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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview With Dr. John Gearson on Britain's Involvement in Afghanistan

Aired November 05, 2001 - 05:31   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: How about Britain and its involvement? They're on the ground and in the air just like American troops.

Let's go ahead and talk with an authority on that subject and welcome Professor John Gearson. He is in the Defense Department at Kings College in London and he is joining us from London today.

Dr. Gearson, hello, a pleasure to have you with us.

DR. JOHN GEARSON, PROFESSOR, KINGS COLLEGE: Good morning.

KAGAN: What can you tell us about this buildup of British and U.S. troops, what appears to be an upcoming significant ground defensive?

GEARSON: Well I think Britain or more importantly, America have decided that the Northern Alliance in effect the only game in town, and that they're going to have to support them more overtly. A week ago we had the British defense minister state that U.S., sorry, British Special Forces were ready to go. Royal Marine commanders could be there within days.

And then being, in effect, council-briefed by our military commanders who said they wouldn't be ready for weeks. So the British are trying to steady the line, send out one coherent message, but be ready to support any ground action when it comes.

KAGAN: Dr. Gearson, why are -- do they see it that way, that the Northern Alliance is the only game in town. This doesn't appear to be the most organized group and clearly to support the Northern Alliance will upset some of the other groups that are helping the U.S. and the British in this area.

GEARSON: Well that's right. We're getting conflicting reports about what the results of the Ranger raids two weeks ago were. Some people are suggesting that it wasn't a great success, and that seems to have been proven by the fact that we haven't seen subsequent ground incursions by significant numbers of Special Forces. That being the case, as we hear from Pentagon briefers, the Northern Alliance understand the grounds. They understand the Taliban and would be more appropriate front-line troops in these circumstances.

So I think there's going to be caution about sending in allied forces to attack directly Taliban positions, but that doesn't mean they won't be used to attack al Qaeda's network, which, after all, is the strategic point of this campaign. It is not to defeat the Taliban. It's the destruction of the Taliban terrorist network -- sorry the al Qaeda terrorist network rather.

KAGAN: And that's not simply based in Afghanistan. We're finding out that that's worldwide.

GEARSON: Well that's right. Although the reason for the air campaign is that the Taliban regime are providing a secure base for al Qaeda to plan, train and launch operations globally around the world. But undoubtedly the defeat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and even the defeat of the Taliban regime won't remove the threat of terrorism. But President Bush and Prime Minister Blair have been saying this from the start.

The interesting change in some ways is that Prime Minister Blair has suggested that one of the war aims is the replacement of the Taliban regime, and that wasn't actually articulated at the start of the campaign, but it suggests that now it seems that we can not live with the Taliban regime running Afghanistan and providing a base for terrorism.

KAGAN: But that's going to be a problem onto itself. On one hand, you have this military campaign going on, effort to form a coalition government, but efforts that are becoming increasingly more frustrating.

GEARSON: Well that's right. There have been a number of setbacks. The Taliban have managed to capture and kill envoys who were trying to develop support from the majority Pashtun community against the Taliban and it isn't at all desirable to focus our political efforts and military support on the Northern Alliance.

But as I say, at the moment, they're the main people engaging the Taliban. However this is completely against the wishes and policy of Pakistan, which is very concerned that the Northern Alliance will not achieve broad-based support from the population of Afghanistan. Leaving Pakistan, after the west has left the region, with an unstable regime next door to it.

So we can understand why the Pakistani government wants there to be a broad- based government, but the immediate concern is to actually have a military campaign that is -- that is delivering results. And to date we haven't really had that.

KAGAN: And getting back to that military campaign, Dr. Gearson, can you explain to our American audience what the British bring into this campaign besides support and numbers.

GEARSON: Well the British have got a small but very well trained and experienced special forces. The Special Air Service, which is equivalent to your Delta Force, which was actually modeled on the Special Air Service, has got some of the best campaign experience of any special forces units in the world, but they only number a few hundred. And then we have Royal Wing Commandos, who are, in effect, what you would call Green Berets in the United States, who are trained in winter warfare and they've also had operational experience in our counter-insurgency campaign in Northern Ireland.

So we've got, to some extent, battle experienced troops, but very well trained who will be able to support the Special Forces efforts of the United States. What we don't have in the region yet are large numbers of troops to back up any significant ground invasion.

KAGAN: It's been pointed out that there's two fronts here. There's the military front, but there's also the public relations front. Can you give us a sense of how this campaign is playing in Britain?

GEARSON: Broadly, we've had very solid numbers from opinion polls, some 68 percent of the British public support the action going on in Afghanistan. Slightly fewer, 64 percent support the idea of ground forces going in. But in Britain we have a significant minority of Muslim population, the majority of whom in surveys recently are against any bombing or military action against Afghanistan.

The same people also say they are against international terrorism, but there is some concern that community relations are going to come under strain in Britain.

KAGAN: And it'll be interesting to see how that plays as Ramadan approaches in the next week or so. Dr. John Gearson joining us from London and Kings College. Thank you for your insight today sir, good to have you along with us.

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