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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

The Effects of War in Iraq

Aired April 15, 2003 - 23:35   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, CNN HOST: What evidently began as a peaceful gathering in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, people listening to a local leader make a speech, ended horribly. The crowd fired upon, bystanders hurt and killed and charges being bandied about about who was responsible.
British journalist Julian Manyon has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN MANYON, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pandemonium in the city of Mosul after a shooting incident involving American troops in which at least 10 Iraqis died. U.S. troops apparently opened fire after being fired on themselves by snipers.

The press television crew, which drove into the chaos by accident, was stoned. The casualties were brought to Mosul's emergency hospital where staff say there were 10 dead and more than 30 injured. Doctors fought to save lives. Most of the victims were men, but this girl was also hurt. One of the relatives gave an account of what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A member of the opposition tried to make a speech, saying the Americans are bringing democracy, but the crowd threw stones at him. Then the Americans opened fire.

MANYON: All this took place as the Americans were trying to reorganize the Iraqi police force in Mosul in an effort to control disorder. The deaths are a major blow to their efforts.

(on camera): U.S. military sources in Mosul say that their troops only fired after receiving fire from the crowd. They say their first shots were over the crowds' heads and that only later did they fire directly at the people who were firing at them. But Arabs in Mosul are accusing the U.S. forces of firing deliberately at civilians.

Julian Manyon, ITV News in northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Necessarily the baton is being passed now in Iraq from soldiers and pilots and military planners to people who have other areas of expertise.

Joining us tonight from Washington to talk about an area of expertise clearly very much needed is Robert Perito. Make it Perito. Did I -- I screwed it up twice, I think, Bob, and I apologize for that. Special Adviser to the Rule of Law Program at the U.S. Institute for Peace. He oversaw the training of police in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor and Kosovo. And I apologize for getting your name wrong. That happens.

ROBERT PERITO, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: No problem.

BROWN: Your general impression of the last week, could it have been avoided?

PERITO: Well, it probably could have had we had forces in place that were especially trained to deal with civil disorder. These forces do exist in other countries, some of our coalition partners have them, it's just unfortunate that we didn't have them when we needed them.

BROWN: Have we put people, to any degree, in the wrong places, at least symbolically?

PERITO: Well, it's very hard to put soldiers in a situation where they have to deal with civilians. Soldiers are not trained to deal with crowds, they're not trained to deal with civil disorder and they're not trained to deal with mobs. There are forces, however, civilian security forces, constabulary forces that are trained to do this work. Military police are trained to do this work. It's unfortunate that those forces weren't available when they were needed.

BROWN: There were discussions, though, you were involved in them, papers were written, talked about. What happened?

PERITO: Well, it's hard to say. We have had these sort of experiences in other areas. It happened. The same thing happened in Panama, it happened in Haiti, it happened in Bosnia and it happened in Kosovo. So it's really hard to know why the U.S. military didn't make arrangements for there to be specially trained constabulary forces available when they were needed.

BROWN: The administration last week was talking about look, this is untidiness, freedom is untidy. It does seem to have calmed down some. To what degree was this a sort of natural -- I'm not sure what the right word is -- exhaling in the moment in delight at the freedom that was available to people who had been oppressed?

PERITO: Well, I think the exhale was genuine and it was natural. What was -- where the problem lay in is how we responded to it. We have civil disturbances or we have public demonstrations in the United States all the time, but they're handled appropriately and they don't cause this kind of problem. There's no reason why we should have had today, for example, the burning of the National Library in Baghdad and the burning of the National Islamic Library in Baghdad. These events, I think, were preventable, if we had had properly trained security forces there to protect those buildings.

BROWN: And they're not there. And is there -- are we -- Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon talked about MPs being brought in. Is that the -- are those the right people to come in or is it some other nonmilitary force, in your experience in all these other places, Bosnia, etcetera, that are required?

PERITO: Well, military police are a good place to start. Military police are trained to deal with civil disorder, they're trained to restore public stability, but eventually we're going to need civilian police as well because military police have other duties. And we need civilian police who are also able to do law enforcement as well as deal with riot situations.

