once again, coalition jets stormed over the city. At least 10 explosions were heard about three hours ago now, two and a half hours or so. It is possible, based on some of the pictures we've seen that one of the targets was the Information Ministry. We know because we've talked with some of the pilots that another target was an air port or airstrip where some Iraqi jets, MiG jets, were on the ground.
The success of those hits too early to tell at this point. But that's how the city looks at 6:00 in the morning, as the war in Iraq is now one week old.

Good evening again, everyone.

There is some suggestion coming out of the Pentagon today and this evening that this war will take longer than many anticipated. Months to fight. That's "The Washington Post" reporting on the story. And that will be one of the story lines we'll be looking at today. But before we get into the individual puzzle pieces of this through the next four hours, we'll take a look at the broad view of how this day has gone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Moving by night over unfamiliar ground, coalition ground forces continued their march toward Baghdad. The Bush administration saying it will not change its strategy of aiming for the heart of the Iraqi regime.

VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: We have air dominance, we have Special Forces in the north, the south and the west. The main ground forces are moving at a phenomenal pace toward the north, closing in on Baghdad.

BROWN: As best we can tell, here is the situation on the ground. A major ground battle is believed to be brewing between American and Iraqi tanks near the city of Najaf. Not far from where the American 7th Cavalry lost two of its Abrams tanks, but no soldiers in a firefight last night. The Americans have already taken a key bridge over the Euphrates River.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the most desperate elements of a doomed regime. We cannot know the duration of this war, but we are prepared for the battle ahead. BROWN: Hundreds of American paratroopers landed in an airfield in Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Iraq. Meantime, badly needed supplies of fuel and food reached elements of the 7th Marines in south central Iraq, and British units were still involved in house-to-house clearing operations inside the city of Umm Qasr.

Refugees could be seen outside of Basra, where explosions lit up the night sky. Supplies of food finally reaching the Iraqi village of Safwan (ph), where there was a near riot during the distribution. Iraqi television knocked off the air last night for several hours was back on today, showing footage of casualties and severe damage in a busy Baghdad market. But American officials insist they did not send a missile crashing into the area.

And, finally, the Pentagon says it is still checking reports that as many as seven American prisoners were executed after their supply convoy was ambushed not far from the city of Nasiriya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That's the broad view as you look at Baghdad on a Thursday morning. Now we'll start to fill in the pieces of all of this. Two major story lines from the front. The continuing problems to the south trying -- the Iraqis trying to disrupt supply lines and more in the south. And we'll be dealing with that tonight.

And also, now, clearly, a northern front has been opened. Paratroopers have landed. They left from a base in Europe. And Steve Nettleton is the embedded correspondent at that airfield with the Army's 173rd Airborne Regiment. And Steve joins us now on the videophone -- Steve.

STEVE NETTLETON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BROWN: Go ahead.

NETTLETON: The runway here at the air base is now full of C-17s. Now, of course, without their human cargo. They're empty after having dropped hundreds of paratroopers into northern Iraq.

They now begin to upload all the military equipment which they will take to that air base. They will begin to -- we will not disclose times or report destinations, because under the ground rules we are not allowed to do that. However, the commander has made it clear that the mission of this brigade to bring this equipment to Iraq is definitely public knowledge and definitely something they would like to get out there.

They are bringing in tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, all sorts of weaponry. About half the brigade is there. They're bringing more of the brigade along on the air land.

We ourselves, myself and my partner, Thomas Nivel (ph), will be leaving on one of the air-land planes in the near future to go into northern Iraq and see what is happening at that airfield. We also hope to bring you some pictures here very soon of the actual drop, as Thomas was in on the plane as the paratroopers dropped out. And we have some very interesting night video to show you there.

The mission of this drop is to secure the area in northern Iraq, to pave the way for the larger armor column, the larger armor force to come in. But also to be more of a diplomatic move to stabilize the area, to try to prevent other forces from taking advantage of a power vacuum in the area, perhaps fighting with other groups, perhaps the Turks coming down south, perhaps the Iraqis coming in on their own. And, therefore, eventually lead the way to humanitarian aid.

BROWN: Steve, thank you. Steve Nettleton at a base in Europe where the paratroopers took off from. Brent Sadler is at the airstrip where the paratroopers landed and where they are now trying to secure that area. And he joins us on the telephone. Brent, it's good to talk to you. And just tell us what you see, what they are doing.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Aaron. From here, it's just daybreak within the last 30 minutes. And I'm overlooking an airstrip, which is about a mile plus, almost two miles long. Now, there are two major airfields in northern Iraq. And what I believe is happening, we have U.S. military activity not just at one airfield, but two airfields.

I'm not seeing this airborne drop actually unfolding in front of me. What I am seeing now through my binoculars are two U.S. helicopters. It looks like they are just perhaps off the main runway, and they are unloading groups -- what I believe -- from what I can see from here would fit in with the description of Special Forces. There are groups of men with equipment offloading from two helicopters.

And it's interesting to see, Aaron, that it's the Kurds, the Kurdish forces who are picking them up and shipping them out in three- ton lorries and taking them off to unknown destinations. This has been going on during the hours of darkness here and is continuing as I speak to you.

It's going on quite calmly. This is, after all, friendly territory. We're not getting any visibility here of attempts to stop us from overlooking this position. So that gives you an idea of the perhaps calmness around here compared to deployments of U.S. forces obviously in the south.

So what I believe -- just to recap -- is happening, we have a continuation of special force deployments at an airfield called Hariya (ph), which is about just under two hours from the nearest sector of the northern front where I'm speaking to you from. And also at another airfield, I believe, which would be near Sulaymaniyah, near the Iranian border. Because I'm not seeing any evidence on the ground at this location at Hariya (ph) of deployments of large numbers of paratroopers or any heavy equipment.

These are light forces being picked up by the Kurds and being moved on elsewhere. But certainly, what we have here now, given that we saw series of air strikes against northern front positions in this sector, we're clearly seeing the northern front beginning to go open. Back to you, Aaron. BROWN: Brent, thank you. Brent Sadler. In fact, those air strikes, as we were in the last hour of our coverage last night, about 1:00 in the morning, both Ben Wedeman and Kevin Sites were in the area and were noting that the air strikes were coming in, sort of preparing for the paratroopers to come in.

General Wesley Clark is with us. General, this is obviously the earliest of stages in the opening of a northern front. But put the piece in the puzzle where it fits. You can use the telestrator if that helps, but whatever works. However you want to do it.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well let's use the telestrator for a second. Here's the Iraqi front line, somewhere around in here. And here's our initial airhead coming in here. We're going to build up our strength, and then we're going to squeeze this position south toward Baghdad.

And that was always the plan. The question is how much combat power can we get into that now that the Turks haven't allowed us to go through. And we'll continue to use this airhead and continue to build up combat power until we're successful.

BROWN: So you have about 1,000 soldiers in, a rough number in now, and their task is to do what, which then leads to what?

CLARK: Well the first mission is always to secure the airhead. So you've got to occupy the high ground around it. Maybe it needs some improvements. Maybe it needs communications and navigation equipment so you can get in at night and in dust storms and so forth.

All of that will be put in. There will be an Air Force tactical air control element that will be put in on the ground to bring these aircraft in. You've got to establish the marshaling area on the ground so you can bring a lot of aircraft in and work that piece so you can increase the tempo of the air flow. And then you just start landing.

So we've got lots of forces in Germany. We can fly in one tank on every C-17, a couple of Bradleys on every C-17. And in no time, you can build this force.

BROWN: And for those of us who truly don't know what "in no time" means in this, are we talking in a matter of a couple of days, or are we talking about a week to build up a large force in the northern part of the country?

CLARK: To build up a brigade-sized force, you're probably talking two weeks for all armored. But you can have a heavy-light operation, and you can bring assets up from the 101st and deploy them around. And you can put a combination force on the ground that, within a few days, five, seven days, will be combat effective and make a difference.

BROWN: When you talk about light, you're talking about?

CLARK: Dismounted infantry, foot mobile. They can be moved by helicopter. You can move them by Humvee. You can commandeer some local trucks and put them in the back of trucks.

BROWN: That's apparently going on now. And when you talk about heavy, you're talking about tanks and that sort of thing?

CLARK: Exactly. Armored fighting vehicles that you fight from within.

BROWN: OK. So that's where that fits in the puzzle part. Now, Ben Wedeman is also in the northern part of Iraq tonight. And also Kevin Sites. And when we left them -- when we left them, not necessarily when you did, they were reporting air strikes that were coming in.

Kevin, I think you had the first reporting on that. So, Kevin, has that continued throughout the day? Were you aware -- were you aware of the...

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, after...

BROWN: Go ahead.

SITES: After we talked to you yesterday for the last time, air strikes continued five more times throughout the day; fairly severe air strikes. The first one happened at about 5:39 AM, after we had finished a live shot. And, as I think I mentioned to you, it was a thunderous explosion.

The whole sky turned orange. The car alarm of our vehicle outside of our compound went on, the building shook. It was a pretty thunderous explosion.

