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Mission to Liberia?

Aired July 02, 2003 - 14:18   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well from recovering antiquities to rebuilding Iraq, none of it's easy. Let's bring in retired Army General David Grange. He's with us, actually Just got into the bureau.
I saw you with the glasses on the tip of your nose there, reading up on what's happening there.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Thank you. Good seeing you.

PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, I'm just curious. The antiquities, I have to ask you about this -- I mean, I was really fascinated to see that there was an actual group of military personnel, and their prime mission is to recover and put these antiquities back into the museum. I mean, I never thought of a soldier being a bit of, I don't know, a specialist on museum antiquities.

GRANGE: Well, actually I have a retired colonel that works at our foundation as a historian that takes care of the First Infantry Division museum and research library.

But reference this, the military took a little bit of a hit on people saying they did not protect the museum. I'm not sure really it was their position to do so. It was a cultural interest. It was high priority. I think they are trying to correct some of the problems they happened in the transition from the more stability operations.

PHILLIPS: Talking about protecting and stability, let's talk about protecting U.S. forces and what happens been taking place and the lives that have been lost recently, and all the violence that is taking place in Fallujah. There was so much talk about whether it is banditry, remnants of the regime, inter-ethnic struggle. Now you start to see a pattern in Fallujah. What's your take? What is going on?

GRANGE: Well, there's three types of groups that are counter- coalition forces. One is some remnants of the loyalists, or the Baath Party or Saddam regime. The other is some outside mercenaries, some foreign fighters, that have come in very much of a type of fighters that support Osama bin Laden. And then there's also a group of maybe people that emotionally are still upset, want revenge against coalition forces because they lost a family member. That's another example. And then you have just criminals -- criminals. So I guess there's four different types. And so I think have you a combination in this area, and it's kind of an area north of Baghdad and west of Baghdad that has a lot of hostility toward the coalition forces.

PHILLIPS: You've got the Pentagon spending about $3 billion a month trying to keep the peace, all the resources that are necessary. You're trying to build an Iraqi police force, an Iraqi army, and now negotiations taking place with 12 countries, the U.S. asking for help, to come in and try to keep the peace. How long is this all going to take? And what do you think will happen first? It seems like all three are going to take a really long time.

GRANGE: I think you're right. It's going to take a while. I just look back at Bosnia, and to get a police force established, whether it's from the country's people itself or an international police task force, takes a while to select, to train, to vet, and then employ police, at least in a model we're accustomed to. And a country without police is an absence of rule of law.

Meanwhile, have you the old G.I. filling in that gap until police is established. So it's going to take a while just for the police aspect, what we're talking about, to take hold, and it's essential to have that.

We need to have coalition forces in there. The United States cannot do all the heavy lifting. The United States military is best used and taking down a regime like it did in a major combat operations, but the United States military needs help during these stability peacekeeping operations, this phase.

PHILLIPS: All right, so you've got forces now in Afghanistan, in Iraq. Now there's talk that the marines are on stand by, possibly to move into Liberia. What do you think? The Bush administration is debating whether the intervene in this civil war that's taking place. What do you think?

GRANGE: The argument is going to be just how much more than this armed forces possibly intervene around the world. You have armed forces from the United States on over 200 operations right now as we sit here, in over 120 countries.

But the point is going to be whether or not it's a vital interest. And then that argument is going to be, OK, our vital interest is where this oil, the vital interest is where there's terrorists that may attack the United States, but what about some countries in Africa. And for humanitarian reasons, if for no other, it may be a valid reason.

I think we'll intervene. I think if nothing else, we'll send U.S. troops in there to protect the U.S. embassy and evacuate U.S. citizens and other designated civilians, and possibly be a part of a peacekeeping force that's sent into Liberia. We've been there before several times.

PHILLIPS: Are we talking urban combat here? Are we talking airstrikes? GRANGE: I don't think we're talking airstrikes, except for possibly some very selective targets, maybe out into the remoter areas. In a city, there may be some urban combat, but basically it's security operations. In that type of environment, it doesn't take that type of opponent, that many U.S. or well trained national troops to handle some of these rebel units. But it's a security issue that can -- some of the same things that are happening in Iraq today can happen there.

PHILLIPS: Retired Army General David Grange, always a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you.

GRANGE: Thank you. Good seeing you again.