BROWN: Mr. Perito, thank you for your time tonight.

PERITO: Thank you very much.

BROWN: It's a complicated problem there. Thank you very much.

In a moment, story of something that's gone right in Iraq, a community looking within to restore some order. We'll take a break first. Our coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: This is a story about a community of God fearing people who faced a huge problem but leaned on their faith and on each other to help get them through it. This isn't some feel good story from middle America, it's a feel good story from the middle of Iraq, a place where in the aftermath of war things finally seem to be going right.

Here's CNN's Richard Blystone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Iraq. Where's the looting, where's the shooting, where's the war debris, where are the occupying troops?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After fighting, the American army leaving Karbala is very good.

BLYSTONE: The worst thing you encounter in Karbala is a serpent of smiles and handshakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the people helped one another to control over the city to forbid stealing, robbery and fighting the Americans.

BLYSTONE: This man was a member of the underground that helped smooth the way to a transitional government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little government is not the real government, but everybody produces a circumstance to overcome the problems.

BLYSTONE: Even the old mayor is still in office because people say he's a good man. How did they do it? Here's one reason. Karbala is one of two holy cities of the Shi'a branch of Islam. The sheiks in the mosques exercise their moral influence. And when you have righteous law-abiding people, you don't need much government.

Another reason is that these Shi'as are bonded by their special suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein. And that's another thing that's missing here, his portraits. A policeman sporting a new beard means two things, law and order and freedom from the old regime's ban on Shi'as traditional beards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No problem. Everything is very good. Water is good. Electricity, no electricity now.

BLYSTONE: There are plenty of problems left. Millions of Iraqis are missing or have fled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This regime Saddam make my family hundreds, thousands families in Iraq, it make outside Iraq.

BLYSTONE: Where are they, this religious leader asks?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most results is very bad and very dirty. We are helping to clean and build.

BLYSTONE: The voice of Iraq's first human rights organization.

(on camera): While Baghdad has been looting and burning and wondering what to do, this city has been doing it for itself.

Richard Blystone, CNN, Karbala, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In terms of what's been destroyed in Iraq, there are some things you can put a price tag on and some things you cannot. You can't put a price tag on the loss of a human life and you can't put a price tag on the lost of history, the history that was stolen by looters at the National Museum in Baghdad.

A closer look at the destruction inside from CNN's Jim Clancy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news media saw for themselves the destruction inside a part of Iraq's National Museum Tuesday, and heard a renewed appeal for U.S. troops to come and secure what is left of one of the most valuable collections in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps we can show you when they went through and they have smashed some of the objects that were here.

CLANCY: The destruction of statues, tablets and historic pieces, some dating back thousands of years, was readily apparent. So, too, the destruction of vital archives, photographs and the entire history of the museum itself. What is missing from the museum, what we can't show you, are priceless treasures.

MUAYAD SAID AL DAMERJI, BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY: It was one of the most important, and is still one of the most important museums. It reveals the whole history of mankind from 500,000 BC to now.

CLANCY (on camera): Now that they've had a better look, archaeologists and members of the museum's staff are increasingly convinced that at least some of those who broke in or tried to break in here knew exactly what they wanted to plunder from Iraq's history of civilization.

(voice-over): The looters broke down the museum's steel doors and passed through in their hundreds. Dr. Dani George (ph) held up evidence pointing to more than common thieves.

DR. DANI GEORGE: We found these. These were glass cutters. They had them with them. So this means there were some -- maybe professional ones.

CLANCY: Another point, the thieves passed over duplicates of Iraqi treasures now on display in other museums like the Louvre, but hauled away priceless originals, weighing sometimes hundreds of pounds. Throughout the ordeal, museum staff complained U.S. troops refused to intervene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy went there and there was an Arabic translator with them. He begged them to come to protect the Iraq museum, but nobody came.

