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CNN Live At Daybreak

Carpet Bombing Targets Deployed Enemy Troops, Helping to Weaken Taliban Overall

Aired November 02, 2001 - 07:35   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the marathon airstrikes over Afghanistan. U.S. warplanes have pounded Taliban troop positions north of Kabul near the strategically important Baghram Air Base. Black plumes of smoke came from the mountains following the high altitude bombing runs overnight. The Taliban opposition group, Northern Alliance, says if the U.S. continues to strike the front lines there could be a breakthrough soon.

Let's get more on this latest strategy from our military analyst General Don Shepperd. He joins us from Washington.

Good to have you with us again, sir.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about the current bombing strategy, high altitude, B-52, so-called carpet bombing, does this indicate perhaps the bombing strategy is reaching diminishing returns?

SHEPPERD: Not at all. What this so-called carpet bombing is is operations against troops on the front line. We, for the most part, have run out of a lot of the fixed targets. Although others will emerge from intelligence, we're now after troops in the field. And these troops are deployed in areas and they are mobile and, therefore, you're covering the entire area with a carpet of bombs. As the saying goes, they ain't seen nothing yet.

But we have the ability to put many more bombers and many more bombs in these areas, but the key is intelligence and knowing where these people are. That intelligence comes from the liaison with the Northern Alliance and other coalition forces.

O'BRIEN: All right, well you've led me to the next question very well, special operations on the ground, capability of identifying targets, perhaps, you know, shining a laser on a specific target so that a bomb can be directed in. It appears the U.S. would prefer to have more of that type of thing on the ground right now. Should we be anticipating that sort of thing soon?

SHEPPERD: Well, yes and no. The important thing about people on the ground is the first thing you have to do is put people on the ground, to establish liaison and trust with the forces that you are supporting. Then you gather intelligence from them and then you start direct operations in which you or they are able to mark targets.

Now the ways you mark targets, some of them are clandestine, some of them are obvious. We have laser marking techniques that allow us to laser mark the target for ordinance being dropped or for pointing out the target so that the pilots can acquire the targets themselves. This now gets form interdiction, which is the B-52s are, into close air support, which is actual talk between fighters in the air and ground controllers on the ground marking targets for them.

O'BRIEN: A month into this air campaign, there is a sense of uneasiness about where it is headed and the efficacy of it. To what extent is that reality and to what extent is it perhaps the administration's inability to wage a good PR campaign concurrent with the war campaign?

SHEPPERD: Well this kind of talk is really ridiculous. It's put together by people that don't understand military operations. The cumulative effect of military operations over time is what causes a force to fold. The Taliban is going to fold. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. The cumulative effect of taking away their money, taking away their supplies, bombing continually their front lines, and allowing the Northern Alliance, other coalition forces to get stronger while they get weaker is what it is going to take and that does take time. It may take two days, two weeks, two months, two years, but it's going to happen, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Patience, patience. Retired Major General Don Shepperd of the U.S. Air Force, thanks for being with us.

SHEPPERD: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: General Shepperd is one of our military analysts. We appreciate it.

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