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CNN Live At Daybreak

Fighting An Old Foe in Afghanistan: Fear

Aired February 12, 2002 - 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Besides fighting al Qaeda and Taliban troops, U.S. forces in Afghanistan have been fighting another foe: fear.

But as CNN's Martin Savidge reports, this enemy can be turned into an ally.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States has the most powerful, best trained and best equipped military of the world, yet it still must battle the oldest challenge of war: fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And as we roll into some of the villages, I was like, oh, no. You know, what's going to happen now?

SAVIDGE: It's a subject every soldier in the war zone knows, and one they talk about least.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess we basically just suck it up and deal with it, because we know we really can't do anything about it. We just -- you know, just go with the flow, I guess, and just hope nothing bad happens.

SAVIDGE: The U.S. Army spends a lot of time and effort dealing with fear.

SGT. JAMES A. RULEY, MEDICAL ASSISTANT: It varies from person to person, from soldier to solder.

SAVIDGE: A mental health expert is usually part of the first medical team sent into a war zone.

RULEY: We let them know that more soldiers -- most soldiers out here to some extent do experience fear, and it's one of the parts that go along with deploying.

SAVIDGE: One suggestion military experts offer to a worried soldier is to talk to someone who has been there before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tell them to rely on their training. They are well trained. The leaders are experienced. SAVIDGE: Training is one of the key Americans strategies used to combat fear. The Army has a saying: "Train as you fight. Fight as you train."

Combat training is as real as they can make it, but if a soldier is still having a problem with fear, he is less likely to go to the medical unit as he is to seek out the chaplain.

CAPT. PAUL MADEJ, CHAPLAIN: There might be a stigma still attached in their mind with them not meeting the mark. By coming to the chaplain, I know they are meeting the mark. I know that they are normal. I know that they are having thoughts that are standard to everyone else. But everyone else isn't saying it, except to the chaplain.

SAVIDGE: Personal safety isn't the only fear a soldier faces. They can be afraid for their family back home, fear they may fail when they are needed most.

MAJ. SCOTT KUBICA, CHINOOK PILOT: I am here to support the soldiers on the ground. That's my mission. And if those soldiers weren't there, I wouldn't have a mission. If I am not there for them, then I feel that I betrayed them, and I let them down.

SAVIDGE (on camera): This is when fear can be a positive, pushing people to do extraordinary things, heroic things, like pilot Scott Kubica, who rescued the injured from his shattered helicopter.

KUBICA: We were involved in a helicopter accident here about a week ago up in northeastern Afghanistan. And it wasn't fear of the machine. It wasn't fear of the crash. The fear was getting my fellow soldiers out alive. And the biggest fear for me was leaving that soldier behind, and we weren't going to do that, and we went in and got everybody out of there.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Fear makes a soldier sharper, more focused and in the right hands can also be a weapon.

SCOTT RUBICK, PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS: I think that our audiences have a fear already, and if we can enhance it, then that's a bonus.

SAVIDGE: Using a simple loudspeaker can broadcast fear to an enemy. Projecting fear may seem sinister, but it has a benign goal: encouraging an enemy to surrender without firing a single shot.

RUBICK: That's what we are trying to prevent, and if we can do that, then we don't have to fight. And nobody has to fight, and nobody has to die.

SAVIDGE: It could be the best fear of all.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Kandahar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It makes you glad you're here safe and sound.

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