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CNN Live Saturday

When Will the War on Terrorism End?

Aired December 29, 2001 - 17:06   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: In his weekly radio address today, President Bush said it's not clear when the U.S.-led war against terrorism will end. For more on the status of the military campaign, we're joined from Washington by Major General Don Shepperd. General, it's good to see you again.

We have just been told that there were B-1B bombers in action apparently yesterday in Afghanistan, about 60 miles to the south, in an area called Gardez (ph), firing apparently tactical missiles. What would that be about?

MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD (RET.,) U.S. AIR FORCE: Yeah, that's a little unclear, Martin. When we queried Central Command, they weren't forthcoming with the details. Now, there is three types of missiles basically that the B-1 carries. One is the AGM42 half-nap (ph), another one is the new Joint Standoff Weapon, the JSW, and another one is a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM.

Both the JSW and the JASSM are later-model missiles that are just coming out, and it's not clear to me which one of those they would have used. Some of them have submunitions, something such as the half-nap (ph) would be used against the cave, and of course the B-1 can also carry the GPS-guided bombs that we have been talking about, so I am not clear why they would use missiles. We are going to have to ask some more questions about this, but clearly if it was missiles, the target dictated it, and they probably wanted penetration in a cave-type complex, Martin.

SAVIDGE: There are a number of issues I want to talk to you about. Special Forces, Walter Rodgers saying he has been monitoring their movements. What exactly would they be doing now?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, this is a little bit of a strange dance. First of all, we're told that many Marines are going to be going into the caves in Tora Bora, and then when we are told, no, they are not going in, it's going to be the special forces. What we have is a competition of priorities here. Clearly, the Eastern Alliance feels that they are through with Tora Bora, that they have been cleansed of the al Qaeda and Taliban. We are not so sure. We want proof, and we also want to look for bin Laden or any intelligence against in there, and so we are doing it ourselves and encouraging the Eastern Alliance to go with us, and even in some cases probably paying them to do it.

So, we want to clean up Tora Bora and anything it might be left in there. That's the reason we are still there, Martin.

SAVIDGE: What about the turnover of the air base in Kandahar? It's apparently going to be handed over to the 101st. Why the 101st, and what's going to happen to the Marines?

SHEPPERD: Standard military doctrine. The Marines MEWs, Marine Expeditionary Units, are designed to go in for a 30-day period. They have already been there longer than that, but they are going in lightly armed, seize objectives, and then bring in the more heavily fortified Army with heavier forces that are able to sustain over long period of time.

Kandahar will now be used for a base of operation to do the things around Afghanistan that General Franks wants to do. They are an air mobile division, so they will have good helicopter mobility, and be able to do things such as search for Mullah Omar, reported to be northwest of Kandahar in the Helmand or the Orskand (ph) province.

SAVIDGE: All right. Let's turn to the very grave situation on the border between India and Pakistan. How does this complicate the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan?

SHEPPERD: Big time serious. Two nuclear powers face-to-face, bad things could happen. Could spin out of control. The affect on Afghanistan is, we could lose our overflight rights if the two nations go to war. We could lose the security of our bases provided by the Pakistan military, and we could loss their support in blocking al Qaeda terrorists leaving from the Tora Bora area coming into Pakistan.

None of that do we want to happen. And we really want to de- escalate this situation for the safety of the world from nuclear warfare, Martin.

SAVIDGE: What if it did happen? What if these two nations went to war? What would the U.S. commanders tell their U.S. forces in Pakistan to do?

SHEPPERD: Well, likely we would be hands off except for diplomacy. We will not be inserted between these two forces unless both of them invited us in, and then it would be a very serious decision to do that.

Now, the real danger of this: You have got one billion people in India against the 144 people -- 144 million in Pakistan. Pakistan, if they feel that their survival is threatened has not renounced the first use of nuclear weapons, while India has. This could be very serious and spin out of control, and we don't want to be in the middle, but we want out diplomacy to de-escalate it.

SAVIDGE: Even without war starting, we have had reports that troops are being pulled -- Pakistani troops from the region of the Afghan border. They have been acting as sort of the back-stop for U.S. forces that have been searching in Tora Bora and other places. That's got to be a problem for them?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, it's a real problem, and they have captured and turned over to us reportedly in the neighborhood of 50 to 150 prisoners that we were very interested in, al Qaeda with information, that are being brought to Mazar-e Sharif, detained there, and then sorted, and then moved to Kandahar.

We really want this Pakistan/India thing to de-escalate for our own reasons as well as for the threat of nuclear war.

SAVIDGE: Before you leave, I want to ask you, a professional opinion. You have obviously seen these two nations come close to blows in the past. How serious do you take this current situation?

SHEPPERD: I take it very serious. Again, for the reason that when you have two nations that have a nuclear capability together, when you unleash the dogs of war, even the first artillery shots, things can spin out of control. And they both have nuclear weapons, missiles and air delivered nuclear weapons from aircraft. They both have good armies and good air forces, and it's in my opinion, very, very serious. Very dangerous. They have been to war in '65 and '71, twice in the last few years here, over the same piece of territory, Kashmir.

SAVIDGE: Major General Don Shepperd, we will hope with you that it won't happen again. Thank you.

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