CLANCY: And nobody has come. Despite promises from U.S. officials, all the way up to the secretary of state, what is left of one of the most important museums in the world remained unprotected Tuesday.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Take a break, then "Morning Papers," the papers you'll be reading about tomorrow morning around the country and around the world. Break first.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: All right, "Morning Papers" from around the country and around the world. First, all the news that's fit to print. That's all the news that's fit to print.

The "New York Times," there is no clear headline in "The Times," as often is the case. But we'll start over there. In a concession, Bush lowers goal on tax cut plan, proposing $550 billion. That's the House total. But the president may not get that.

Still, most of the front page devoted either to the president or the war, in some cases both. And in the middle, this is one of those stories, depends on how you look at it, pledge made to democracy by exiled sheiks and clerics. This is "The Times'" take on the meeting. Interestingly to us, "The Guardian," one of the British papers, headlines the same story quite differently. Chaos mars talks on Iraqi self-rule is the headline in "The Guardian." Now in the middle of the country, the "Chicago Sun Times," where the weather tomorrow will be truculent, the big story is a political story, Fitz: That's it. The Republican senator, Senator Peter Fitzgerald, surprising everybody by announcing he will not seek re- election. This largely democratic state, certainly they just elected a democratic governor, and that's a political stunner there and may change the face of the Senate.

The "Cincinnati Enquirer" where the food of the week, by the way, is eggs. You can't beat these eggs. That makes sense, it's Easter week, doesn't it. Iraqis begin a new -- to plan new government. That's their take on the meeting outside of Nasiriya. And every other story on the front page is a local story of one sort or another, including a big weather story in the middle, Summer breezes into Cincinnati.

Now we have summer here in New York for today and tomorrow, and then it will pass.

Terrorist caught in Iraq the headline in the "Miami Herald." And down on the bottom of the front page in "The Herald," flag battle still divides south. Georgia is going through this confederate battle flag -- state flag deal all over again. And last week, at least when we were in Atlanta, it had gotten kind of nasty.

The Detroit papers -- how are we doing on time? Thank you. The "Detroit Free Press." OK, they have -- in the "Free Press" they have one war-related story. And wouldn't you know it, it's a story about cars found in Iraq and these old beaters. Every other story on the front page is local. "Detroit Free Press," Ford gambling on midsize cars, GM earnings bright but future hazy.

And the other big story in Detroit is a hockey story. The Red Wings are in trouble. That was also the big front page story in the other paper in Detroit. "The Detroit News" defiant, angry Wings fight for lives, but they do put a big war-related story on the front page as well.

And finally, we'll do you -- we'll -- finally, we won't do anything. Finally we'll just say that's it for "Morning Papers." We'll wrap it up for the hour in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There's one way to better understand how a lot of the world outside the United States sees the war in Iraq, they see it through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy, a child horribly injured and now an orphan. His name is Ali, and to many, he is the true face of this war, not the face of Iraqis enjoying freedom, but the face of an innocent child who is suffering.

These pictures here are not necessarily easy to watch.

Here is how the world press has covered his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is an angelic face that has caught the sympathy of the world. The loss of both arms and virtually his entire family has become a powerful iconic symbol of civilian suffering in this war.

Since coming to the world's attention, he has barely been heard to complain. He still tries bravely to wave at the cameras. But courage alone may not be enough for Ali because the loss of his arms is tragic, but the 60 percent burns he suffered could soon be fatal.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened, says his family, when a missile hit his home in the middle of the night at the beginning of the war. He is surrounded by his uncles and aunts, but not his mother or father or his two sisters and brother. They were all killed in the same attack. His uncle tells him, it's God's will. His aunt tells him not to cry, but she herself is in tears even before she finishes her sentence. She was in the house next door.

We could hear the plane flying over our homes for more than 10 minutes, but I didn't think they will hit us.

An uncle who was pulled out of the same rubble says that there is nothing military around their area and so they felt safe.

It's all farmland around us, and we didn't even think that we could be hit.

