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CNN Live Saturday

Munich Conference Highlights Contentious Issues in War on Terror

Aired February 02, 2002 - 14:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Protesters are also eying Munich this weekend, where defense experts from 43 nations are holding a yearly brainstorming get-together. Police and water cannons blocked streets around the upscale hotel hosting the security meeting. Still, 4,000 protesters tried to gather in a Munich square, despite a ban on such demonstrations. Police slowly pushed them out. They ended up containing several hundred people when the protesters returned.

The war on terror is naturally taking a lead role at the security conference. Our Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre is in Munich.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With some European allies already miffed they haven't been in on the planning for America's declared war on global terrorism, delegates at the prestigious Munich Conference on Security Policy heard another go- it-alone message from the United States.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: What happened on September 11, as terrible as it was, is but a pale shadow of what will happen if terrorists use weapons of mass destruction. Our approach has to aim at prevention and not merely punishment. We are at war. Self defense requires prevention and sometimes preemption.

MCINTYRE: And one U.S. law maker, former presidential candidate John McCain, fingered who he believes should be the next target: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: The next front is apparent, and we should not shrink from acknowledging it. A terrorist resides in Baghdad.

MCINTYRE: Iraq, Iran and North Korea were dubbed the "axis of evil" by President Bush in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. Rhetoric that many Europeans found confusing and somewhat inaccurate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These countries are not an axis, really. We should deal with each country on its own merits or demerits. When you generalize and put them together in an axis of evil, I think it makes -- it may make it a little more difficult to deal with them in a proper way.

MCINTYRE: But NATO may not have much to say about where the U.S. strikes next. For one thing, the U.S. success in Afghanistan has once again dramatized how far other NATO countries lag behind the U.S. military in precision weaponry and high-tech equipment. And pledges by European members of NATO to boost defense spending and modernize their militaries have not yet been fulfilled.

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: To the extent that the gap continues to grow, I think that it has a chance of attenuating the relationship between the United States and our European friends.

MCINTYRE (on camera): Most European officials are somewhat reserved in any public criticism of the Bush administration. But, privately, they are concerned about what they see as a growing American unilateralism. Specifically, they're worried that Europe won't be consulted, and that NATO, in particular, could be relegated to the sidelines as the U.S. puts together what it calls "flexible coalitions," as it prosecutes its war against terrorism.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Munich.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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