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CNN Live Saturday
What Is War With Iraq Going to Be Like?
Aired December 07, 2002 - 18:25 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: If the president does give the order to go to war against Iraq, what is it going to be like, the Persian Gulf war, or maybe the war against the Taliban, or al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Joining us in our Washington studio for more on that, CNN military analyst Retired Army General Wesley Clark.
Good to see you, General.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, Carol.
LIN: All right. You are familiar with all of these military operations, if there is a war I mean, are there lessons learned in Afghanistan that are going to be applied in Iraq?
CLARK: Absolutely. In every military operation we run, we do a careful study afterwards and we learn a lot of things from it. One of the things that we did in Afghanistan that was extremely powerful was to put Special Forces troops on the ground and then use the incredible precision of the United States Air Force and Naval Aviation to come in and strike with 2,000-pound bombs the enemy forces on the ground.
So, we were able to strike from the air with the kind of precision that no army has ever been struck with before. And that is why the Taliban broke. We're going to try to use that against Saddam Hussein's forces, of course. So that will be one of the key lessons that we picked up.
But we'll need to do other things in this operation against Saddam Hussein's forces because it all starts really with what the objective is. And it is to break the grip of the Iraqi regime, get in there and get the weapons of mass destruction capabilities, the weapons and production facilities, maybe the scientists. We know where some of these are, some we may not know where they are. We may have to have local people tell us about it. So, we have to get in there fast with troops on the ground.
LIN: And so, you're talking about actually a pretty complicated operation where much of this has to be simultaneous. For example, the attacks from the air, while troops on the ground are trying to secure some of these scientists and sites, right?
CLARK: That's exactly right. We're going to go in with ground troops, I suspect, just as rapidly as we can. Of course, there is going to be some kind of an air operation first. There always is, because you have to break their air defense system so it is safe to move troops in on the ground. And so they can always rely on air support, overhead, if they need it.
But it won't be a 40-day air campaign as it was during the Gulf war. This will be much more rapid.
LIN: Right, much more rapid and much more dangerous for the troops on the ground. What do you anticipate for casualties?
CLARK: You know, that the hardest question you can possibly answer. It really depends on whether the Iraqis fight. And if so, where they fight. And nobody really knows what the answer to that is because it hasn't been determined. It really depends on how the situation evolves up to now.
So, my guess is that as the air power goes in, that what you are going to find is a lot of the Iraqi forces just melt away. They are going to start trying to find Americans to surrender to. And they want to get out of the line of fire of these aircraft. There may be some hard cases that fight. And there will be a little fighting around Baghdad. But my guess is that most of it is going to be a race with forces trying get over obstacles, break through mine fields, accept the surrender of Iraqi units, cross rivers and get to where those weapons of mass destruction sites are.
Then there will be a little bit of fighting. So you can't rule out casualties, but the kind of exaggerated estimates that we had before the Gulf war, where people were talking about 20,000 American casualties. I don't think anybody has ever thought that this could be that kind of an operation.
LIN: All right. Let's hope not. Thank you very much, General Wesley Clark. You have a good weekend.
CLARK: Good to be with you, Carol. Thank you.
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 December 7, 2002 - 18:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: If the president does give the order to go to war against Iraq, what is it going to be like, the Persian Gulf war, or maybe the war against the Taliban, or al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Joining us in our Washington studio for more on that, CNN military analyst Retired Army General Wesley Clark.
Good to see you, General.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, Carol.
LIN: All right. You are familiar with all of these military operations, if there is a war I mean, are there lessons learned in Afghanistan that are going to be applied in Iraq?
CLARK: Absolutely. In every military operation we run, we do a careful study afterwards and we learn a lot of things from it. One of the things that we did in Afghanistan that was extremely powerful was to put Special Forces troops on the ground and then use the incredible precision of the United States Air Force and Naval Aviation to come in and strike with 2,000-pound bombs the enemy forces on the ground.
So, we were able to strike from the air with the kind of precision that no army has ever been struck with before. And that is why the Taliban broke. We're going to try to use that against Saddam Hussein's forces, of course. So that will be one of the key lessons that we picked up.
But we'll need to do other things in this operation against Saddam Hussein's forces because it all starts really with what the objective is. And it is to break the grip of the Iraqi regime, get in there and get the weapons of mass destruction capabilities, the weapons and production facilities, maybe the scientists. We know where some of these are, some we may not know where they are. We may have to have local people tell us about it. So, we have to get in there fast with troops on the ground.
LIN: And so, you're talking about actually a pretty complicated operation where much of this has to be simultaneous. For example, the attacks from the air, while troops on the ground are trying to secure some of these scientists and sites, right?
CLARK: That's exactly right. We're going to go in with ground troops, I suspect, just as rapidly as we can. Of course, there is going to be some kind of an air operation first. There always is, because you have to break their air defense system so it is safe to move troops in on the ground. And so they can always rely on air support, overhead, if they need it.
But it won't be a 40-day air campaign as it was during the Gulf war. This will be much more rapid.
LIN: Right, much more rapid and much more dangerous for the troops on the ground. What do you anticipate for casualties?
CLARK: You know, that the hardest question you can possibly answer. It really depends on whether the Iraqis fight. And if so, where they fight. And nobody really knows what the answer to that is because it hasn't been determined. It really depends on how the situation evolves up to now.
So, my guess is that as the air power goes in, that what you are going to find is a lot of the Iraqi forces just melt away. They are going to start trying to find Americans to surrender to. And they want to get out of the line of fire of these aircraft. There may be some hard cases that fight. And there will be a little fighting around Baghdad. But my guess is that most of it is going to be a race with forces trying get over obstacles, break through mine fields, accept the surrender of Iraqi units, cross rivers and get to where those weapons of mass destruction sites are.
Then there will be a little bit of fighting. So you can't rule out casualties, but the kind of exaggerated estimates that we had before the Gulf war, where people were talking about 20,000 American casualties. I don't think anybody has ever thought that this could be that kind of an operation.
LIN: All right. Let's hope not. Thank you very much, General Wesley Clark. You have a good weekend.
CLARK: Good to be with you, Carol. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
