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Military Analysis With Pat Lang

Aired April 02, 2003 - 15:10   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, CNN ANCHOR: Well, with that situation in the north and with coalition forces now just a short distance from Baghdad, let's turn now to Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. He's with our military analyst, retired Army Colonel Pat Lang -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Judy.

You know, watching Ryan Chilcote, who is embedded with the 101st Airborne talking about that tedious and very dangerous work of door- to-door securing a particular area, calls to mind the prospect, as he pointed out, of potentially urban combat inside the city of Baghdad.

Colonel Pat Lang, joining us now from Washington, who has a lot of experience in Baghdad, as well as a lot of experience with the military in the United States Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, among other things on his resume.

Colonel, good to have you with us.

COL. PAT LANG (RET.), U.S. ARMY: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: All right.

This prospect of door-to-door fitting in Baghdad is something I suppose someone with a military training would be very concerned about. Would you be among them?

LANG: Oh, sure. I mean, this is a difficult place to fight a battle, but it isn't an unmanageable place.

You saw what that soldier from the 101st said when he was asked what he thought of this. He thought it was rather tedious and took a long time, which was an interesting response.

But, you know, first they have to break through the Republican Guard hard shell around Baghdad, which they're doing very well. The Air Force seems to have taken them apart nicely.

I would think once they get through that they're going to start running patrols into Baghdad, you know, fighting patrols to test the -- the -- the strength of the resistance at various points around the perimeter and then if it looks soft they'll probably go in with the forces at hand. If it looks pretty tough, they might sit down and wait and bring supplies forward and wait for the Fourth Infantry Division to come up. O'BRIEN: So what's your best sense then? I mean, what we're seeing thus far, we've seen a lot of movement, as that vanguard force gets closer to Baghdad. Is what we're seeing probing right now, just trying to test those Republican Guard forces, or is the idea to just get rid of that defense that encircles the outer part of Baghdad as best they can, deal with them before they, perhaps, retrench back into the city?

LANG: Well, you're going to have to deal with these sequentially.

You know, the Air Force has prepared these Republican Guard divisions enough. And what you're seeing, I think, is the real deal. These -- the Marines and the Army 3rd Infantry Division and the 101st to some extent are going in right over the top of them against not very strong resistance because they are either dead or they've run by now. And they're going to keep going in across that until they come over against city and then make the kind of decision I was talking about before.

O'BRIEN: Now, as I'm talking to you right now, Colonel, we're looking at some very long, wide avenues there in Baghdad. And that is very typical of this city. Is that -- who does that favor?

Of course you mentioned earlier that the defense always has an advantage. How does the layout of this city perhaps help the defense?

LANG: Well, there are parts of the city that are the typical Middle Eastern or North African rabbits worn of little tiny street. But most of it is quite modern. It reminds you of San Diego or some place like that and especially in the western half of the city and the southeastern part of the city, there are lots of long, straight boulevards, often four-lane, scattered 14, 20-foot -- 20-story buildings with parks in between them and communities of things that look like ranch houses.

And so as you said, the defense is inherently the stronger form of combat, although the offensive is the more decisive. And so, these -- all these buildings make good places to fight from and the open places make good things -- good things for long fields of fire. So those are advantages to the defense.

On the other hand, we've got all this air power which we would use to attack buildings with both fixed wing and helicopters. Got a lot of artillery; got a lot of tanks going in with the infantry.

And in the end there will be no doubt whatever what the outcome would be. It's just a question of how long it would take and how much it would cost.

O'BRIEN: Colonel, we have just a -- not too much time. But I got to get a quick sense from you as to how good our human intelligence assets -- the U.S. human intelligence assets -- are inside Baghdad right now. Do you have sense of it?

LANG: Well, one can only guess. But I used to be in that business, and I would be willing to bet you with all the friendly Iraqis there are around from the Iraqi National Congress and Shiia and things that you got some American intelligence operatives in there work with friendly Iraqis. We probably have very good observation coverage of the streets and movements inside the city.

O'BRIEN: Colonel Pat Lang, retired, U.S. Army, thank you very much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

LANG: You're welcome.

