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How Our Mission in Iraq Has Changed

Aired April 16, 2003 - 13:51   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We cut away from the Pentagon briefing to bring you the president of the United States speaking to that crowd in St. Louis, Missouri.
But while we were watching that, General Claudia Kennedy stay tuned to the briefing and is here to give us a briefing.

General Kennedy, thanks for being with us. She's one of our military analysts.

What's the headline out of that briefing, first of all?

GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I would say it's the movement of the headquarters of CENTCOM from Qatar to Iraq.

O'BRIEN: And that is coming -- they didn't give a specific time, but that is obviously packed with a fair amount of symbolism, moving central command from Doha, Qatar right into the heart of Iraq. They didn't say necessarily Baghdad, but they said Iraq. What does that mean for General Garner and his people, the people trying to do nation building?

KENNEDY: It gives him a military force that is co-located, or at least in the same country, the headquarters of which is in the same country, so it gives him great military backup in case there is a need for that. His group is, as I understand it, about 150 people, so this gives him substantial backup during the support-and-stability operation.

O'BRIEN: Now you talk about support and stability. There's a tremendous amount of U.S. personnel still headed in that position. I mean, it's going to peak some time after the war, the number of bodies on the ground there, right?

KENNEDY: That's right. We've got people going in both directions. Some units are going to be withdrawn, other units are going to be put in. Some of them with the same skill sets, and probably some with other skills more in line with nation building.

O'BRIEN: What are the big pearls perils as the nation changes to nation building? I have the sense perhaps letting your guard down could be perhaps the worst thing that could happen in the course of all this.

KENNEDY: That certainly could be true at the individual level. I think at the unit level and higher, there probably is enormous mission focus still, and that would remain very serious. I think that part of the danger would come from internal warring factions that could become more bold.

O'BRIEN: Oh, really? And of course we've seen some issues. We don't know if it was internal warring factions necessarily, but there's been some problems in Mosul. And there have been civilians, presumably civilians, Iraqis nevertheless, who have been shot as a result of all of this. These kinds of things are difficult to stem, when you're talking about people in this vacuum, immediately following a tyrannical regime. The best we can hope for is things are going to get better, but it's going to take time, isn't it?

KENNEDY: That's right. They're going to need to know which direction their country is going before you'll see less competition between those factions that think they have a shot at being in charge.

O'BRIEN: So there is this kind of strum that goes on, and the worst thing that can happen is the U.S. military forces kind of get in the middle of that. Of course, some of their job is to try to avoid that too.

KENNEDY: Part of it is to not be seen as withdrawing, in any way, militarily, until order has been re-established, and the new government becomes more clear. The other -- you know, the other feature of this that answers your earlier question is that internal to Iraq, there's places where there's still going to be military operations, and there are other areas where it will be more of a stability operation.

O'BRIEN: All right, it's not going to be an easy task on any front, as we look ahead.

Thank you very much, General Claudia Kennedy.

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 16, 2003 - 13:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We cut away from the Pentagon briefing to bring you the president of the United States speaking to that crowd in St. Louis, Missouri.
But while we were watching that, General Claudia Kennedy stay tuned to the briefing and is here to give us a briefing.

General Kennedy, thanks for being with us. She's one of our military analysts.

What's the headline out of that briefing, first of all?

GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I would say it's the movement of the headquarters of CENTCOM from Qatar to Iraq.

O'BRIEN: And that is coming -- they didn't give a specific time, but that is obviously packed with a fair amount of symbolism, moving central command from Doha, Qatar right into the heart of Iraq. They didn't say necessarily Baghdad, but they said Iraq. What does that mean for General Garner and his people, the people trying to do nation building?

KENNEDY: It gives him a military force that is co-located, or at least in the same country, the headquarters of which is in the same country, so it gives him great military backup in case there is a need for that. His group is, as I understand it, about 150 people, so this gives him substantial backup during the support-and-stability operation.

O'BRIEN: Now you talk about support and stability. There's a tremendous amount of U.S. personnel still headed in that position. I mean, it's going to peak some time after the war, the number of bodies on the ground there, right?

KENNEDY: That's right. We've got people going in both directions. Some units are going to be withdrawn, other units are going to be put in. Some of them with the same skill sets, and probably some with other skills more in line with nation building.

O'BRIEN: What are the big pearls perils as the nation changes to nation building? I have the sense perhaps letting your guard down could be perhaps the worst thing that could happen in the course of all this.

KENNEDY: That certainly could be true at the individual level. I think at the unit level and higher, there probably is enormous mission focus still, and that would remain very serious. I think that part of the danger would come from internal warring factions that could become more bold.

O'BRIEN: Oh, really? And of course we've seen some issues. We don't know if it was internal warring factions necessarily, but there's been some problems in Mosul. And there have been civilians, presumably civilians, Iraqis nevertheless, who have been shot as a result of all of this. These kinds of things are difficult to stem, when you're talking about people in this vacuum, immediately following a tyrannical regime. The best we can hope for is things are going to get better, but it's going to take time, isn't it?

KENNEDY: That's right. They're going to need to know which direction their country is going before you'll see less competition between those factions that think they have a shot at being in charge.

O'BRIEN: So there is this kind of strum that goes on, and the worst thing that can happen is the U.S. military forces kind of get in the middle of that. Of course, some of their job is to try to avoid that too.

KENNEDY: Part of it is to not be seen as withdrawing, in any way, militarily, until order has been re-established, and the new government becomes more clear. The other -- you know, the other feature of this that answers your earlier question is that internal to Iraq, there's places where there's still going to be military operations, and there are other areas where it will be more of a stability operation.

O'BRIEN: All right, it's not going to be an easy task on any front, as we look ahead.

Thank you very much, General Claudia Kennedy.

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