ALI ABBAS (through interpreter): We were sleeping at home when a rocket was launched. I lost my two arms. Also my father, mother and my brothers had been hit. Who is going to bring back the -- Ali his arms? I would like -- I would like -- I want my -- I want my hands back. I want to go to my brothers and sisters. Every day I feel pain, every day, even the mountain cannot take this pain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what 12-year-old Ali has been asking for, what his doctors have been praying for and what the outside world has been demanding. Finally U.S. marines arrived at the hospital where Ali has survived since his horrific injuries 18 days ago. They're here to take him to Kuwait and to a specialist burns unit.

When Ali awoke this morning, he could scarcely believe that today would really be the day when he'd be taken abroad for the treatment he so desperately needs. But he was hopeful and his eyes were bright.

Friends and relatives arrived today. For some it was the first time they've been able to see him since the explosion that killed his mother, father, brothers and cousins. They were horrified by his injuries and pleaded for him to get specialist treatment outside Iraq.

The part of each day Ali dreads is when his amputation wounds and burns must be washed and dressed. In these primitive conditions without drugs, the pain is excruciating for Ali and far too traumatic to film. Putting a little boy through such agony reduces his doctor to tears. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of so many cases that happening -- that hospitals of Baghdad are seeing of children who don't know why the war was launched and how it ended. In the absence of human conscious what is left for them is only misery that will go with them for as long as they lived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doctor told us Ali needed specialist treatment abroad, including skin graphs. Ali was wheeled through the rundown hospital in one of Baghdad's toughest neighborhoods and taken to a waiting ambulance. A large crowd had gathered to see him leave and cheer him on his way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick postscript tonight, Ali arrived at a hospital in Kuwait City traveling with his uncle. Doctors gave him a quick evaluation before taking him into surgery. Faces a considerable amount of skin grafting. Ali is among a group of children being flown to Kuwait by the U.S. military for treatment.

And that's our report for tonight. We're back tomorrow. Actually, Anderson's here tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern Time. I'll see you again Thursday. Have a good night from all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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Aired April 15, 2003 - 23:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN HOST: What evidently began as a peaceful gathering in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, people listening to a local leader make a speech, ended horribly. The crowd fired upon, bystanders hurt and killed and charges being bandied about about who was responsible.
British journalist Julian Manyon has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN MANYON, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pandemonium in the city of Mosul after a shooting incident involving American troops in which at least 10 Iraqis died. U.S. troops apparently opened fire after being fired on themselves by snipers.

The press television crew, which drove into the chaos by accident, was stoned. The casualties were brought to Mosul's emergency hospital where staff say there were 10 dead and more than 30 injured. Doctors fought to save lives. Most of the victims were men, but this girl was also hurt. One of the relatives gave an account of what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A member of the opposition tried to make a speech, saying the Americans are bringing democracy, but the crowd threw stones at him. Then the Americans opened fire.

MANYON: All this took place as the Americans were trying to reorganize the Iraqi police force in Mosul in an effort to control disorder. The deaths are a major blow to their efforts.

(on camera): U.S. military sources in Mosul say that their troops only fired after receiving fire from the crowd. They say their first shots were over the crowds' heads and that only later did they fire directly at the people who were firing at them. But Arabs in Mosul are accusing the U.S. forces of firing deliberately at civilians.

Julian Manyon, ITV News in northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Necessarily the baton is being passed now in Iraq from soldiers and pilots and military planners to people who have other areas of expertise.

Joining us tonight from Washington to talk about an area of expertise clearly very much needed is Robert Perito. Make it Perito. Did I -- I screwed it up twice, I think, Bob, and I apologize for that. Special Adviser to the Rule of Law Program at the U.S. Institute for Peace. He oversaw the training of police in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor and Kosovo. And I apologize for getting your name wrong. That happens.

ROBERT PERITO, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: No problem.

BROWN: Your general impression of the last week, could it have been avoided?