Twenty minutes later, another thunderous explosion like that. Then, perhaps over the next several hours, four more attacks, all hitting this ridgeline, this Iraqi front line position. This is the last Iraqi line of defense west of Kirkuk. We're about 40 kilometers west of Kirkuk.

And as we talked about this, we said that this type of softening up of these defenses, these rolling back of these defenses would have to happen if there was going to be a northern front that opened up here. But the question was where are the troops? Now, Central Command is telling us that those troops have landed in the largest paradrop (ph) in this war so far. So maybe this is the beginning of that -- as you said, the baby steps towards the opening of that northern front.

BROWN: OK. Kevin, hang on a second. Let's go to Ben Wedeman, who's not too terribly far from you. Ben, are you hearing any indication that more air is in the area?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, what we're hearing, Aaron, is planes lying overhead. As yet, they have not gone after those positions, these Iraqi positions on the hills behind me. Now yesterday they struck for the first time there.

My colleague Brent Sadler was here, and he saw basically three large blasts on the ridgeline. And those were the first of such attacks on the Iraqi positions. Now, as I said this morning, we've heard a good deal of air activity, but as yet, nothing actually happening over there -- Aaron.

BROWN: You both have been in the area -- Ben, let me start with you -- for a while. Is there a palpable sense that the north is changing? Do you see it in the Kurdish troops you're talking to? Do you get the feeling that they get it, that they're about to enter the fray?

WEDEMAN: Well, what we've been hearing now for quite some time, even before the war actually began, was the Kurds were very eager and ready to engage the Iraqi forces. But they knew all along that they do need the sort of backing that only the United States can provide. They need the air support. They need some heavy weaponry, because we know the Kurds really are -- they're very enthusiastic.

They're a very experienced fighting force, but they don't have the kind of weapons to take on Iraqi forces. Now I've been talking to a lot of the people in this area, many of whom are smugglers, who have gone for many years back and forth over the front lines to Mosul, which is about 28 miles behind me. They say that this front line here is very lightly defended.

And we've seen that they do have mortars. They do have some light artillery, some heavy machine guns. But they've told me about 10 to 15 kilometers behind the front line is some very heavy artillery, as well as tanks and armored personnel carriers. And, obviously, the Kurds have no way of fighting that sort of equipment, and they need the United States.

And many of them are very relieved that the Americans have finally arrived. And possibly, they will -- we've heard them just complaining really bitterly for some time now that the United States has not provided the sort of support that they need. Maybe that's about to change -- Aaron.

BROWN: I think it is. It sounds very much like it's about to change. Kevin, Ben, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from you as our night goes along.

Quickly now over to the Pentagon and our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. This is all according to plan, right?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, either it's according to plan -- I mean, there's really two possibilities here. One is that they're meeting much stiffer resistance than they expected, things are bogging down. Their supply lines are over stretched. The whole plan has not survived first contact with the enemy, which is the old Pentagon maxim. Or we're fundamentally misunderstanding what the plan is.

And the problem is, since we don't actually know the plan, it's hard to figure out which is which. And, of course, the Pentagon is going to always say things are going to plan, because to say anything else would be to send the wrong message to everyone. All of that said, though, the Pentagon is continuing to send more troops to the area, and that's an indication that this could go on for some time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): With miles of supply lines to protect in southern Iraq, the U.S. is building up its ground forces. Dispatching the Army's 4th Infantry Division to Kuwait to add more muscle to the southern flank. At the same time, the U.S. has dropped more than 1,000 paratroopers into Kurdish-controlled areas in the north to open the long-promised northern front.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are increasing the number of forces in the country every day. We're increasing them in the north. We're increasing them in the south. And we're increasing in the west.

MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say Iraq is moving its troops around too in an attempt to hide from the relentless U.S. air assault. Even a bridge is no protection from high-tech U.S. bombs. Anything military that moves is being hit. And initial battlefield reports suggesting a major movement of Republican Guard forces turned out later to be a small group of reinforcements.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We understand there are a few vehicles that are coming south from Baghdad towards the Karbala gap, I guess, would be the general direction. And they're being engaged as we find them. And it won't matter whether it's day or night, we'll be able to find them. We don't think they're armored vehicles. They're light vehicles of some sort.

MCINTYRE: Iraqi television showed its soldiers preparing to be attacked, but it's a picture Iraqis probably won't see much longer. Knocked off the air more than once already, the U.S. has decided the Iraqi television service will have to be taken down permanently to end the impression Saddam Hussein and his regime are still in charge.

RUMSFELD: Clearly, there are redundant systems, as is the case most everywhere, where, when one goes down, there are alternative ways of getting things on the air. But we'll just have to see how much longer that's the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Now, Aaron, Pentagon sources say the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which will be leaving from Fort Hood, Texas, won't be in Iraq and ready to fight until probably the second week in April. The Pentagon is quick to add that that doesn't necessarily mean the war will last that long, but it could -- Aaron.

BROWN: Yes, it could. We're only a week into it. Jamie, thank you. Jamie McIntyre.

Just in the first 20 minutes here, we've been able to give a fairly decent overview of what's happening to the north. We've got one more piece of the puzzle to put in, and that's how these paratroopers were protected. We'll get to that. We need to take a break first. Our coverage continues in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What you're looking at now is the area where Ben Wedeman was reporting from just a few moments ago. And Ben indicated he'd heard planes overhead but nothing coming from them. I think Ben will surely say now that something has been dropped from the sky. Ben, are you able to hear us?

WEDEMAN: Yes. I'm just getting out of the shot for your own benefit. Yes, just a little while ago we were watching as two planes flew overhead. And as you can see, one has dropped some sort of explosive device over there on the Iraqi positions. That was just about a minute, a minute and a half ago -- Aaron.

BROWN: Do you still hear planes in the air, or have they seemed to move on now?

WEDEMAN: They do seem to have moved on. We saw them. They circled about three times over this area, but now they do appear to have left.

BROWN: And any feel for how many planes were up there?

WEDEMAN: What we saw was two planes. And now I'm being told by my colleagues that they're just making a very wide turn and that they may be coming back once again. In fact, yes, I do -- over the sound of the generator and my ear piece, I think I do hear them coming back again.

BROWN: OK. Well just keep an ear on that. I think we've got a little tape from a moment ago that we can roll while we wait and see what's about -- there's the hit. This all took place within the last minute or so. Now we're back live, and you can still see -- we can see in our monitor here the smoke still rising up. And, Ben, do you still hear those airplanes?

WEDEMAN: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And they do seem to be getting closer. At this point, we can't really see them. It's only when they go right into the sun.

Of course, it's very early in the morning. So at just a certain point when they're about right over our head, we see them reflect the light of the morning sun. But at the moment, I cannot see them. But I do hear them.

BROWN: And, Ben, just because the camera lens can distort a little bit in this sort of thing, how far would you say you are from the area where that smoke is coming?

WEDEMAN: I'd say we're at least a mile and a half, if not two miles.

BROWN: General, what is your sense of what's happening there? CLARK: I think the planes are orbiting. They may be doing an assessment of whether they hit the target or not. They may have to wait for the smoke and dust to clear. If they didn't it, they'll probably come back for another pass. If they did, they may have other targets elsewhere.

BROWN: Are they operating with impunity up there?

CLARK: Yes.

BROWN: So they can take their time, do whatever they want, take a good look, make sure they have it and move on if they want?

CLARK: Right. This is probably still within the northern no-fly zone. I don't know exactly where Ben is. But we've operated there for years.

We know exactly what's there. We've got lots of assets up there, assets to be able to attack the radars or anything that lights up the aircraft. We've got freedom of the skies up there.

BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we'll fix that one. Ben, I guess what I'd like you to do if you can is just stay with us for a bit and let's just see what happens over the next few minutes. Ben Wedeman reporting from northern Iraq.

The entire focus now of the first half hour of our time has been on this area in northern Iraq. About 1,000 paratroopers went in. To get them in, they needed to be protected. Gary Strieiker is on an aircraft carrier. I'll let Gary tell you which one. I think we have Gary on the phone right now -- Gary.

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Aaron, I'm on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the eastern Mediterranean. We had indications of this earlier today, and we just had confirmation from two pilots who went off on missions earlier on Wednesday. Close air support missions in support of that paratrooper drop on that airfield.

And they confirmed to us that, in advance of that paratroop drop, they had taken out targets that were selected for them by forward air controllers on the ground. Presumably special operations people or others who had been inserted earlier to select what targets they had to remove before those paratroops could be dropped safely. And they told us they did drop bombs on surface-to-air missile sites and also a command and control structure, some kind of bunker that was nearby.

They said these bomb drops were successful. And all of the planes that left the Roosevelt on that close air support mission got back safely -- Aaron.

BROWN: And to the extent that you're allowed to say so, what was the timeframe of this? When did this happen?

STRIEKER: These pilots left, as I recall, early in the -- it was in the evening on Wednesday, about 6:00 PM.

BROWN: OK. So this...

STRIEKER: And they went off on five-hour missions. They were back about five hours later.

