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Pentagon Goes on Defense Against War Criticisms

Aired March 25, 2003 - 15:07   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR: Before we go back to Wolf in the war zone, we want to get an update from the Pentagon from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
Jamie, I was listening to the defense secretary brief reporters a short time ago, and I think he was as exercised as I've seen him in the last few days when you and other reporters were asking him about managing expectations. Whether expectations were perhaps raised too high going into this war about how short it might be, how easy and so forth -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Secretary Rumsfeld tried to make the point that he has never said on the record that this was going to be either a short or an easy war. In fact, he said on repeated occasions that it's not knowable is his phrase, how long the war will take or in fact, for that matter, how much it will cost.

But the Pentagon was a bit on the defensive today with some armchair generals criticizing the amount of forces the U.S. has in the region, whether or not the supply lines are protected enough and whether or not the military campaign is already getting bogged down.

The Pentagon says that's way premature, that they're much -- excuse me -- much closer to the beginning of this campaign than the end, and joint chiefs chairman General Richard Myers said that he insisted the war is on schedule, and proceeding according to what he called a brilliant plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It seems to me that anyone with any sense of what's taking place recognizes the complexity of this task, the importance of it, the fact that we're there to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction in that country and to put in a regime that will not threaten its neighbors. These are important things to be done. They're not things that are done easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now, it's clear that the blinding sandstorms that have blanketed much of Iraq today and were hampering some operations. But the U.S. insisting it wasn't slowing them down. In fact, they said they were still able to use satellite bombs, satellite guided bombs to soften up Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad. And, in fact, CNN's Walter Rodgers reported that the elements of the 7th Cavalry were able to essentially make use of the sandstorms as cover to take a key bridge -- excuse me -- a key bridge crossing the Euphrates River and then push on toward Baghdad.

One big area of concern remains Basra, where it is -- the U.S. alleges that members of the regime are continuing to threaten the residents there, preventing what might otherwise be a popular uprising. And the U.S. military, and particularly the British military forces there, are getting ready to try to see what they can do to deal with that situation.

The U.S. has some responsibility to help the citizens of Basra, having set these chain of events in motion, and particularly since when they had an uprising in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. did nothing to help out the citizens then -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: And no question what coalition forces are dealing with then, is the memory, a vivid memory of the people who live in that area.

Jamie, we want you to take care of that cough so I'm not going to keep you very long. But one other thing I heard Secretary Rumsfeld asked was these intelligence reports -- CNN has been talking about this today -- that as forces get closer to Baghdad that information or directions may have been passed by the regime to the Republican Guard, possibly to use chemical weapons.

MCINTYRE: And that remains a concern, but you know, this is why intelligence is ambiguous sometimes.

Let's -- I Don't want to talk about the specific intelligence, but let's say, for example, they hear an order being given to troops in the field that you are authorized to use chemical weapons. They Don't know whether there are actually any chemical weapons there. They Don't know whether the troops who get the orders would actually use them or whether it's all part of a psychological operations campaign to try to intimidate the U.S. military. They know the U.S. hears -- overhears these transmissions.

But nevertheless, the U.S. has to take it seriously, because the U.S. is convinced that Iraq does have chemical munitions and those kind of fragmentary intelligence pieces, you know, sets off red flags, but it's not at all clear exactly what's going to happen.

But that's the kind of intelligence they're dealing with as they're closing in the Republican Guard units.

WOODRUFF: So many questions just like that one, Jamie, that as the defense secretary is wont to say, are just unknowable, simply unknowable at this point. All right, our Jamie McIntyre, senior military affairs correspondent. Thank you, Jamie.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 25, 2003 - 15:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR: Before we go back to Wolf in the war zone, we want to get an update from the Pentagon from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
Jamie, I was listening to the defense secretary brief reporters a short time ago, and I think he was as exercised as I've seen him in the last few days when you and other reporters were asking him about managing expectations. Whether expectations were perhaps raised too high going into this war about how short it might be, how easy and so forth -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Secretary Rumsfeld tried to make the point that he has never said on the record that this was going to be either a short or an easy war. In fact, he said on repeated occasions that it's not knowable is his phrase, how long the war will take or in fact, for that matter, how much it will cost.

But the Pentagon was a bit on the defensive today with some armchair generals criticizing the amount of forces the U.S. has in the region, whether or not the supply lines are protected enough and whether or not the military campaign is already getting bogged down.

The Pentagon says that's way premature, that they're much -- excuse me -- much closer to the beginning of this campaign than the end, and joint chiefs chairman General Richard Myers said that he insisted the war is on schedule, and proceeding according to what he called a brilliant plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It seems to me that anyone with any sense of what's taking place recognizes the complexity of this task, the importance of it, the fact that we're there to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction in that country and to put in a regime that will not threaten its neighbors. These are important things to be done. They're not things that are done easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now, it's clear that the blinding sandstorms that have blanketed much of Iraq today and were hampering some operations. But the U.S. insisting it wasn't slowing them down. In fact, they said they were still able to use satellite bombs, satellite guided bombs to soften up Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad. And, in fact, CNN's Walter Rodgers reported that the elements of the 7th Cavalry were able to essentially make use of the sandstorms as cover to take a key bridge -- excuse me -- a key bridge crossing the Euphrates River and then push on toward Baghdad.

One big area of concern remains Basra, where it is -- the U.S. alleges that members of the regime are continuing to threaten the residents there, preventing what might otherwise be a popular uprising. And the U.S. military, and particularly the British military forces there, are getting ready to try to see what they can do to deal with that situation.

The U.S. has some responsibility to help the citizens of Basra, having set these chain of events in motion, and particularly since when they had an uprising in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. did nothing to help out the citizens then -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: And no question what coalition forces are dealing with then, is the memory, a vivid memory of the people who live in that area.

Jamie, we want you to take care of that cough so I'm not going to keep you very long. But one other thing I heard Secretary Rumsfeld asked was these intelligence reports -- CNN has been talking about this today -- that as forces get closer to Baghdad that information or directions may have been passed by the regime to the Republican Guard, possibly to use chemical weapons.

MCINTYRE: And that remains a concern, but you know, this is why intelligence is ambiguous sometimes.

Let's -- I Don't want to talk about the specific intelligence, but let's say, for example, they hear an order being given to troops in the field that you are authorized to use chemical weapons. They Don't know whether there are actually any chemical weapons there. They Don't know whether the troops who get the orders would actually use them or whether it's all part of a psychological operations campaign to try to intimidate the U.S. military. They know the U.S. hears -- overhears these transmissions.

But nevertheless, the U.S. has to take it seriously, because the U.S. is convinced that Iraq does have chemical munitions and those kind of fragmentary intelligence pieces, you know, sets off red flags, but it's not at all clear exactly what's going to happen.

But that's the kind of intelligence they're dealing with as they're closing in the Republican Guard units.

WOODRUFF: So many questions just like that one, Jamie, that as the defense secretary is wont to say, are just unknowable, simply unknowable at this point. All right, our Jamie McIntyre, senior military affairs correspondent. Thank you, Jamie.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com