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CNN Live Saturday
U.S. May Look For U.N. Help In Iraq
Aired July 19, 2003 - 18:04 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.
WHITFIELD: With presence in Iraq taking a mounting toll on the lives of U.S. troops, President Bush is now facing a humbling task, asking the United Nations for help.
Our Chris Burns is in Crawford, Texas, where the president is spending the weekend at his ranch, hello Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello Fredricka. President Bush is off to Houston this evening. He has left the ranch to raise millions more for his Bush-Cheney reelection campaign for next year. Money doesn't seem to be a problem, but Iraq could become an electoral liability. His lieutenants are busy trying to prevent that from happening and, in part, trying to get more help to stabilize Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS (voice-over): Not easy to admit but after insisting U.S. and British-led forces could run a post Saddam Iraq, the Bush administration is considering going back to the United Nations to get a new resolution, one that would persuade more countries to help stabilize the situation far deadlier and more difficult than anticipated.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: There are some nations who have expressed a desire for more of a mandate from the United Nations and I am in conversations with some ministers about this as well as with the secretary-general of the United Nations.
BURNS: Forcing the Bush administration's hand, countries that have so far turned down U.S. requests for troops unless there's a new U.N. mandate, among them India from which the U.S. hoped to get 17,000 troops. France said it would unthinkable. Others include Germany and Russia. The troops would not be blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers but the secretary-general says other nations have a duty to contribute.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think what is important is that all of us accept the responsibility of stabilizing Iraq.
BURNS: Democratic presidential candidates accusing Mr. Bush of mismanaging post-war Iraq have seized on what's become a domestic as well as international issue.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we need to internationalize this, bring other countries in, take the burden off our troops, and get rid of the sense of American occupation. BURNS: An occupation facing bloody resistance with an average of one American soldier dying in Iraq every other day in what commanders now openly call a guerilla war requiring the Pentagon to postpone the homecomings of thousands of troops.
Units from Poland have begun deploying in Iraq to lead thousands of international troops set to take charge in one region September 1st, but U.S. troops will need far more to share the burden and danger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS: Now, President Bush said before the war that the United Nations risked becoming an irrelevant debating society but, according to one analyst, now he may not have to eat humble pie but he might have to eat humble crackers - Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Burns in Crawford 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 July 19, 2003 - 18:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WHITFIELD: With presence in Iraq taking a mounting toll on the lives of U.S. troops, President Bush is now facing a humbling task, asking the United Nations for help.
Our Chris Burns is in Crawford, Texas, where the president is spending the weekend at his ranch, hello Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello Fredricka. President Bush is off to Houston this evening. He has left the ranch to raise millions more for his Bush-Cheney reelection campaign for next year. Money doesn't seem to be a problem, but Iraq could become an electoral liability. His lieutenants are busy trying to prevent that from happening and, in part, trying to get more help to stabilize Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS (voice-over): Not easy to admit but after insisting U.S. and British-led forces could run a post Saddam Iraq, the Bush administration is considering going back to the United Nations to get a new resolution, one that would persuade more countries to help stabilize the situation far deadlier and more difficult than anticipated.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: There are some nations who have expressed a desire for more of a mandate from the United Nations and I am in conversations with some ministers about this as well as with the secretary-general of the United Nations.
BURNS: Forcing the Bush administration's hand, countries that have so far turned down U.S. requests for troops unless there's a new U.N. mandate, among them India from which the U.S. hoped to get 17,000 troops. France said it would unthinkable. Others include Germany and Russia. The troops would not be blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers but the secretary-general says other nations have a duty to contribute.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think what is important is that all of us accept the responsibility of stabilizing Iraq.
BURNS: Democratic presidential candidates accusing Mr. Bush of mismanaging post-war Iraq have seized on what's become a domestic as well as international issue.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we need to internationalize this, bring other countries in, take the burden off our troops, and get rid of the sense of American occupation. BURNS: An occupation facing bloody resistance with an average of one American soldier dying in Iraq every other day in what commanders now openly call a guerilla war requiring the Pentagon to postpone the homecomings of thousands of troops.
Units from Poland have begun deploying in Iraq to lead thousands of international troops set to take charge in one region September 1st, but U.S. troops will need far more to share the burden and danger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS: Now, President Bush said before the war that the United Nations risked becoming an irrelevant debating society but, according to one analyst, now he may not have to eat humble pie but he might have to eat humble crackers - Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Burns in Crawford 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