BROWN: So, again, I mean you can see -- Gary, stay with us. General, you sort of see how this all has played out. And we, in many ways, watched it all play out. We saw the first air attacks last night when -- from Kevin Sites in his reporting. Gary's pilots, on the Roosevelt flew -- some of them, it sounds like. We see continuing action on the ground, and we know the paratroopers have gone in, and all of this is laying the foundation for the second front.

CLARK: Absolutely. The question is why now? Why not sooner? Why not later? And I think the reason is because a second front is desperately needed right now.

BROWN: Say that again.

CLARK: Desperately needed right now.

BROWN: Why?

CLARK: Because the confusion over the Turks and the Turkish concerns about the Kurds, because of the obvious stiff resistance of the Iraqis, and because of the difficulties in movement and the delay in the 4th Infantry Division. This is the time. So good timing. This is when we need it.

BROWN: Some of that is military, the Iraqi resistance. But some of that is a political issue. The Turks, their concerns about the Kurds. And we can go through all that at some point or another. But, basically, there's a lot of concern on both sides of the line between the Kurds and the Turks. We need to keep them apart.

CLARK: Right. And this is modern war. It's the political and the military is integrated, and top commanders have to think in both dimensions.

BROWN: And as we were talking, we saw Ben bring us in. It looked to us like another hit. Ben, are you able to hear us? Ben Wedeman is our correspondent there.

You can see that's fresh smoke rising. We're looking at the monitor with you. All of this is happening in real time, and we're trying to put it in the puzzle where it belongs.

Ultimately, the picture that will be painted is of a two-front war, one from the south, which has been a little bit more difficult, I think. Any fair-minded person would say it has been more difficult than was expected. And now the beginning of a northern front, which has all sorts of political complications associated with it.

This war gets more complicated as it gets more difficult to fight. Our coverage continues after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

BROWN: One of the things that's interesting in the polls is, while the support stays steady, clearly, people are reacting to the news day to day, and their emotions move the poll needle. And we'll get into that a little bit later.

Back to northern Iraq. Ben Wedeman has an extraordinary view of what is a bombing run that is going on, as coalition forces prepare the area for more coalition forces to come in; 1,000 are already there.

Ben, quickly update us on what's happened in the minute or so that we've been away.

WEDEMAN: Well, there has been going one -- basically, at this point, there have been a total of two very large blasts on that ridge behind us -- or, rather, that you're seeing in front of you.

And this is -- these blasts have been delivered by two airplanes that we've been watching circling time and time again over this area. At this point, we don't hear those jets anymore. It seems to be fairly quiet now. But, in the past, they've gone away and come back. So, just to sum up: two bombs on these Iraqi positions on the ridge line behind me.

And we've been here for about a month in this area and have been coming on a regular basis, watching the Iraqi soldiers digging in, bringing in more weaponry, preparing their fortifications, in theory, for airstrikes like this. But from the looks of it -- and we've been watching them very closely through a very good lens that gives you a vivid view of what's going on up there -- they don't seem to have been able to have dug deep enough for this sort of airstrike -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ben, thank you very much. I suspect we'll be coming back there before the night is done.

Let's leave northern Iraq for a bit here and start focusing in on other parts and other moments of this day. Bombs hit Baghdad all day and all night. There were at least -- a Reuters report we saw -- at least 10 large explosions in the city. It's quiet there now. It's about 6:30 in the morning. You can see the sun coming up. Yesterday, when we looked at this picture, it was quite cloudy.

There had been this dust storm that had gone on now for a couple of days. We'll check the weather. It doesn't look nearly -- just from the shots we're looking at, nearly as breezy as it had been. Just because the question gets asked a lot, because we use this shot a lot, that low-rise building right in front of you is a bank. It has no strategic importance. And it's just where we could put a camera. It's one of four cameras that are around the city and still operating around the city.

How long they will operate around the city, of course, is anybody's guess. But it's the last live view, these cameras, that we're going to have in the city of Baghdad. Baghdad was hit pretty hard again last night.

Nic Robertson was expelled from Baghdad three or four days ago. He made his way to Jordan and is back now at the border, the Iraqi- Jordanian border. And Nic joins us again from there -- Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Aaron.

Well, another day in Baghdad where the information minister took to Iraq's airwaves, despite coalition bombing to try to take out Iraq's television station. And he seemed to be heading off a number of points put forward by coalition forces. He said that, in Umm Qasr, that southern port city, Iraqi forces hadn't really given up control of it.

And, interestingly, later in the day, journalists in that area reported that Iraq has sent forces from Basra to Umm Qasr; also, the information minister saying that in the city of An Nasiriyah, some 500 civilians were wounded and some 200 houses were damaged. Of course, there is absolutely no independent verification of that.

But perhaps his biggest point of the day was accusing the coalition of bombing a market in Baghdad. And, certainly, we don't know if the coalition was responsible for that. They don't believe, at this stage, they are. But there certainly were pictures to prove the point today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Chaos and anger in the smoldering ruins of Baghdad's Al Shaab shopping district. Fifteen dead and many more injured, according to Iraqi officials. The result, they say, of a coalition cruise missile strike.

For residents here, no doubt coalition forces responsible.

"Damn them, damn them," she says, "What were they trying to hit? There are no military targets around here."

A boost for Iraq's leaders battling to keep popular support.

MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): They are attacking and bombarding the residential civilian areas. They are killing innocent people. This is a fact. And please go and confirm that freely on your own.

ROBERTSON: But, as CNN is banned from Baghdad, it is hard to independently confirm casualties. However, other correspondents who witnessed the damage do report seeing bodies in the debris.

In a nearby hospital, the injured received treatment, the obvious innocence of some heightening international concerns.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I just heard the reports that a missile struck a market in Baghdad. And I would want to remind all belligerents that they should respect international humanitarian law and take all necessary steps to protect citizens. Besides, they are responsible for the welfare of the civilian population in the area.

ROBERTSON: At coalition central command, too soon to say what caused the devastation in the Al-Shahab market.

BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CENTCOM OPS: When we have something like that, we will go back and examine flight paths, weapons release, what the circumstances were, and try to determine whether or not we had an impact on something like that. Right now, we simply don't know.

ROBERTSON: Coalition planners however, do confirm a strike on Iraq's state-run television station. It seems, on a day when military planners attempted to lessen Iraq's propaganda capabilities, they may have given Baghdad more fuel to fan the flames of anti-Americanism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And, certainly, Aaron, that's the message that was coming from Information Minister Al-Sahaf and a message he does appear to have Iraq's airwaves to continue to air his thoughts on -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you -- Nic Robertson, who's on the border between Jordan and Iraq. And our press will get back to Nic.

We're going to take a short break. We'll talk with Don Hewitt, one of the legendary names in the news business, a man who created "60 Minutes" and, in many ways, the evening news as we know it on television -- a break first.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I think it is reasonably -- I think it's fair to say that no living person knows more about the evolution of this medium, television, than Don Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt was there when the evening news was invented. "60 Minutes" has been his baby for almost as long as I've been alive, not quite. I wish I was that young.

I wish I was in New York to shake your hand and say hello. I'm not. But it's wonderful to have you on the program, Mr. Hewitt. Thank you.

DON HEWITT, CBS NEWS: Thank you.

BROWN: Just give me -- given that, literally, you were at the beginning of the evening news and the development of the evening news, and you look at how this war this last week has been reported, do you give yourself a moment to go, wow?

HEWITT: Oh, a lot.

The breadth and the depth and the width of what you guys are doing flabbergasts me. I was privileged to be at a lot of very singular moments in broadcast journalist. I was in London when Edward R. Murrow was broadcasting from the rooftops, radio, of course, the man on the moon, the first time we ever showed two oceans at one time, the first time two political candidates for president ever met face- to-face.

And it all pales in comparison to what I've been watching the last week or so. And you're all so good. I mean, I can't believe that Nic Robertsons and the Ted Koppels and the Scott Pelleys and the Christiane Amanpours, and the David Blooms. You guys awe me. I just -- in my wildest dreams, I never thought this is what television was capable of. And this has got to be television's shining moment.

BROWN: You just stole my next question, honestly, which was, do you think the reporting has kept up with the technology? I gather you think the reporting has kept up with the technology.

HEWITT: And how. It's been a perfect marriage of reporting and technology. And, again, everybody's good. I have a partiality to CBS. Everybody knows that. But you guys are so good. Everybody is so good. Even your detested rivals, Fox, are pretty good. Everybody's good in this thing.

BROWN: Well, we had to bleep that out, but other than that, that's OK.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Do you -- we were sitting here on Saturday night, I think it was -- it might have been Sunday. I don't remember anymore. And we watched literally as a battle, a small battle, was being played out, not just across the United States, but across the world, on live television. The correspondent was literally doing interviews with some of the Marines in that. Do you have any concerns about the ability to do this live?

HEWITT: No.

I think what these guys are doing off the cuff -- and it's well- thought out. There's no bumbling and no fumbling. Everything works. And what keeps amazing me is that all the technical stuff works. There are very few bad moments, when you can't get audio, you can't get pictures. Even the videophones that aren't the best video in the world are still interesting.