PERITO: Well, it probably could have had we had forces in place that were especially trained to deal with civil disorder. These forces do exist in other countries, some of our coalition partners have them, it's just unfortunate that we didn't have them when we needed them.

BROWN: Have we put people, to any degree, in the wrong places, at least symbolically?

PERITO: Well, it's very hard to put soldiers in a situation where they have to deal with civilians. Soldiers are not trained to deal with crowds, they're not trained to deal with civil disorder and they're not trained to deal with mobs. There are forces, however, civilian security forces, constabulary forces that are trained to do this work. Military police are trained to do this work. It's unfortunate that those forces weren't available when they were needed.

BROWN: There were discussions, though, you were involved in them, papers were written, talked about. What happened?

PERITO: Well, it's hard to say. We have had these sort of experiences in other areas. It happened. The same thing happened in Panama, it happened in Haiti, it happened in Bosnia and it happened in Kosovo. So it's really hard to know why the U.S. military didn't make arrangements for there to be specially trained constabulary forces available when they were needed.

BROWN: The administration last week was talking about look, this is untidiness, freedom is untidy. It does seem to have calmed down some. To what degree was this a sort of natural -- I'm not sure what the right word is -- exhaling in the moment in delight at the freedom that was available to people who had been oppressed?

PERITO: Well, I think the exhale was genuine and it was natural. What was -- where the problem lay in is how we responded to it. We have civil disturbances or we have public demonstrations in the United States all the time, but they're handled appropriately and they don't cause this kind of problem. There's no reason why we should have had today, for example, the burning of the National Library in Baghdad and the burning of the National Islamic Library in Baghdad. These events, I think, were preventable, if we had had properly trained security forces there to protect those buildings.

BROWN: And they're not there. And is there -- are we -- Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon talked about MPs being brought in. Is that the -- are those the right people to come in or is it some other nonmilitary force, in your experience in all these other places, Bosnia, etcetera, that are required?

PERITO: Well, military police are a good place to start. Military police are trained to deal with civil disorder, they're trained to restore public stability, but eventually we're going to need civilian police as well because military police have other duties. And we need civilian police who are also able to do law enforcement as well as deal with riot situations.

BROWN: Mr. Perito, thank you for your time tonight.

PERITO: Thank you very much.

BROWN: It's a complicated problem there. Thank you very much.

In a moment, story of something that's gone right in Iraq, a community looking within to restore some order. We'll take a break first. Our coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: This is a story about a community of God fearing people who faced a huge problem but leaned on their faith and on each other to help get them through it. This isn't some feel good story from middle America, it's a feel good story from the middle of Iraq, a place where in the aftermath of war things finally seem to be going right.

Here's CNN's Richard Blystone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Iraq. Where's the looting, where's the shooting, where's the war debris, where are the occupying troops?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After fighting, the American army leaving Karbala is very good.

BLYSTONE: The worst thing you encounter in Karbala is a serpent of smiles and handshakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the people helped one another to control over the city to forbid stealing, robbery and fighting the Americans.

BLYSTONE: This man was a member of the underground that helped smooth the way to a transitional government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little government is not the real government, but everybody produces a circumstance to overcome the problems.

BLYSTONE: Even the old mayor is still in office because people say he's a good man. How did they do it? Here's one reason. Karbala is one of two holy cities of the Shi'a branch of Islam. The sheiks in the mosques exercise their moral influence. And when you have righteous law-abiding people, you don't need much government.

Another reason is that these Shi'as are bonded by their special suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein. And that's another thing that's missing here, his portraits. A policeman sporting a new beard means two things, law and order and freedom from the old regime's ban on Shi'as traditional beards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No problem. Everything is very good. Water is good. Electricity, no electricity now.

BLYSTONE: There are plenty of problems left. Millions of Iraqis are missing or have fled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This regime Saddam make my family hundreds, thousands families in Iraq, it make outside Iraq.

BLYSTONE: Where are they, this religious leader asks?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most results is very bad and very dirty. We are helping to clean and build.

BLYSTONE: The voice of Iraq's first human rights organization.

