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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Possible Routes of Invasion

Aired September 24, 2001 - 07:14   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It is time now to get more now on Tajikistan's commitment to aid Washington.

Miles O'Brien is stand by at the CNN Center in Atlanta with more on just what that means -- good morning, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

We'll give you a sense of why it is so important for Washington to sort of get its ducks in a row, if you will, looking at some of the countries which ring around Afghanistan. And to give you a sense of the distances and some of the logistical challenges faced by military planners now, let's take a look at a map of the region and a hypothetical mission from Incirlik, which is in Turkey, where a U.S. air base is, all the way in toward Kabul.

Now, this is no small run here. It's about a 1,600 mile run from Incirlik in Turkey all the way across. This is Iran. You don't want to fly here. So that's a little bit off the way that graphic shows. Those fighters would have to fly over the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and then further along go across the Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake, and into Turkmenistan.

Now, over here to the -- you can't really see it on the screen -- is Kazakhstan, which has indicated its willingness to allow the U.S. to use air space and perhaps some sort of basing capability. That could conceivably put the U.S. as close as 200 miles from the Afghan border.

But ideally, perhaps the most ideal location would be this spot right here. This is Uzbekistan. I'll outline the border just a little bit for you. There's an 85 mile long border here. In 1979, the Soviets used this area as a staging area for their attack into Afghanistan, their invasion into Afghanistan, ill-fated, we should point out. And also Turkmenistan. This is Kuska, where there were Soviet bases at the time which also aided in their invasion of Afghanistan.

The question now is after at least 10 years of lack of repair and no attention, what sort of condition are these bases in and also the geopolitical situation. These are Islamic countries and there might be some concern about allying themselves with the United States. And also to the north you have Russia and these are former Soviet republics, after all, and Russia is a significant trading partner for them and the Russian sphere of influence is considered to be in central Asia.

So allowing U.S. troops on the ground in all these places requires a kind of careful chess game, if you will, taking care of a couple of considerations. The Islamic world concerned that it would somehow ally itself with the United States and open itself up to some sort of reprisals and Russia concerned that the U.S. would gain a long-term foothold in central Asia, an area that historically has been its sphere of influence.

So there's a lot of things going on behind-the-scenes right now. We're just trying to give you a general sense of what might be happening -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, Miles.

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