It's like a three-ring circus. And it's important. And let's hope that, when it's all over, it's produced more than just a stunning television show.

BROWN: I hope that's true.

Let me see if I can make one thing happen here. Walt Rodgers, who's been traveling with the cavalry unit we have literally followed from the very beginning, I've got him on the phone. Let me bring him into the conversation with you, Mr. Hewitt.

Walt, are you able to hear us?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Aaron, I hear you very well.

And we've got good news. We're getting pulled back for 24 hours of refit and R&R. That it, there's a lot of equipment to be cleaned.

BROWN: Attaboy.

(LAUGHTER)

RODGERS: Go ahead, Aaron.

BROWN: Well, you've had a kind of rocky 48 hours or so, haven't you?

RODGERS: Yes.

Well, let me tell you exactly what our position was. And I've had to talk in code to Atlanta. And I've used code words like Remagen and hoped that the kids back there had seen the movie. But we were sent up -- the 7th Calvary was sent up to take a bridge head and hold a bridge over a waterway, the Sahtt, and make sure that the Republican Guard could not come back in force and try to reinforce its units in -- on Najaf.

And, of course, I couldn't say exactly where we were at the time, but we were reinforced by a brigade and a half last night, which is a lot larger than what was there before. But, last night, because of the sandstorm, we were getting some rather ominous news. The JSTARS plane overhead was having a difficult time seeing. But they reported -- and I was listening to the Army radio the whole time and got permission to report -- that there was a column 1,000 strong coming south.

They couldn't tell the composition of the column, whether it was tanks or APCs or the -- or what it was. But whatever was out there was stopped overnight by another brigade which is off to our flank. And whatever was moving south was pretty badly cut up by airpower and forward artillery -- Aaron.

BROWN: Walt -- Mr. Hewitt, do you have a question you'd like to ask the correspondent?

HEWITT: Yes.

One of the things, Walt, that I don't understand, why didn't they blow those bridges before you guys went across them?

BROWN: Why didn't the Iraqis?

RODGERS: Well, the Iraqis planned to blow ours. I think it was sheer ineptitude and perhaps surprise at the speed with which the 7th Calvary moved. But the engineers discovered the second we crossed that Euphrates River bridge that there were huge satchel charges there and they just had not been wired.

I should say, further to the north, closer to An Najaf, the Iraqis did blow a bridge. And the bridge the 7th Cavalry was so successful in crossing was wired to be blown. They were just somewhat inept or behind the curve. And the 7th Cav -- and I believe that was Crazy Horse Troop, rammed across first. And then Apache -- that's the troop I'm with -- came across second.

But that bridge was so strategic that, not last night, but the previous night, the rear troops protecting Apache in the front were constantly under attack all night long. And they were repelling counterattacks by the Iraqis -- Aaron, Don.

BROWN: Walt, you just stay where you are and we'll be getting back to you.

Two final questions, Mr. Hewitt. Do you have any desire to put a headset on and get back in a control room and produce one of these things?

HEWITT: Well, I'm in it. I'm putting a show on the air Sunday with a lot of war reporting and a lot of stories that go with the war. And, mostly -- I go to work every day. I don't have the luxury of sitting back watching all day long. But every moment I get, I dial- hop, and I'm continually amazed at what I see.

BROWN: Sir, we are truly privileged to have you on the program. It's -- you weren't nearly as crusty as I worried you might be.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: It's wonderful to talk to you. Thank you very much for all your...

HEWITT: Thank you very much. Thank you.

BROWN: For all that you've contributed to this business, to the business of broadcast journalism, thank you.

HEWITT: I'm flattered, and I thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, Don Hewitt, who I think most of you know produces the CBS News broadcast "60 Minutes" and is something.

We'll take a break. We'll continue in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, it's been a very busy 50 minutes around here. And it goes on.

It started for us reporting to you that 1,000 paratroopers have moved in to the northern front. Brent Sadler is on the phone. And I believe what he's going to tell us is that there's at least a few more coming down on their parachutes -- Brent.

SADLER: Yes, Aaron.

The light has cleared here at the Harir airport. And I can now confirm that hundreds of paratroopers from the 173rd Brigade, Airborne Division, have now landed. I can see some pretty incredible things here of American paratroopers with their parachute rigs on their backs. They've hit the ground. And they're walking across the open fields here and assembling.

What's happened here is, there's been a parachute drop. The soldiers hit the ground. And they've now started to assemble from the drop line. This is a big area around the airstrip. I can see two helicopters also off-loading equipment. I can see various groups of soldiers securing the perimeter around the airfield, I would guess probably about a battalion strength.

BROWN: Brent, are you still there? Did we lose you? OK. We'll try...

SADLER: ... can confirm, if you can still hear me.

BROWN: Now I got you back.

SADLER: We can confirm -- go ahead, Aaron.

BROWN: I got you back. Go ahead.

SADLER: So, I can confirm that the 173rd Brigade has dropped here, and they're being met here by Kurdish forces, who are supplying transport equipment. This is not hostile territory. This is friendly terrain. But, nevertheless, the airborne troops now on the ground in this very flat area around this runway, which is really bordered on both sides by mountains, some of those mountains snowcapped, friendly territory, as I say, and really getting on the job now of securing the perimeter of the airfield and really assembling after this nighttime parachute drop.

They have around them -- rather, in front of them, a runway of almost 2 miles long. So we could see, as this deployment builds up, large transport aircraft coming into Harir airfield. I'm talking to you about 30 miles from Irbil, Aaron, maybe about two hours to those ridge lines, where we were watching coalition aircraft strike Iraqi frontline positions some 24 hours ago.

But it really is quite amazing to see these hundreds of U.S. paratroopers from the airborne division really just walking across down from high ground, and then just meeting, walking casually, I would say, no sense of urgency, no running around, because this, as I repeat again, is friendly territory. And they're now being helped along their way to unknown destinations at this stage by the Kurds, so quite extraordinary scenes unfolding here -- Aaron.

BROWN: And, Brent, thank you.

And we'll hopefully, at some point, we'll get some pictures on that. We also expect to get, in not too long a time, some pictures of the drop -- well, not that drop, but the drop that preceded it -- from one of our embedded crews in Europe. These soldiers left Europe headed for -- they left an air base in Europe, which is, at this moment, all we can say. And it's about a five-hour flight. They made their drop. And those planes are now back in Europe. And we're just trying to get the pictures back to us. And we should have that at some point.

We'll go to the White House. The president was on the move today for a couple of purposes. Chris Burns will join us in a moment.

We need to take a break first. CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For the second day in a row, the president was out in public. He was at the Pentagon yesterday. He went to the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, today, though the Central Command, by and large, is out in Qatar running the war. He's got dinner with Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and meetings with Mr. Blair as well.

So the president has a pretty full plate, which means Chris Burns has a pretty full plate. He's covering the White House for us tonight -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron.

The issue is managing the war and its aftermath, these talks between the two main allies in this war effort, President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the two having meetings. We can show you a picture of the two meeting at Camp David after the prime minister arrived. They also took a break for dinner with Laura Bush, the first lady, Andy Card, the chief of staff, as well as Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser.

The issues they're dealing with are, in part, the expected siege or taking of Baghdad, how to do that and limit casualties, both on the military and the civilian side; humanitarian aid, how to get it to those needy; and try to also, of course, deal with the Iraqi resistance at the same time; and the post-war issue, which is debating, raging at the United Nations, what kind of U.N. involvement should there be.

It seems like Washington wants more of a U.S. leadership of it, whereas Europe is arguing for a more U.N. management of it, Tony Blair trying to play the middleman in between that. They will be joined by Secretary of State Colin Powell tomorrow, Thursday, before they have a press conference and then a lunch. Blair will be going on to the U.N. to talk with Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the U.N.

President Bush went to Florida earlier in the day to MacDill Air Force base, where he visited the troops, another effort to show his moral support and, at the same time, arguing, trying to refute arguments that the war effort is getting bogged down by those setbacks. President Bush gave a speech, and, at the last minute, struck a couple of words out of that speech, however, trying not to be too overly optimistic. He struck the words "ahead of schedule" off the script, but instead he said this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: We cannot predict the final day of the Iraqi regime, but I can assure you, and I assure the long-suffering people of Iraq, there will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime. And that day is drawing near.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Now, on Air Force One, what were they serving for breakfast as the president was flying down to MacDill Air Force Base? They served not french toast, but freedom toast, showing you a little bit things are still raging on -- Aaron.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: OK. I guess they are. Someday, we'll all get past that, but we're not there yet. Chris, thank you very much.

And we will watch those meetings with Mr. Blair tomorrow.

General, if you're the general running the war, in 30 seconds or so, what do you want from civilian leadership, from the president? What is it that you want him to do?

CLARK: You want the backing. You want the confidence of the president. You want the reinforcement flow to continue. And you want the flexibility to escalate and time the fight as the battlefield conditions dictate.

BROWN: We'll pick up on that more as we go along.

Michael Gordon is on the phone. We'll get to him in a moment or two.