(on camera): While Baghdad has been looting and burning and wondering what to do, this city has been doing it for itself.

Richard Blystone, CNN, Karbala, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In terms of what's been destroyed in Iraq, there are some things you can put a price tag on and some things you cannot. You can't put a price tag on the loss of a human life and you can't put a price tag on the lost of history, the history that was stolen by looters at the National Museum in Baghdad.

A closer look at the destruction inside from CNN's Jim Clancy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news media saw for themselves the destruction inside a part of Iraq's National Museum Tuesday, and heard a renewed appeal for U.S. troops to come and secure what is left of one of the most valuable collections in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps we can show you when they went through and they have smashed some of the objects that were here.

CLANCY: The destruction of statues, tablets and historic pieces, some dating back thousands of years, was readily apparent. So, too, the destruction of vital archives, photographs and the entire history of the museum itself. What is missing from the museum, what we can't show you, are priceless treasures.

MUAYAD SAID AL DAMERJI, BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY: It was one of the most important, and is still one of the most important museums. It reveals the whole history of mankind from 500,000 BC to now.

CLANCY (on camera): Now that they've had a better look, archaeologists and members of the museum's staff are increasingly convinced that at least some of those who broke in or tried to break in here knew exactly what they wanted to plunder from Iraq's history of civilization.

(voice-over): The looters broke down the museum's steel doors and passed through in their hundreds. Dr. Dani George (ph) held up evidence pointing to more than common thieves.

DR. DANI GEORGE: We found these. These were glass cutters. They had them with them. So this means there were some -- maybe professional ones.

CLANCY: Another point, the thieves passed over duplicates of Iraqi treasures now on display in other museums like the Louvre, but hauled away priceless originals, weighing sometimes hundreds of pounds. Throughout the ordeal, museum staff complained U.S. troops refused to intervene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy went there and there was an Arabic translator with them. He begged them to come to protect the Iraq museum, but nobody came.

CLANCY: And nobody has come. Despite promises from U.S. officials, all the way up to the secretary of state, what is left of one of the most important museums in the world remained unprotected Tuesday.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Take a break, then "Morning Papers," the papers you'll be reading about tomorrow morning around the country and around the world. Break first.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: All right, "Morning Papers" from around the country and around the world. First, all the news that's fit to print. That's all the news that's fit to print.

The "New York Times," there is no clear headline in "The Times," as often is the case. But we'll start over there. In a concession, Bush lowers goal on tax cut plan, proposing $550 billion. That's the House total. But the president may not get that.

Still, most of the front page devoted either to the president or the war, in some cases both. And in the middle, this is one of those stories, depends on how you look at it, pledge made to democracy by exiled sheiks and clerics. This is "The Times'" take on the meeting. Interestingly to us, "The Guardian," one of the British papers, headlines the same story quite differently. Chaos mars talks on Iraqi self-rule is the headline in "The Guardian." Now in the middle of the country, the "Chicago Sun Times," where the weather tomorrow will be truculent, the big story is a political story, Fitz: That's it. The Republican senator, Senator Peter Fitzgerald, surprising everybody by announcing he will not seek re- election. This largely democratic state, certainly they just elected a democratic governor, and that's a political stunner there and may change the face of the Senate.

The "Cincinnati Enquirer" where the food of the week, by the way, is eggs. You can't beat these eggs. That makes sense, it's Easter week, doesn't it. Iraqis begin a new -- to plan new government. That's their take on the meeting outside of Nasiriya. And every other story on the front page is a local story of one sort or another, including a big weather story in the middle, Summer breezes into Cincinnati.

Now we have summer here in New York for today and tomorrow, and then it will pass.

Terrorist caught in Iraq the headline in the "Miami Herald." And down on the bottom of the front page in "The Herald," flag battle still divides south. Georgia is going through this confederate battle flag -- state flag deal all over again. And last week, at least when we were in Atlanta, it had gotten kind of nasty.