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 July 2, 2003 - 14:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well from recovering antiquities to rebuilding Iraq, none of it's easy. Let's bring in retired Army General David Grange. He's with us, actually Just got into the bureau.
I saw you with the glasses on the tip of your nose there, reading up on what's happening there.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Thank you. Good seeing you.

PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, I'm just curious. The antiquities, I have to ask you about this -- I mean, I was really fascinated to see that there was an actual group of military personnel, and their prime mission is to recover and put these antiquities back into the museum. I mean, I never thought of a soldier being a bit of, I don't know, a specialist on museum antiquities.

GRANGE: Well, actually I have a retired colonel that works at our foundation as a historian that takes care of the First Infantry Division museum and research library.

But reference this, the military took a little bit of a hit on people saying they did not protect the museum. I'm not sure really it was their position to do so. It was a cultural interest. It was high priority. I think they are trying to correct some of the problems they happened in the transition from the more stability operations.

PHILLIPS: Talking about protecting and stability, let's talk about protecting U.S. forces and what happens been taking place and the lives that have been lost recently, and all the violence that is taking place in Fallujah. There was so much talk about whether it is banditry, remnants of the regime, inter-ethnic struggle. Now you start to see a pattern in Fallujah. What's your take? What is going on?

GRANGE: Well, there's three types of groups that are counter- coalition forces. One is some remnants of the loyalists, or the Baath Party or Saddam regime. The other is some outside mercenaries, some foreign fighters, that have come in very much of a type of fighters that support Osama bin Laden. And then there's also a group of maybe people that emotionally are still upset, want revenge against coalition forces because they lost a family member. That's another example. And then you have just criminals -- criminals. So I guess there's four different types. And so I think have you a combination in this area, and it's kind of an area north of Baghdad and west of Baghdad that has a lot of hostility toward the coalition forces.

PHILLIPS: You've got the Pentagon spending about $3 billion a month trying to keep the peace, all the resources that are necessary. You're trying to build an Iraqi police force, an Iraqi army, and now negotiations taking place with 12 countries, the U.S. asking for help, to come in and try to keep the peace. How long is this all going to take? And what do you think will happen first? It seems like all three are going to take a really long time.

GRANGE: I think you're right. It's going to take a while. I just look back at Bosnia, and to get a police force established, whether it's from the country's people itself or an international police task force, takes a while to select, to train, to vet, and then employ police, at least in a model we're accustomed to. And a country without police is an absence of rule of law.

Meanwhile, have you the old G.I. filling in that gap until police is established. So it's going to take a while just for the police aspect, what we're talking about, to take hold, and it's essential to have that.

We need to have coalition forces in there. The United States cannot do all the heavy lifting. The United States military is best used and taking down a regime like it did in a major combat operations, but the United States military needs help during these stability peacekeeping operations, this phase.

PHILLIPS: All right, so you've got forces now in Afghanistan, in Iraq. Now there's talk that the marines are on stand by, possibly to move into Liberia. What do you think? The Bush administration is debating whether the intervene in this civil war that's taking place. What do you think?

GRANGE: The argument is going to be just how much more than this armed forces possibly intervene around the world. You have armed forces from the United States on over 200 operations right now as we sit here, in over 120 countries.

But the point is going to be whether or not it's a vital interest. And then that argument is going to be, OK, our vital interest is where this oil, the vital interest is where there's terrorists that may attack the United States, but what about some countries in Africa. And for humanitarian reasons, if for no other, it may be a valid reason.

I think we'll intervene. I think if nothing else, we'll send U.S. troops in there to protect the U.S. embassy and evacuate U.S. citizens and other designated civilians, and possibly be a part of a peacekeeping force that's sent into Liberia. We've been there before several times.

PHILLIPS: Are we talking urban combat here? Are we talking airstrikes? GRANGE: I don't think we're talking airstrikes, except for possibly some very selective targets, maybe out into the remoter areas. In a city, there may be some urban combat, but basically it's security operations. In that type of environment, it doesn't take that type of opponent, that many U.S. or well trained national troops to handle some of these rebel units. But it's a security issue that can -- some of the same things that are happening in Iraq today can happen there.

PHILLIPS: Retired Army General David Grange, always a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you.

GRANGE: Thank you. Good seeing you again.

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