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CNN Live At Daybreak

Today Marks First Month of Bombing Campaign

Aired November 07, 2001 - 06:03   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: I want to bring you the latest on the military action and for that we go to Bob Franken at the Pentagon. Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and the military action, as you pointed out Daryn, includes more bombing -- more and more bombing and the explanation they give here at the Pentagon is that this bombing is having its effect by really wearing down the Taliban. They have introduced, as you know, a bomb called the Daisy Cutter, which is really kind of an awesome weapon, 15,000-pound bomb, about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

What it does, it hits the ground and it puts out a fireball that incinerates anything, they say, incinerates anything within 600 yards. It even has a mushroom cloud, although, of course, it's a conventional bomb. But the idea, according to those who are at the Pentagon, is to just wipe out a defensive line of Taliban forces, and that's the idea these days, to try and just wipe out as many of the Taliban as they can.

We're at the one-month anniversary, by the way, of the bombing and Pentagon officials continue to say that they're operating according to plan, although, of course, they have their critics who say that they have not done what they said they were going to do, which was by now to have pretty much wiped out the Afghanistan government's military abilities.

That, of course, is still intact. They praise the Taliban in a backhanded way for being more dogged than they thought. So the battle will go on. The defense secretary says that his prediction now is it will be a matter of months instead of matter of years and by that he says he thinks he means anywhere from two months to 23 months. Daryn.

KAGAN: One thing that has changed in the months since the air attacks began and that is what the Pentagon thinks about including other countries in terms of troops. I understand the U.S. accepting an offer from Germany to offer up about 3900 soldiers.

FRANKEN: Well that's quite interesting, of course, because of the sensitivities about Germany. This is going to be its most ambitious undertaking since World War II. The German leaders will not talk about the specifics of possible involvement in ground combat saying that their units will, for the most part, be used in other ways. But there is one commando unit there that really has only one purpose and that is just to get involved in the actual combat.

KAGAN: Bob Franken at the Pentagon. Bob, thank you.

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