The Detroit papers -- how are we doing on time? Thank you. The "Detroit Free Press." OK, they have -- in the "Free Press" they have one war-related story. And wouldn't you know it, it's a story about cars found in Iraq and these old beaters. Every other story on the front page is local. "Detroit Free Press," Ford gambling on midsize cars, GM earnings bright but future hazy.

And the other big story in Detroit is a hockey story. The Red Wings are in trouble. That was also the big front page story in the other paper in Detroit. "The Detroit News" defiant, angry Wings fight for lives, but they do put a big war-related story on the front page as well.

And finally, we'll do you -- we'll -- finally, we won't do anything. Finally we'll just say that's it for "Morning Papers." We'll wrap it up for the hour in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There's one way to better understand how a lot of the world outside the United States sees the war in Iraq, they see it through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy, a child horribly injured and now an orphan. His name is Ali, and to many, he is the true face of this war, not the face of Iraqis enjoying freedom, but the face of an innocent child who is suffering.

These pictures here are not necessarily easy to watch.

Here is how the world press has covered his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is an angelic face that has caught the sympathy of the world. The loss of both arms and virtually his entire family has become a powerful iconic symbol of civilian suffering in this war.

Since coming to the world's attention, he has barely been heard to complain. He still tries bravely to wave at the cameras. But courage alone may not be enough for Ali because the loss of his arms is tragic, but the 60 percent burns he suffered could soon be fatal.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened, says his family, when a missile hit his home in the middle of the night at the beginning of the war. He is surrounded by his uncles and aunts, but not his mother or father or his two sisters and brother. They were all killed in the same attack. His uncle tells him, it's God's will. His aunt tells him not to cry, but she herself is in tears even before she finishes her sentence. She was in the house next door.

We could hear the plane flying over our homes for more than 10 minutes, but I didn't think they will hit us.

An uncle who was pulled out of the same rubble says that there is nothing military around their area and so they felt safe.

It's all farmland around us, and we didn't even think that we could be hit.

ALI ABBAS (through interpreter): We were sleeping at home when a rocket was launched. I lost my two arms. Also my father, mother and my brothers had been hit. Who is going to bring back the -- Ali his arms? I would like -- I would like -- I want my -- I want my hands back. I want to go to my brothers and sisters. Every day I feel pain, every day, even the mountain cannot take this pain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what 12-year-old Ali has been asking for, what his doctors have been praying for and what the outside world has been demanding. Finally U.S. marines arrived at the hospital where Ali has survived since his horrific injuries 18 days ago. They're here to take him to Kuwait and to a specialist burns unit.

When Ali awoke this morning, he could scarcely believe that today would really be the day when he'd be taken abroad for the treatment he so desperately needs. But he was hopeful and his eyes were bright.

Friends and relatives arrived today. For some it was the first time they've been able to see him since the explosion that killed his mother, father, brothers and cousins. They were horrified by his injuries and pleaded for him to get specialist treatment outside Iraq.

The part of each day Ali dreads is when his amputation wounds and burns must be washed and dressed. In these primitive conditions without drugs, the pain is excruciating for Ali and far too traumatic to film. Putting a little boy through such agony reduces his doctor to tears. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of so many cases that happening -- that hospitals of Baghdad are seeing of children who don't know why the war was launched and how it ended. In the absence of human conscious what is left for them is only misery that will go with them for as long as they lived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doctor told us Ali needed specialist treatment abroad, including skin graphs. Ali was wheeled through the rundown hospital in one of Baghdad's toughest neighborhoods and taken to a waiting ambulance. A large crowd had gathered to see him leave and cheer him on his way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick postscript tonight, Ali arrived at a hospital in Kuwait City traveling with his uncle. Doctors gave him a quick evaluation before taking him into surgery. Faces a considerable amount of skin grafting. Ali is among a group of children being flown to Kuwait by the U.S. military for treatment.

And that's our report for tonight. We're back tomorrow. Actually, Anderson's here tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern Time. I'll see you again Thursday. Have a good night from all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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