We need to take a break first. Our coverage continues in a moment. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 26, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Baghdad at 6:00 in the morning, on a day when, once again, coalition jets stormed over the city. At least 10 explosions were heard about three hours ago now, two and a half hours or so. It is possible, based on some of the pictures we've seen that one of the targets was the Information Ministry. We know because we've talked with some of the pilots that another target was an air port or airstrip where some Iraqi jets, MiG jets, were on the ground.
The success of those hits too early to tell at this point. But that's how the city looks at 6:00 in the morning, as the war in Iraq is now one week old.

Good evening again, everyone.

There is some suggestion coming out of the Pentagon today and this evening that this war will take longer than many anticipated. Months to fight. That's "The Washington Post" reporting on the story. And that will be one of the story lines we'll be looking at today. But before we get into the individual puzzle pieces of this through the next four hours, we'll take a look at the broad view of how this day has gone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Moving by night over unfamiliar ground, coalition ground forces continued their march toward Baghdad. The Bush administration saying it will not change its strategy of aiming for the heart of the Iraqi regime.

VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: We have air dominance, we have Special Forces in the north, the south and the west. The main ground forces are moving at a phenomenal pace toward the north, closing in on Baghdad.

BROWN: As best we can tell, here is the situation on the ground. A major ground battle is believed to be brewing between American and Iraqi tanks near the city of Najaf. Not far from where the American 7th Cavalry lost two of its Abrams tanks, but no soldiers in a firefight last night. The Americans have already taken a key bridge over the Euphrates River.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the most desperate elements of a doomed regime. We cannot know the duration of this war, but we are prepared for the battle ahead. BROWN: Hundreds of American paratroopers landed in an airfield in Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Iraq. Meantime, badly needed supplies of fuel and food reached elements of the 7th Marines in south central Iraq, and British units were still involved in house-to-house clearing operations inside the city of Umm Qasr.

Refugees could be seen outside of Basra, where explosions lit up the night sky. Supplies of food finally reaching the Iraqi village of Safwan (ph), where there was a near riot during the distribution. Iraqi television knocked off the air last night for several hours was back on today, showing footage of casualties and severe damage in a busy Baghdad market. But American officials insist they did not send a missile crashing into the area.

And, finally, the Pentagon says it is still checking reports that as many as seven American prisoners were executed after their supply convoy was ambushed not far from the city of Nasiriya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That's the broad view as you look at Baghdad on a Thursday morning. Now we'll start to fill in the pieces of all of this. Two major story lines from the front. The continuing problems to the south trying -- the Iraqis trying to disrupt supply lines and more in the south. And we'll be dealing with that tonight.

And also, now, clearly, a northern front has been opened. Paratroopers have landed. They left from a base in Europe. And Steve Nettleton is the embedded correspondent at that airfield with the Army's 173rd Airborne Regiment. And Steve joins us now on the videophone -- Steve.

STEVE NETTLETON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BROWN: Go ahead.

NETTLETON: The runway here at the air base is now full of C-17s. Now, of course, without their human cargo. They're empty after having dropped hundreds of paratroopers into northern Iraq.

They now begin to upload all the military equipment which they will take to that air base. They will begin to -- we will not disclose times or report destinations, because under the ground rules we are not allowed to do that. However, the commander has made it clear that the mission of this brigade to bring this equipment to Iraq is definitely public knowledge and definitely something they would like to get out there.

They are bringing in tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, all sorts of weaponry. About half the brigade is there. They're bringing more of the brigade along on the air land.

We ourselves, myself and my partner, Thomas Nivel (ph), will be leaving on one of the air-land planes in the near future to go into northern Iraq and see what is happening at that airfield. We also hope to bring you some pictures here very soon of the actual drop, as Thomas was in on the plane as the paratroopers dropped out. And we have some very interesting night video to show you there.

The mission of this drop is to secure the area in northern Iraq, to pave the way for the larger armor column, the larger armor force to come in. But also to be more of a diplomatic move to stabilize the area, to try to prevent other forces from taking advantage of a power vacuum in the area, perhaps fighting with other groups, perhaps the Turks coming down south, perhaps the Iraqis coming in on their own. And, therefore, eventually lead the way to humanitarian aid.

BROWN: Steve, thank you. Steve Nettleton at a base in Europe where the paratroopers took off from. Brent Sadler is at the airstrip where the paratroopers landed and where they are now trying to secure that area. And he joins us on the telephone. Brent, it's good to talk to you. And just tell us what you see, what they are doing.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Aaron. From here, it's just daybreak within the last 30 minutes. And I'm overlooking an airstrip, which is about a mile plus, almost two miles long. Now, there are two major airfields in northern Iraq. And what I believe is happening, we have U.S. military activity not just at one airfield, but two airfields.

I'm not seeing this airborne drop actually unfolding in front of me. What I am seeing now through my binoculars are two U.S. helicopters. It looks like they are just perhaps off the main runway, and they are unloading groups -- what I believe -- from what I can see from here would fit in with the description of Special Forces. There are groups of men with equipment offloading from two helicopters.

And it's interesting to see, Aaron, that it's the Kurds, the Kurdish forces who are picking them up and shipping them out in three- ton lorries and taking them off to unknown destinations. This has been going on during the hours of darkness here and is continuing as I speak to you.

It's going on quite calmly. This is, after all, friendly territory. We're not getting any visibility here of attempts to stop us from overlooking this position. So that gives you an idea of the perhaps calmness around here compared to deployments of U.S. forces obviously in the south.

So what I believe -- just to recap -- is happening, we have a continuation of special force deployments at an airfield called Hariya (ph), which is about just under two hours from the nearest sector of the northern front where I'm speaking to you from. And also at another airfield, I believe, which would be near Sulaymaniyah, near the Iranian border. Because I'm not seeing any evidence on the ground at this location at Hariya (ph) of deployments of large numbers of paratroopers or any heavy equipment.

These are light forces being picked up by the Kurds and being moved on elsewhere. But certainly, what we have here now, given that we saw series of air strikes against northern front positions in this sector, we're clearly seeing the northern front beginning to go open. Back to you, Aaron. BROWN: Brent, thank you. Brent Sadler. In fact, those air strikes, as we were in the last hour of our coverage last night, about 1:00 in the morning, both Ben Wedeman and Kevin Sites were in the area and were noting that the air strikes were coming in, sort of preparing for the paratroopers to come in.

General Wesley Clark is with us. General, this is obviously the earliest of stages in the opening of a northern front. But put the piece in the puzzle where it fits. You can use the telestrator if that helps, but whatever works. However you want to do it.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well let's use the telestrator for a second. Here's the Iraqi front line, somewhere around in here. And here's our initial airhead coming in here. We're going to build up our strength, and then we're going to squeeze this position south toward Baghdad.

And that was always the plan. The question is how much combat power can we get into that now that the Turks haven't allowed us to go through. And we'll continue to use this airhead and continue to build up combat power until we're successful.

BROWN: So you have about 1,000 soldiers in, a rough number in now, and their task is to do what, which then leads to what?

CLARK: Well the first mission is always to secure the airhead. So you've got to occupy the high ground around it. Maybe it needs some improvements. Maybe it needs communications and navigation equipment so you can get in at night and in dust storms and so forth.

All of that will be put in. There will be an Air Force tactical air control element that will be put in on the ground to bring these aircraft in. You've got to establish the marshaling area on the ground so you can bring a lot of aircraft in and work that piece so you can increase the tempo of the air flow. And then you just start landing.

So we've got lots of forces in Germany. We can fly in one tank on every C-17, a couple of Bradleys on every C-17. And in no time, you can build this force.

BROWN: And for those of us who truly don't know what "in no time" means in this, are we talking in a matter of a couple of days, or are we talking about a week to build up a large force in the northern part of the country?

CLARK: To build up a brigade-sized force, you're probably talking two weeks for all armored. But you can have a heavy-light operation, and you can bring assets up from the 101st and deploy them around. And you can put a combination force on the ground that, within a few days, five, seven days, will be combat effective and make a difference.

BROWN: When you talk about light, you're talking about?

CLARK: Dismounted infantry, foot mobile. They can be moved by helicopter. You can move them by Humvee. You can commandeer some local trucks and put them in the back of trucks.

BROWN: That's apparently going on now. And when you talk about heavy, you're talking about tanks and that sort of thing?

CLARK: Exactly. Armored fighting vehicles that you fight from within.

BROWN: OK. So that's where that fits in the puzzle part. Now, Ben Wedeman is also in the northern part of Iraq tonight. And also Kevin Sites. And when we left them -- when we left them, not necessarily when you did, they were reporting air strikes that were coming in.

Kevin, I think you had the first reporting on that. So, Kevin, has that continued throughout the day? Were you aware -- were you aware of the...

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, after...

BROWN: Go ahead.

SITES: After we talked to you yesterday for the last time, air strikes continued five more times throughout the day; fairly severe air strikes. The first one happened at about 5:39 AM, after we had finished a live shot. And, as I think I mentioned to you, it was a thunderous explosion.

The whole sky turned orange. The car alarm of our vehicle outside of our compound went on, the building shook. It was a pretty thunderous explosion.

