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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Servicemen Decorated

Aired March 16, 2002 - 22:05   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.
KATHERINE CALLAWAY: U.S. and allied ground forces continued to comb the hills of eastern Afghanistan, as Operation Anaconda moves forward. Word now from the front line is that those forces are only meeting with pockets of resistance. That is a far cry from the heavy fighting that took place earlier in the month.

And as CNN's Martin Savidge reports, eight U.S. servicemen were decorated today for the wounds that they received when Operation Anaconda was a full out brawl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gathering in a hangar at the Bagram Airbase, men who were once just soldiers, now combat veterans, look on as eight of their own received Purple Hearts. These men from the 10th Mountain Division 1st Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment were wounded in the very first fierce day of fighting two weeks ago.

It was the second such ceremony held here since the largest military operation of the war in Afghanistan involving the U.S. got underway. Though none of the members strived to receive this kind of recognition, all of them said they felt a tremendous sense of pride, a pride put into words by their commander.

MAJ. GEN. F.L. HAGENBECK, ANACONDA COMMANDER: You defeated and completely wiped out a sanctuary that they've held in this country for four to five years. They're no longer there. Their leaders are on the run, and they're trying to figure out what happened to them.

SAVIDGE: Even as they gathered, Operation Anaconda continued on the mountain ridges surrounding the lower Shah-e-Kot Valley. Fresh coalition troops continued to rotate into the area, relieving those that have been battling harsh terrain, high altitude, and the remaining small pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The arrival of these Canadian troops marks that nation's first combat operation on the ground in 50 years.

JEFF WILSON, CAPTAIN, CANADIAN LIAISON OFFICER: Our essential objective was to clear this area and to see what was here. And essentially, that's what we're doing.

SAVIDGE: Moving with U.S. soldiers, the Canadians have been conducting what military leaders call sensitive site exploitation, searching caves in Taliban and al Qaeda positions, looking for information. Coalition forces say they've seen little activity and only occasional skirmishes with a small number of fighters who remain.

It's a tedious and sometimes dangerous process that could still take some time.

KEVIN WILKERSON, COLONEL, TASK FORCE COMMANDER WITH MOUNTAIN DIVISION: We're going to be involved in this until we are relatively certain that we have cleaned out the pockets of al Qaeda. And their completion of that, we're going to go back to our base, refit, and get ready for the next mission.

SAVIDGE: More operations and mostly likely more ceremonies, as the war in Afghanistan and the war on terror, no doubt, have more mountains to climb.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Bagram, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: And where will those mountains be? Well, with me now is CNN military analyst and retired Army general, Wesley Clark, who's joining us tonight from Little Rock. Thanks for being with us this evening, general.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: Good to be with you, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Let's talk about Operation Anaconda first. Winding down, but what's next? Certainly the war in Afghanistan's not over yet?

CLARK: It's certainly not over. There will be other pockets of al Qaeda. We probably know where some are right now. We're probably watching them as they're attempting to mass. We're organizing the Afghans to take the lead to go after them. We're ready to back it up with our own troops.

But what's also of concern is what's in Pakistan? We haven't heard about any big offensive operations run by President Musharraf there. And yet, we know that during the battle at Shah-e-Kot, that there were a number of reinforcements from Pakistan that tried to come in and reinforce the al Qaeda. Presumably, if the al Qaeda did escape, as some Afghans have said, they went back into Pakistan. So what are we going to do about that?

Hopefully, we've got some operations over there that we're not covering, that the news media and the military commentators don't know about. But I hope we do, because this is an operation that can't be bounded by international borders. We've got to go where the enemy. We've got to get intelligence dominance of that theater.

And Catherine, that's the other thing. We don't have that yet. We've got to get more troops out on the ground in more places, talking to more people, so we really know who's with us and where the opponents are.

CALLAWAY: General, let me back up just a little bit and get specific here with you. We talked about Anaconda at the beginning here. Certainly, before we leave Afghanistan and move into Pakistan, there have be more pockets in Afghanistan. As we know, this was a mountainous area. And it seems that Anaconda turned out to be a much bigger battle than maybe those of us here in the U.S. expected.

Will we see more of this in the future in Afghanistan?

CLARK: I think we will, but the reason I bring Pakistan into it now is that I think that the principle we should be following is to pursue the force that we were engaged with. So there may be other pockets in central Afghanistan or in western Afghanistan that we haven't contacted yet. OK, fine. We'll go after those people.

But if we've put the leadership that was in this pocket around north of Gardez or south of Gardez on the run, then we ought to be continuing to go after them, as well as exploiting the sites that they gave up.

CALLAWAY: Right, and expecting them to perhaps run into Pakistan.

CLARK: Right.

CALLAWAY: What kind of dilemma will that pose for the U.S. relations with Pakistan? What kind of relationships could we see change or develop if we do move full-fledged into Pakistan?

CLARK: Well, I think it's going to be very difficult for Musharraf to accept this at face value. And so, hopefully, the coordination's already underway. Hopefully, he does have troops in this northwest frontier province, which is in Pakistan. Hopefully, there is activity going on. We just haven't heard anything about it.

CALLAWAY: We heard U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tell CNN earlier today that some 60 countries in the world, including the U.S., there are pockets of U.S. A lot of discussion now about Iraq possibly being a target after Pakistan. Where does the war on terror go next?

CLARK: I'm not sure that the administration's made a decision. But my recommendation, for what it's worth, would be continue to focus on al Qaeda. I think Iraq is a problem. It's -- they've violated the United Nations decrees for a decade. They are trying to get weapons of mass destruction, but we really need to keep the focus on al Qaeda until we've really broken that organization. We haven't broken it yet.

CALLAWAY: Let's talk about Iraq for a minute. In a CNN/Time poll, 61 percent of those polled believe that the U.S. war should go on into Iraq, even without the support of other Arab countries. What are your thoughts on that?

CLARK: I think it's going to be very difficult to go in there. And it's not just a matter of attacking, dropping bombs, killing some people and trying to replace Saddam Hussein. It's a matter of what happens next? And how do we project stability and really come out of that with a better situation than we have right now? We won't, unless we have the support of other Arab countries.

CALLAWAY: Yes, that was my next question is wouldn't you have to have that support in that country?

CLARK: I think you would. And obviously, that's why Vice President Cheney is abroad. He's talking to the Arab countries. He's trying to build that coalition. Of course, what they're telling him is no coalition until you do something to stop the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.

CALLAWAY: Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Commander-in- Chief of U.S./European Command, quite a resume you have. So I can't let you go without asking you first about the latest developments in the Middle East. What are thoughts on the move by Israel today to offer to meet with Palestinians?

CLARK: I think it's a tactical move. And I think that given the pressure that Sharon has been under, he could hardly say no. The real problem is that the Israelis can control what happens. The question is will Arafat control what happens? It's one thing for the Israelis to pull out. And they will do that.

CALLAWAY: Right.

CLARK: But Hamas and the other terrorist groups inside the Palestinian areas have said they will continue to use terror against the Israelis. These people don't accept the existence of Israel as a state. They're going to continue to pose a problem.

And before the cease-fire can go very far, and certainly before there can be a political agreement, something has to be done about the terrorist fringe inside the Palestinian areas. And Arafat has to do it.

CALLAWAY: General Clark, thank you for being with us on this Saturday night. We're going to debate just that issue that you just discussed coming up on the next block. So I hope everyone stays with us for that. But general, thank you for giving us your thoughts on the Middle East as well.

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