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More Troops Sent to Iraq May Prove to be Targets for More Attacks

Aired August 26, 2003 - 13:33   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: U.S. troops in Iraq are facing a grim statistic. More of their comrades have died since major combat ended than during the bloodiest battles of the war. Another American soldier was killed today, the victim of an all-too familiar scenario: a homemade bomb aimed at U.S. military convoys.
Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd joining us live from Washington to talk more about this. General Shepperd, let's talk about putting more troops on the ground in Iraq. Is it added security or is it just more targets?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's both, Kyra. I am not a fan of rushing more troops over there, rushing another division or two.

I am for rushing the assistance that John Abizaid, General John Abizaid, the new Centcom commander that replaced General Franks, when he says he needs more troops and they need to be this specific kind, then I'm for sending them.

But just putting more troops over there when our objective is to get out of Iraq as soon as possible, more troops that have to be supported, that have to be protected and provide targets for people to shoot at, in my opinion, is not answer.

PHILLIPS: General, I'm reading her Robert Andrews, a Green Beret in Vietnam who served as head of special operations in Rumsfeld's Pentagon until last year made the argument that the Afghanistan war demonstrated that light, fast-moving special forces working with local allies can be far more effective against a terrorist enemy than conventional troops.

Is it -- is that what it's going to come down to is more special forces versus just a lot of young 18-year-old privates?

SHEPPERD: Yes, not necessarily, Kyra. Afghanistan and Iraq did, indeed, demonstrate that lightly armed troops fighting against the right kind of enemy that is not a very robust enemy can move quickly and can be very effective. We're going to see more special forces operations all over the globe. That seems to be the wave of the future.

But again, General Abizaid needs people to go and prosecute his strategy, which is to get intelligence on the bad guys. Who they are, where they are where they're hiding and what they're hiding and then go get them. Sometimes that just takes infantry troops, the 18-year-olds and above that you mentioned. Other times it does take special forces. But just rushing more special forces in there is not necessarily the answer. It's targeted troops with targeted intelligence is going to be the way we need to go, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right as we look at the numbers of soldiers, sailors, Marines, killed, 138, you know, before May 1, 140 after. And then looking at the total number. I mentioned Marines, but actually, it's not the Marines that are getting killed, it's a lot of the Army soldiers. Why?

SHEPPERD: Well, that's a very good question and I'm sure that General Abizaid and others are asking that question. What is it Marines are doing differently? But remember the Marines are in a more peaceful area of the country right now, that further south of Baghdad.

The most -- most of the Iraq, the northern part and southern part, are what we call permissive. Doesn't mean they're not dangerous and things won't happen, but you're not seeing the great number of attacks that taking place in this Ba'athist Triangle from Baghdad west to Ar Ramadi and then up to Tikrit. That's the bad guy country and that's where most of these attacks are taking place. The Marines aren't there right now, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now you say that it's necessary to accelerate the training of the Iraqi army, Iraqi police, and then U.S. soldiers can get out of there. How do you do that, at the same time, combat this terrorist threat that in may times coming out of nowhere? I mean these homemade bombs are just popping up unexpectedly.

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's not the same people that are doing it. The people that are providing security and going out on these missions are not the same people that are training the police force, the civil defense force and the army.

These are separate groups of people, many of them being done under contract. The police, as we learned yesterday, being done in Hungary, 28,000 of them over the next 18 months. We need to put as much effort as possible in accelerating those training activities and turning things over to the Iraqis.

Another key to all this success is getting a constitution written and election held so that, again, we can get out as the United States -- everybody wants us gone. The Iraqis, and we want to be gone. But we cannot cut and run if we're interested in our national security, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thank you.

SHEPPERD: My pleasure.

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




Attacks>


Aired August 26, 2003 - 13:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. troops in Iraq are facing a grim statistic. More of their comrades have died since major combat ended than during the bloodiest battles of the war. Another American soldier was killed today, the victim of an all-too familiar scenario: a homemade bomb aimed at U.S. military convoys.
Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd joining us live from Washington to talk more about this. General Shepperd, let's talk about putting more troops on the ground in Iraq. Is it added security or is it just more targets?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's both, Kyra. I am not a fan of rushing more troops over there, rushing another division or two.

I am for rushing the assistance that John Abizaid, General John Abizaid, the new Centcom commander that replaced General Franks, when he says he needs more troops and they need to be this specific kind, then I'm for sending them.

But just putting more troops over there when our objective is to get out of Iraq as soon as possible, more troops that have to be supported, that have to be protected and provide targets for people to shoot at, in my opinion, is not answer.

PHILLIPS: General, I'm reading her Robert Andrews, a Green Beret in Vietnam who served as head of special operations in Rumsfeld's Pentagon until last year made the argument that the Afghanistan war demonstrated that light, fast-moving special forces working with local allies can be far more effective against a terrorist enemy than conventional troops.

Is it -- is that what it's going to come down to is more special forces versus just a lot of young 18-year-old privates?

SHEPPERD: Yes, not necessarily, Kyra. Afghanistan and Iraq did, indeed, demonstrate that lightly armed troops fighting against the right kind of enemy that is not a very robust enemy can move quickly and can be very effective. We're going to see more special forces operations all over the globe. That seems to be the wave of the future.

But again, General Abizaid needs people to go and prosecute his strategy, which is to get intelligence on the bad guys. Who they are, where they are where they're hiding and what they're hiding and then go get them. Sometimes that just takes infantry troops, the 18-year-olds and above that you mentioned. Other times it does take special forces. But just rushing more special forces in there is not necessarily the answer. It's targeted troops with targeted intelligence is going to be the way we need to go, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right as we look at the numbers of soldiers, sailors, Marines, killed, 138, you know, before May 1, 140 after. And then looking at the total number. I mentioned Marines, but actually, it's not the Marines that are getting killed, it's a lot of the Army soldiers. Why?

SHEPPERD: Well, that's a very good question and I'm sure that General Abizaid and others are asking that question. What is it Marines are doing differently? But remember the Marines are in a more peaceful area of the country right now, that further south of Baghdad.

The most -- most of the Iraq, the northern part and southern part, are what we call permissive. Doesn't mean they're not dangerous and things won't happen, but you're not seeing the great number of attacks that taking place in this Ba'athist Triangle from Baghdad west to Ar Ramadi and then up to Tikrit. That's the bad guy country and that's where most of these attacks are taking place. The Marines aren't there right now, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now you say that it's necessary to accelerate the training of the Iraqi army, Iraqi police, and then U.S. soldiers can get out of there. How do you do that, at the same time, combat this terrorist threat that in may times coming out of nowhere? I mean these homemade bombs are just popping up unexpectedly.

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's not the same people that are doing it. The people that are providing security and going out on these missions are not the same people that are training the police force, the civil defense force and the army.

These are separate groups of people, many of them being done under contract. The police, as we learned yesterday, being done in Hungary, 28,000 of them over the next 18 months. We need to put as much effort as possible in accelerating those training activities and turning things over to the Iraqis.

Another key to all this success is getting a constitution written and election held so that, again, we can get out as the United States -- everybody wants us gone. The Iraqis, and we want to be gone. But we cannot cut and run if we're interested in our national security, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thank you.

SHEPPERD: My pleasure.

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




Attacks>