Twenty minutes later, another thunderous explosion like that. Then, perhaps over the next several hours, four more attacks, all hitting this ridgeline, this Iraqi front line position. This is the last Iraqi line of defense west of Kirkuk. We're about 40 kilometers west of Kirkuk.

And as we talked about this, we said that this type of softening up of these defenses, these rolling back of these defenses would have to happen if there was going to be a northern front that opened up here. But the question was where are the troops? Now, Central Command is telling us that those troops have landed in the largest paradrop (ph) in this war so far. So maybe this is the beginning of that -- as you said, the baby steps towards the opening of that northern front.

BROWN: OK. Kevin, hang on a second. Let's go to Ben Wedeman, who's not too terribly far from you. Ben, are you hearing any indication that more air is in the area?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, what we're hearing, Aaron, is planes lying overhead. As yet, they have not gone after those positions, these Iraqi positions on the hills behind me. Now yesterday they struck for the first time there.

My colleague Brent Sadler was here, and he saw basically three large blasts on the ridgeline. And those were the first of such attacks on the Iraqi positions. Now, as I said this morning, we've heard a good deal of air activity, but as yet, nothing actually happening over there -- Aaron.

BROWN: You both have been in the area -- Ben, let me start with you -- for a while. Is there a palpable sense that the north is changing? Do you see it in the Kurdish troops you're talking to? Do you get the feeling that they get it, that they're about to enter the fray?

WEDEMAN: Well, what we've been hearing now for quite some time, even before the war actually began, was the Kurds were very eager and ready to engage the Iraqi forces. But they knew all along that they do need the sort of backing that only the United States can provide. They need the air support. They need some heavy weaponry, because we know the Kurds really are -- they're very enthusiastic.

They're a very experienced fighting force, but they don't have the kind of weapons to take on Iraqi forces. Now I've been talking to a lot of the people in this area, many of whom are smugglers, who have gone for many years back and forth over the front lines to Mosul, which is about 28 miles behind me. They say that this front line here is very lightly defended.

And we've seen that they do have mortars. They do have some light artillery, some heavy machine guns. But they've told me about 10 to 15 kilometers behind the front line is some very heavy artillery, as well as tanks and armored personnel carriers. And, obviously, the Kurds have no way of fighting that sort of equipment, and they need the United States.

And many of them are very relieved that the Americans have finally arrived. And possibly, they will -- we've heard them just complaining really bitterly for some time now that the United States has not provided the sort of support that they need. Maybe that's about to change -- Aaron.

BROWN: I think it is. It sounds very much like it's about to change. Kevin, Ben, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from you as our night goes along.

Quickly now over to the Pentagon and our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. This is all according to plan, right?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, either it's according to plan -- I mean, there's really two possibilities here. One is that they're meeting much stiffer resistance than they expected, things are bogging down. Their supply lines are over stretched. The whole plan has not survived first contact with the enemy, which is the old Pentagon maxim. Or we're fundamentally misunderstanding what the plan is.

And the problem is, since we don't actually know the plan, it's hard to figure out which is which. And, of course, the Pentagon is going to always say things are going to plan, because to say anything else would be to send the wrong message to everyone. All of that said, though, the Pentagon is continuing to send more troops to the area, and that's an indication that this could go on for some time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): With miles of supply lines to protect in southern Iraq, the U.S. is building up its ground forces. Dispatching the Army's 4th Infantry Division to Kuwait to add more muscle to the southern flank. At the same time, the U.S. has dropped more than 1,000 paratroopers into Kurdish-controlled areas in the north to open the long-promised northern front.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are increasing the number of forces in the country every day. We're increasing them in the north. We're increasing them in the south. And we're increasing in the west.

MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say Iraq is moving its troops around too in an attempt to hide from the relentless U.S. air assault. Even a bridge is no protection from high-tech U.S. bombs. Anything military that moves is being hit. And initial battlefield reports suggesting a major movement of Republican Guard forces turned out later to be a small group of reinforcements.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We understand there are a few vehicles that are coming south from Baghdad towards the Karbala gap, I guess, would be the general direction. And they're being engaged as we find them. And it won't matter whether it's day or night, we'll be able to find them. We don't think they're armored vehicles. They're light vehicles of some sort.

MCINTYRE: Iraqi television showed its soldiers preparing to be attacked, but it's a picture Iraqis probably won't see much longer. Knocked off the air more than once already, the U.S. has decided the Iraqi television service will have to be taken down permanently to end the impression Saddam Hussein and his regime are still in charge.

RUMSFELD: Clearly, there are redundant systems, as is the case most everywhere, where, when one goes down, there are alternative ways of getting things on the air. But we'll just have to see how much longer that's the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Now, Aaron, Pentagon sources say the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which will be leaving from Fort Hood, Texas, won't be in Iraq and ready to fight until probably the second week in April. The Pentagon is quick to add that that doesn't necessarily mean the war will last that long, but it could -- Aaron.

BROWN: Yes, it could. We're only a week into it. Jamie, thank you. Jamie McIntyre.

Just in the first 20 minutes here, we've been able to give a fairly decent overview of what's happening to the north. We've got one more piece of the puzzle to put in, and that's how these paratroopers were protected. We'll get to that. We need to take a break first. Our coverage continues in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What you're looking at now is the area where Ben Wedeman was reporting from just a few moments ago. And Ben indicated he'd heard planes overhead but nothing coming from them. I think Ben will surely say now that something has been dropped from the sky. Ben, are you able to hear us?

WEDEMAN: Yes. I'm just getting out of the shot for your own benefit. Yes, just a little while ago we were watching as two planes flew overhead. And as you can see, one has dropped some sort of explosive device over there on the Iraqi positions. That was just about a minute, a minute and a half ago -- Aaron.

BROWN: Do you still hear planes in the air, or have they seemed to move on now?

WEDEMAN: They do seem to have moved on. We saw them. They circled about three times over this area, but now they do appear to have left.

BROWN: And any feel for how many planes were up there?

WEDEMAN: What we saw was two planes. And now I'm being told by my colleagues that they're just making a very wide turn and that they may be coming back once again. In fact, yes, I do -- over the sound of the generator and my ear piece, I think I do hear them coming back again.

BROWN: OK. Well just keep an ear on that. I think we've got a little tape from a moment ago that we can roll while we wait and see what's about -- there's the hit. This all took place within the last minute or so. Now we're back live, and you can still see -- we can see in our monitor here the smoke still rising up. And, Ben, do you still hear those airplanes?

WEDEMAN: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And they do seem to be getting closer. At this point, we can't really see them. It's only when they go right into the sun.

Of course, it's very early in the morning. So at just a certain point when they're about right over our head, we see them reflect the light of the morning sun. But at the moment, I cannot see them. But I do hear them.

BROWN: And, Ben, just because the camera lens can distort a little bit in this sort of thing, how far would you say you are from the area where that smoke is coming?

WEDEMAN: I'd say we're at least a mile and a half, if not two miles.

BROWN: General, what is your sense of what's happening there? CLARK: I think the planes are orbiting. They may be doing an assessment of whether they hit the target or not. They may have to wait for the smoke and dust to clear. If they didn't it, they'll probably come back for another pass. If they did, they may have other targets elsewhere.

BROWN: Are they operating with impunity up there?

CLARK: Yes.

BROWN: So they can take their time, do whatever they want, take a good look, make sure they have it and move on if they want?

CLARK: Right. This is probably still within the northern no-fly zone. I don't know exactly where Ben is. But we've operated there for years.

We know exactly what's there. We've got lots of assets up there, assets to be able to attack the radars or anything that lights up the aircraft. We've got freedom of the skies up there.

BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we'll fix that one. Ben, I guess what I'd like you to do if you can is just stay with us for a bit and let's just see what happens over the next few minutes. Ben Wedeman reporting from northern Iraq.

The entire focus now of the first half hour of our time has been on this area in northern Iraq. About 1,000 paratroopers went in. To get them in, they needed to be protected. Gary Strieiker is on an aircraft carrier. I'll let Gary tell you which one. I think we have Gary on the phone right now -- Gary.

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Aaron, I'm on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the eastern Mediterranean. We had indications of this earlier today, and we just had confirmation from two pilots who went off on missions earlier on Wednesday. Close air support missions in support of that paratrooper drop on that airfield.

And they confirmed to us that, in advance of that paratroop drop, they had taken out targets that were selected for them by forward air controllers on the ground. Presumably special operations people or others who had been inserted earlier to select what targets they had to remove before those paratroops could be dropped safely. And they told us they did drop bombs on surface-to-air missile sites and also a command and control structure, some kind of bunker that was nearby.

They said these bomb drops were successful. And all of the planes that left the Roosevelt on that close air support mission got back safely -- Aaron.

BROWN: And to the extent that you're allowed to say so, what was the timeframe of this? When did this happen?

STRIEKER: These pilots left, as I recall, early in the -- it was in the evening on Wednesday, about 6:00 PM.

BROWN: OK. So this...

STRIEKER: And they went off on five-hour missions. They were back about five hours later.