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 April 2, 2003 - 15:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well, with that situation in the north and with coalition forces now just a short distance from Baghdad, let's turn now to Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. He's with our military analyst, retired Army Colonel Pat Lang -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Judy.

You know, watching Ryan Chilcote, who is embedded with the 101st Airborne talking about that tedious and very dangerous work of door- to-door securing a particular area, calls to mind the prospect, as he pointed out, of potentially urban combat inside the city of Baghdad.

Colonel Pat Lang, joining us now from Washington, who has a lot of experience in Baghdad, as well as a lot of experience with the military in the United States Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, among other things on his resume.

Colonel, good to have you with us.

COL. PAT LANG (RET.), U.S. ARMY: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: All right.

This prospect of door-to-door fitting in Baghdad is something I suppose someone with a military training would be very concerned about. Would you be among them?

LANG: Oh, sure. I mean, this is a difficult place to fight a battle, but it isn't an unmanageable place.

You saw what that soldier from the 101st said when he was asked what he thought of this. He thought it was rather tedious and took a long time, which was an interesting response.

But, you know, first they have to break through the Republican Guard hard shell around Baghdad, which they're doing very well. The Air Force seems to have taken them apart nicely.

I would think once they get through that they're going to start running patrols into Baghdad, you know, fighting patrols to test the -- the -- the strength of the resistance at various points around the perimeter and then if it looks soft they'll probably go in with the forces at hand. If it looks pretty tough, they might sit down and wait and bring supplies forward and wait for the Fourth Infantry Division to come up. O'BRIEN: So what's your best sense then? I mean, what we're seeing thus far, we've seen a lot of movement, as that vanguard force gets closer to Baghdad. Is what we're seeing probing right now, just trying to test those Republican Guard forces, or is the idea to just get rid of that defense that encircles the outer part of Baghdad as best they can, deal with them before they, perhaps, retrench back into the city?

LANG: Well, you're going to have to deal with these sequentially.

You know, the Air Force has prepared these Republican Guard divisions enough. And what you're seeing, I think, is the real deal. These -- the Marines and the Army 3rd Infantry Division and the 101st to some extent are going in right over the top of them against not very strong resistance because they are either dead or they've run by now. And they're going to keep going in across that until they come over against city and then make the kind of decision I was talking about before.

O'BRIEN: Now, as I'm talking to you right now, Colonel, we're looking at some very long, wide avenues there in Baghdad. And that is very typical of this city. Is that -- who does that favor?

Of course you mentioned earlier that the defense always has an advantage. How does the layout of this city perhaps help the defense?

LANG: Well, there are parts of the city that are the typical Middle Eastern or North African rabbits worn of little tiny street. But most of it is quite modern. It reminds you of San Diego or some place like that and especially in the western half of the city and the southeastern part of the city, there are lots of long, straight boulevards, often four-lane, scattered 14, 20-foot -- 20-story buildings with parks in between them and communities of things that look like ranch houses.

And so as you said, the defense is inherently the stronger form of combat, although the offensive is the more decisive. And so, these -- all these buildings make good places to fight from and the open places make good things -- good things for long fields of fire. So those are advantages to the defense.

On the other hand, we've got all this air power which we would use to attack buildings with both fixed wing and helicopters. Got a lot of artillery; got a lot of tanks going in with the infantry.

And in the end there will be no doubt whatever what the outcome would be. It's just a question of how long it would take and how much it would cost.

O'BRIEN: Colonel, we have just a -- not too much time. But I got to get a quick sense from you as to how good our human intelligence assets -- the U.S. human intelligence assets -- are inside Baghdad right now. Do you have sense of it?

LANG: Well, one can only guess. But I used to be in that business, and I would be willing to bet you with all the friendly Iraqis there are around from the Iraqi National Congress and Shiia and things that you got some American intelligence operatives in there work with friendly Iraqis. We probably have very good observation coverage of the streets and movements inside the city.

O'BRIEN: Colonel Pat Lang, retired, U.S. Army, thank you very much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

LANG: You're welcome.

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