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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Restoring Civil Order in Iraq

Aired April 15, 2003 - 23:06   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 ANCHOR: Many, maybe most, of the young American men and women who fought in Iraq have never done any soldiering before. Now, with the soldiering largely behind them, they find themselves doing other things they've never done before either. Of course, putting the country back on its feet is something almost no one has done before.
Here is CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From fighting force to restoring civil order, the U.S. Marines in Baghdad are trying to make that transition and help Iraq get back on its feet.

Here, the Marines have brought together many engineers and administrators from the Ministry of Water. Restoring that basic amenity is a priority.

(on camera): The U.S. Marine Corps wrote the book on restoring civil order after wars. It's called the "Small Wars Manual," and they've never done anything this big before. Baghdad alone is a city of five million people. It's going to be, they say, a gigantic task.

LT. COL. BRYAN MCCOY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I have no idea. I've never done this before, but we're chipping away at it. We're making great progress today.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Colonel McCoy's Marines are also now stepping in to some police work. Here, stopping a robbery at the Iraqi Central Bank.

LT. EDWARD LANGELLO, U.S. MARINE CORPS: These guys had brand new bills, dollars, whatever they call them over here, dinar I believe is what they call them, and they had stacks of dinar in their pockets, which were brand new. And they came out of the vault, which was on fire and had just recently been blown. So two and two together, they're robbers.

Basically, we're sending the message that, hey, you can't do this any more in Iraq. It's over.

AMANPOUR: And that's certainly what most residents want to hear. Every day from just everyone we meet, we hear urgent demands for more security. Meantime, the Baghdad police force is still trying to organize itself for the first foot patrols onto the streets of their newly- liberated city.

Some have this message for the U.S.:

CAPT. AHMED SALAH, IRAQI POLICE FORCE: The Iraqi people don't want the Americans to stay here.

AMANPOUR (on camera): But why not?

SALAH: They came here to liberation, OK? Not to stay here.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): It's a message that's not lost on Colonel McCoy and his team.

MCCOY: One day we're a liberator, the next day we're an occupying force, which nobody wants to be occupied. That can be six months or it can be six days. A lot of it has to do with whether we're perceived as ugly Americans, whether we try and present ourselves as authority figures. And the key to that is getting control back into the Iraqi people's hands.

AMANPOUR: Fresh from that robbery that continued after the Marines left, Lieutenant Edward Langello has a blunter message for the Iraqis.

LANGELLO: You need to get up. You, the Iraqi people, need to get up and start taking charge of your own nation. I mean, America did that a long time ago, and look at where we are today.

AMANPOUR: Perhaps reflecting the U.S. administration's vision of trying to recreate the Middle East in its own image.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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






Aired April 15, 2003 - 23:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Many, maybe most, of the young American men and women who fought in Iraq have never done any soldiering before. Now, with the soldiering largely behind them, they find themselves doing other things they've never done before either. Of course, putting the country back on its feet is something almost no one has done before.
Here is CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From fighting force to restoring civil order, the U.S. Marines in Baghdad are trying to make that transition and help Iraq get back on its feet.

Here, the Marines have brought together many engineers and administrators from the Ministry of Water. Restoring that basic amenity is a priority.

(on camera): The U.S. Marine Corps wrote the book on restoring civil order after wars. It's called the "Small Wars Manual," and they've never done anything this big before. Baghdad alone is a city of five million people. It's going to be, they say, a gigantic task.

LT. COL. BRYAN MCCOY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I have no idea. I've never done this before, but we're chipping away at it. We're making great progress today.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Colonel McCoy's Marines are also now stepping in to some police work. Here, stopping a robbery at the Iraqi Central Bank.

LT. EDWARD LANGELLO, U.S. MARINE CORPS: These guys had brand new bills, dollars, whatever they call them over here, dinar I believe is what they call them, and they had stacks of dinar in their pockets, which were brand new. And they came out of the vault, which was on fire and had just recently been blown. So two and two together, they're robbers.

Basically, we're sending the message that, hey, you can't do this any more in Iraq. It's over.

AMANPOUR: And that's certainly what most residents want to hear. Every day from just everyone we meet, we hear urgent demands for more security. Meantime, the Baghdad police force is still trying to organize itself for the first foot patrols onto the streets of their newly- liberated city.

Some have this message for the U.S.:

CAPT. AHMED SALAH, IRAQI POLICE FORCE: The Iraqi people don't want the Americans to stay here.

AMANPOUR (on camera): But why not?

SALAH: They came here to liberation, OK? Not to stay here.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): It's a message that's not lost on Colonel McCoy and his team.

MCCOY: One day we're a liberator, the next day we're an occupying force, which nobody wants to be occupied. That can be six months or it can be six days. A lot of it has to do with whether we're perceived as ugly Americans, whether we try and present ourselves as authority figures. And the key to that is getting control back into the Iraqi people's hands.

AMANPOUR: Fresh from that robbery that continued after the Marines left, Lieutenant Edward Langello has a blunter message for the Iraqis.

LANGELLO: You need to get up. You, the Iraqi people, need to get up and start taking charge of your own nation. I mean, America did that a long time ago, and look at where we are today.

AMANPOUR: Perhaps reflecting the U.S. administration's vision of trying to recreate the Middle East in its own image.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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