BROWN: So, again, I mean you can see -- Gary, stay with us. General, you sort of see how this all has played out. And we, in many ways, watched it all play out. We saw the first air attacks last night when -- from Kevin Sites in his reporting. Gary's pilots, on the Roosevelt flew -- some of them, it sounds like. We see continuing action on the ground, and we know the paratroopers have gone in, and all of this is laying the foundation for the second front.

CLARK: Absolutely. The question is why now? Why not sooner? Why not later? And I think the reason is because a second front is desperately needed right now.

BROWN: Say that again.

CLARK: Desperately needed right now.

BROWN: Why?

CLARK: Because the confusion over the Turks and the Turkish concerns about the Kurds, because of the obvious stiff resistance of the Iraqis, and because of the difficulties in movement and the delay in the 4th Infantry Division. This is the time. So good timing. This is when we need it.

BROWN: Some of that is military, the Iraqi resistance. But some of that is a political issue. The Turks, their concerns about the Kurds. And we can go through all that at some point or another. But, basically, there's a lot of concern on both sides of the line between the Kurds and the Turks. We need to keep them apart.

CLARK: Right. And this is modern war. It's the political and the military is integrated, and top commanders have to think in both dimensions.

BROWN: And as we were talking, we saw Ben bring us in. It looked to us like another hit. Ben, are you able to hear us? Ben Wedeman is our correspondent there.

You can see that's fresh smoke rising. We're looking at the monitor with you. All of this is happening in real time, and we're trying to put it in the puzzle where it belongs.

Ultimately, the picture that will be painted is of a two-front war, one from the south, which has been a little bit more difficult, I think. Any fair-minded person would say it has been more difficult than was expected. And now the beginning of a northern front, which has all sorts of political complications associated with it.

This war gets more complicated as it gets more difficult to fight. Our coverage continues after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

BROWN: One of the things that's interesting in the polls is, while the support stays steady, clearly, people are reacting to the news day to day, and their emotions move the poll needle. And we'll get into that a little bit later.

Back to northern Iraq. Ben Wedeman has an extraordinary view of what is a bombing run that is going on, as coalition forces prepare the area for more coalition forces to come in; 1,000 are already there.

Ben, quickly update us on what's happened in the minute or so that we've been away.

WEDEMAN: Well, there has been going one -- basically, at this point, there have been a total of two very large blasts on that ridge behind us -- or, rather, that you're seeing in front of you.

And this is -- these blasts have been delivered by two airplanes that we've been watching circling time and time again over this area. At this point, we don't hear those jets anymore. It seems to be fairly quiet now. But, in the past, they've gone away and come back. So, just to sum up: two bombs on these Iraqi positions on the ridge line behind me.

And we've been here for about a month in this area and have been coming on a regular basis, watching the Iraqi soldiers digging in, bringing in more weaponry, preparing their fortifications, in theory, for airstrikes like this. But from the looks of it -- and we've been watching them very closely through a very good lens that gives you a vivid view of what's going on up there -- they don't seem to have been able to have dug deep enough for this sort of airstrike -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ben, thank you very much. I suspect we'll be coming back there before the night is done.

Let's leave northern Iraq for a bit here and start focusing in on other parts and other moments of this day. Bombs hit Baghdad all day and all night. There were at least -- a Reuters report we saw -- at least 10 large explosions in the city. It's quiet there now. It's about 6:30 in the morning. You can see the sun coming up. Yesterday, when we looked at this picture, it was quite cloudy.

There had been this dust storm that had gone on now for a couple of days. We'll check the weather. It doesn't look nearly -- just from the shots we're looking at, nearly as breezy as it had been. Just because the question gets asked a lot, because we use this shot a lot, that low-rise building right in front of you is a bank. It has no strategic importance. And it's just where we could put a camera. It's one of four cameras that are around the city and still operating around the city.

How long they will operate around the city, of course, is anybody's guess. But it's the last live view, these cameras, that we're going to have in the city of Baghdad. Baghdad was hit pretty hard again last night.

Nic Robertson was expelled from Baghdad three or four days ago. He made his way to Jordan and is back now at the border, the Iraqi- Jordanian border. And Nic joins us again from there -- Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Aaron.

Well, another day in Baghdad where the information minister took to Iraq's airwaves, despite coalition bombing to try to take out Iraq's television station. And he seemed to be heading off a number of points put forward by coalition forces. He said that, in Umm Qasr, that southern port city, Iraqi forces hadn't really given up control of it.

And, interestingly, later in the day, journalists in that area reported that Iraq has sent forces from Basra to Umm Qasr; also, the information minister saying that in the city of An Nasiriyah, some 500 civilians were wounded and some 200 houses were damaged. Of course, there is absolutely no independent verification of that.

But perhaps his biggest point of the day was accusing the coalition of bombing a market in Baghdad. And, certainly, we don't know if the coalition was responsible for that. They don't believe, at this stage, they are. But there certainly were pictures to prove the point today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Chaos and anger in the smoldering ruins of Baghdad's Al Shaab shopping district. Fifteen dead and many more injured, according to Iraqi officials. The result, they say, of a coalition cruise missile strike.

For residents here, no doubt coalition forces responsible.

"Damn them, damn them," she says, "What were they trying to hit? There are no military targets around here."

A boost for Iraq's leaders battling to keep popular support.

MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): They are attacking and bombarding the residential civilian areas. They are killing innocent people. This is a fact. And please go and confirm that freely on your own.

ROBERTSON: But, as CNN is banned from Baghdad, it is hard to independently confirm casualties. However, other correspondents who witnessed the damage do report seeing bodies in the debris.

In a nearby hospital, the injured received treatment, the obvious innocence of some heightening international concerns.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I just heard the reports that a missile struck a market in Baghdad. And I would want to remind all belligerents that they should respect international humanitarian law and take all necessary steps to protect citizens. Besides, they are responsible for the welfare of the civilian population in the area.

ROBERTSON: At coalition central command, too soon to say what caused the devastation in the Al-Shahab market.

BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CENTCOM OPS: When we have something like that, we will go back and examine flight paths, weapons release, what the circumstances were, and try to determine whether or not we had an impact on something like that. Right now, we simply don't know.

ROBERTSON: Coalition planners however, do confirm a strike on Iraq's state-run television station. It seems, on a day when military planners attempted to lessen Iraq's propaganda capabilities, they may have given Baghdad more fuel to fan the flames of anti-Americanism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And, certainly, Aaron, that's the message that was coming from Information Minister Al-Sahaf and a message he does appear to have Iraq's airwaves to continue to air his thoughts on -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you -- Nic Robertson, who's on the border between Jordan and Iraq. And our press will get back to Nic.

We're going to take a short break. We'll talk with Don Hewitt, one of the legendary names in the news business, a man who created "60 Minutes" and, in many ways, the evening news as we know it on television -- a break first.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I think it is reasonably -- I think it's fair to say that no living person knows more about the evolution of this medium, television, than Don Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt was there when the evening news was invented. "60 Minutes" has been his baby for almost as long as I've been alive, not quite. I wish I was that young.

I wish I was in New York to shake your hand and say hello. I'm not. But it's wonderful to have you on the program, Mr. Hewitt. Thank you.

DON HEWITT, CBS NEWS: Thank you.

BROWN: Just give me -- given that, literally, you were at the beginning of the evening news and the development of the evening news, and you look at how this war this last week has been reported, do you give yourself a moment to go, wow?

HEWITT: Oh, a lot.

The breadth and the depth and the width of what you guys are doing flabbergasts me. I was privileged to be at a lot of very singular moments in broadcast journalist. I was in London when Edward R. Murrow was broadcasting from the rooftops, radio, of course, the man on the moon, the first time we ever showed two oceans at one time, the first time two political candidates for president ever met face- to-face.

And it all pales in comparison to what I've been watching the last week or so. And you're all so good. I mean, I can't believe that Nic Robertsons and the Ted Koppels and the Scott Pelleys and the Christiane Amanpours, and the David Blooms. You guys awe me. I just -- in my wildest dreams, I never thought this is what television was capable of. And this has got to be television's shining moment.

BROWN: You just stole my next question, honestly, which was, do you think the reporting has kept up with the technology? I gather you think the reporting has kept up with the technology.

HEWITT: And how. It's been a perfect marriage of reporting and technology. And, again, everybody's good. I have a partiality to CBS. Everybody knows that. But you guys are so good. Everybody is so good. Even your detested rivals, Fox, are pretty good. Everybody's good in this thing.

BROWN: Well, we had to bleep that out, but other than that, that's OK.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Do you -- we were sitting here on Saturday night, I think it was -- it might have been Sunday. I don't remember anymore. And we watched literally as a battle, a small battle, was being played out, not just across the United States, but across the world, on live television. The correspondent was literally doing interviews with some of the Marines in that. Do you have any concerns about the ability to do this live?

HEWITT: No.

I think what these guys are doing off the cuff -- and it's well- thought out. There's no bumbling and no fumbling. Everything works. And what keeps amazing me is that all the technical stuff works. There are very few bad moments, when you can't get audio, you can't get pictures. Even the videophones that aren't the best video in the world are still interesting.

It's like a three-ring circus. And it's important. And let's hope that, when it's all over, it's produced more than just a stunning television show.

BROWN: I hope that's true.

Let me see if I can make one thing happen here. Walt Rodgers, who's been traveling with the cavalry unit we have literally followed from the very beginning, I've got him on the phone. Let me bring him into the conversation with you, Mr. Hewitt.

Walt, are you able to hear us?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Aaron, I hear you very well.

And we've got good news. We're getting pulled back for 24 hours of refit and R&R. That it, there's a lot of equipment to be cleaned.

BROWN: Attaboy.

(LAUGHTER)

RODGERS: Go ahead, Aaron.

BROWN: Well, you've had a kind of rocky 48 hours or so, haven't you?

RODGERS: Yes.

Well, let me tell you exactly what our position was. And I've had to talk in code to Atlanta. And I've used code words like Remagen and hoped that the kids back there had seen the movie. But we were sent up -- the 7th Calvary was sent up to take a bridge head and hold a bridge over a waterway, the Sahtt, and make sure that the Republican Guard could not come back in force and try to reinforce its units in -- on Najaf.

And, of course, I couldn't say exactly where we were at the time, but we were reinforced by a brigade and a half last night, which is a lot larger than what was there before. But, last night, because of the sandstorm, we were getting some rather ominous news. The JSTARS plane overhead was having a difficult time seeing. But they reported -- and I was listening to the Army radio the whole time and got permission to report -- that there was a column 1,000 strong coming south.

They couldn't tell the composition of the column, whether it was tanks or APCs or the -- or what it was. But whatever was out there was stopped overnight by another brigade which is off to our flank. And whatever was moving south was pretty badly cut up by airpower and forward artillery -- Aaron.

BROWN: Walt -- Mr. Hewitt, do you have a question you'd like to ask the correspondent?

HEWITT: Yes.

One of the things, Walt, that I don't understand, why didn't they blow those bridges before you guys went across them?

BROWN: Why didn't the Iraqis?

RODGERS: Well, the Iraqis planned to blow ours. I think it was sheer ineptitude and perhaps surprise at the speed with which the 7th Calvary moved. But the engineers discovered the second we crossed that Euphrates River bridge that there were huge satchel charges there and they just had not been wired.

I should say, further to the north, closer to An Najaf, the Iraqis did blow a bridge. And the bridge the 7th Cavalry was so successful in crossing was wired to be blown. They were just somewhat inept or behind the curve. And the 7th Cav -- and I believe that was Crazy Horse Troop, rammed across first. And then Apache -- that's the troop I'm with -- came across second.

But that bridge was so strategic that, not last night, but the previous night, the rear troops protecting Apache in the front were constantly under attack all night long. And they were repelling counterattacks by the Iraqis -- Aaron, Don.

BROWN: Walt, you just stay where you are and we'll be getting back to you.

Two final questions, Mr. Hewitt. Do you have any desire to put a headset on and get back in a control room and produce one of these things?

HEWITT: Well, I'm in it. I'm putting a show on the air Sunday with a lot of war reporting and a lot of stories that go with the war. And, mostly -- I go to work every day. I don't have the luxury of sitting back watching all day long. But every moment I get, I dial- hop, and I'm continually amazed at what I see.

BROWN: Sir, we are truly privileged to have you on the program. It's -- you weren't nearly as crusty as I worried you might be.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: It's wonderful to talk to you. Thank you very much for all your...

HEWITT: Thank you very much. Thank you.

BROWN: For all that you've contributed to this business, to the business of broadcast journalism, thank you.

HEWITT: I'm flattered, and I thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, Don Hewitt, who I think most of you know produces the CBS News broadcast "60 Minutes" and is something.

We'll take a break. We'll continue in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, it's been a very busy 50 minutes around here. And it goes on.

It started for us reporting to you that 1,000 paratroopers have moved in to the northern front. Brent Sadler is on the phone. And I believe what he's going to tell us is that there's at least a few more coming down on their parachutes -- Brent.

SADLER: Yes, Aaron.

The light has cleared here at the Harir airport. And I can now confirm that hundreds of paratroopers from the 173rd Brigade, Airborne Division, have now landed. I can see some pretty incredible things here of American paratroopers with their parachute rigs on their backs. They've hit the ground. And they're walking across the open fields here and assembling.

What's happened here is, there's been a parachute drop. The soldiers hit the ground. And they've now started to assemble from the drop line. This is a big area around the airstrip. I can see two helicopters also off-loading equipment. I can see various groups of soldiers securing the perimeter around the airfield, I would guess probably about a battalion strength.

BROWN: Brent, are you still there? Did we lose you? OK. We'll try...

SADLER: ... can confirm, if you can still hear me.

BROWN: Now I got you back.

SADLER: We can confirm -- go ahead, Aaron.

BROWN: I got you back. Go ahead.

SADLER: So, I can confirm that the 173rd Brigade has dropped here, and they're being met here by Kurdish forces, who are supplying transport equipment. This is not hostile territory. This is friendly terrain. But, nevertheless, the airborne troops now on the ground in this very flat area around this runway, which is really bordered on both sides by mountains, some of those mountains snowcapped, friendly territory, as I say, and really getting on the job now of securing the perimeter of the airfield and really assembling after this nighttime parachute drop.

They have around them -- rather, in front of them, a runway of almost 2 miles long. So we could see, as this deployment builds up, large transport aircraft coming into Harir airfield. I'm talking to you about 30 miles from Irbil, Aaron, maybe about two hours to those ridge lines, where we were watching coalition aircraft strike Iraqi frontline positions some 24 hours ago.

But it really is quite amazing to see these hundreds of U.S. paratroopers from the airborne division really just walking across down from high ground, and then just meeting, walking casually, I would say, no sense of urgency, no running around, because this, as I repeat again, is friendly territory. And they're now being helped along their way to unknown destinations at this stage by the Kurds, so quite extraordinary scenes unfolding here -- Aaron.

BROWN: And, Brent, thank you.

And we'll hopefully, at some point, we'll get some pictures on that. We also expect to get, in not too long a time, some pictures of the drop -- well, not that drop, but the drop that preceded it -- from one of our embedded crews in Europe. These soldiers left Europe headed for -- they left an air base in Europe, which is, at this moment, all we can say. And it's about a five-hour flight. They made their drop. And those planes are now back in Europe. And we're just trying to get the pictures back to us. And we should have that at some point.

We'll go to the White House. The president was on the move today for a couple of purposes. Chris Burns will join us in a moment.

We need to take a break first. CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For the second day in a row, the president was out in public. He was at the Pentagon yesterday. He went to the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, today, though the Central Command, by and large, is out in Qatar running the war. He's got dinner with Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and meetings with Mr. Blair as well.

So the president has a pretty full plate, which means Chris Burns has a pretty full plate. He's covering the White House for us tonight -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron.

The issue is managing the war and its aftermath, these talks between the two main allies in this war effort, President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the two having meetings. We can show you a picture of the two meeting at Camp David after the prime minister arrived. They also took a break for dinner with Laura Bush, the first lady, Andy Card, the chief of staff, as well as Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser.

The issues they're dealing with are, in part, the expected siege or taking of Baghdad, how to do that and limit casualties, both on the military and the civilian side; humanitarian aid, how to get it to those needy; and try to also, of course, deal with the Iraqi resistance at the same time; and the post-war issue, which is debating, raging at the United Nations, what kind of U.N. involvement should there be.

It seems like Washington wants more of a U.S. leadership of it, whereas Europe is arguing for a more U.N. management of it, Tony Blair trying to play the middleman in between that. They will be joined by Secretary of State Colin Powell tomorrow, Thursday, before they have a press conference and then a lunch. Blair will be going on to the U.N. to talk with Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the U.N.

President Bush went to Florida earlier in the day to MacDill Air Force base, where he visited the troops, another effort to show his moral support and, at the same time, arguing, trying to refute arguments that the war effort is getting bogged down by those setbacks. President Bush gave a speech, and, at the last minute, struck a couple of words out of that speech, however, trying not to be too overly optimistic. He struck the words "ahead of schedule" off the script, but instead he said this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: We cannot predict the final day of the Iraqi regime, but I can assure you, and I assure the long-suffering people of Iraq, there will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime. And that day is drawing near.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Now, on Air Force One, what were they serving for breakfast as the president was flying down to MacDill Air Force Base? They served not french toast, but freedom toast, showing you a little bit things are still raging on -- Aaron.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: OK. I guess they are. Someday, we'll all get past that, but we're not there yet. Chris, thank you very much.

And we will watch those meetings with Mr. Blair tomorrow.

General, if you're the general running the war, in 30 seconds or so, what do you want from civilian leadership, from the president? What is it that you want him to do?

CLARK: You want the backing. You want the confidence of the president. You want the reinforcement flow to continue. And you want the flexibility to escalate and time the fight as the battlefield conditions dictate.

BROWN: We'll pick up on that more as we go along.

Michael Gordon is on the phone. We'll get to him in a moment or two.

We need to take a break first. Our coverage continues in a moment. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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