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Shepperd: Troop Morale Up Despite Reports

Aired September 29, 2003 - 14:34   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: Turing now to the war in Iraq and the battle for survival by U.S. troops, a U.S. soldier is killed today and another hurt in an attack near Fallujah. These deadly almost daily attacks are reminders of the dangers faced by coalition forces.
In this personal video CNN military analyst and retired General Don Sheppard caught on tape the work of troops in the field. General Shepperd took that video during a military tour of Iraq. He joins us now in Washington to share his thoughts. Good to see you, General.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I guess first of all in light of -- here we go again. We're starting off even in this introduction to you talking about the death of soldiers and we don't want to forget that that's happening. But at the same time, you said you were so surprised by the morale once you got there.

SHEPPERD: You got to be careful focusing on morale because soldiers will gripe when they're not pulling a trigger or training hard. They gripe about everything. That's not morale. What you want to watch for is dispirited people that don't believe in what they're doing.

That's not the case in Iraq. The troops that we saw and talked to universally thought what they were doing was important. The commanders are very optimistic there, Kyra. So I was surprised by the level of optimism.

The idea is for us to get out by training the Iraqis and turning things over to them. And not just turning it over but equipping them and making sure they can do it when it's turned over to them, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Point-blank, General, and I know you'll be direct with me, are we as journalists doing a good job covering post-war Iraq or are we missing the boat in many ways?

SHEPPERD: Look, the media takes a bad wrap for showing fire and death and explosions. That's about what people watch.

Most the most important thing happening in Iraq is grass-root democracy which is like filming a school board, kind of like watching grass grow. It's very important, teaching them how to run city councils, how to meet and compromise, something that's not done in the Middle East. That type of thing doesn't make the headlines. So if you watch what people want to see which is the explosions and the fires and the death, you get the impression that things are going in the wrong direction. The impression I got from the military side is they are very encouraged by the way things are going and think this is doable for us to get out in a reasonable period of time.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about how that's happening then. One thing that caught my attention, the multinational force. It's actually happening in al Halah (ph). Tell me about this Polish general that you met and how he is working also with the Spanish and the Ukrainian and the other 18 nations?

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's 21 nations in the force, the main force being the Spanish, the Ukrainians and the Poles. Major General Tuskovich (ph), a very impressive general.

And those troops I was surprised they're very, very sharp, very motivated. Remember, the Poles are there freeing another nation in Iraq because we freed them by winning the Cold War. These people are very eager to be there, it's a point of national pride. And they just took over from the Marines.

There are also American troops in this multinational division. So things seem to be going very well in that sector. And things appear to be very calm and under control you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Then you talked about of course governments getting up and running. It's been very hard to tackle Baghdad as you and I had talked about a lot because of the Ba'athist influence. But what about when you go over to Mosul and you see what's happening there? And you met with the Governing Council. Major progress you're telling me?

SHEPPERD: We did. Major General David Petrass (ph), the 101st Airborne did some very smart things in the first 30 days. The Mosul area, the northern area is where we expected a lot of trouble. It's the fault line between the Arabs, the Turks, the Turkomen, the Yesthees (ph), the Shebach. You should have had trouble in this area and it's been very, very calm and well controlled.

There are councils, there's cooperation and, again, there's also a good economy in the area. So although there will be problems everywhere, both the north and the south are very calm. It's the Sunni or Ba'athist Triangle where the trouble remains, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: For anyone that may ho forget what type of leader Saddam Hussein was, when you went to Babylon, saw the mass graves, that was a reality check for you.

SHEPPERD: It was indeed. North of Babylon, north of al Halah, north oh an Najaf is a mass execution site, about 3,500 graves uncovered so far. Maybe as many as 15,000 trenches dug, people lined up, shot, close range in the head. Women and children buried alive and the remains of these people, their clothes and jewelry that have not been claimed on top of the ground in plastic bags. It's very difficult to look at. Maybe 200 to 300 sites across Iraq, 300,000 maybe as many as 500,000 people executed by the this regime. It's difficult to imagine. You hear about it in the abstract. When you're there, it's pretty tough.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. General Don Shepherd, thanks for your insights and thanks for the video, too. Great job.

SHEPPERD: Pleasure. Thank you.

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 September 29, 2003 - 14:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turing now to the war in Iraq and the battle for survival by U.S. troops, a U.S. soldier is killed today and another hurt in an attack near Fallujah. These deadly almost daily attacks are reminders of the dangers faced by coalition forces.
In this personal video CNN military analyst and retired General Don Sheppard caught on tape the work of troops in the field. General Shepperd took that video during a military tour of Iraq. He joins us now in Washington to share his thoughts. Good to see you, General.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I guess first of all in light of -- here we go again. We're starting off even in this introduction to you talking about the death of soldiers and we don't want to forget that that's happening. But at the same time, you said you were so surprised by the morale once you got there.

SHEPPERD: You got to be careful focusing on morale because soldiers will gripe when they're not pulling a trigger or training hard. They gripe about everything. That's not morale. What you want to watch for is dispirited people that don't believe in what they're doing.

That's not the case in Iraq. The troops that we saw and talked to universally thought what they were doing was important. The commanders are very optimistic there, Kyra. So I was surprised by the level of optimism.

The idea is for us to get out by training the Iraqis and turning things over to them. And not just turning it over but equipping them and making sure they can do it when it's turned over to them, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Point-blank, General, and I know you'll be direct with me, are we as journalists doing a good job covering post-war Iraq or are we missing the boat in many ways?

SHEPPERD: Look, the media takes a bad wrap for showing fire and death and explosions. That's about what people watch.

Most the most important thing happening in Iraq is grass-root democracy which is like filming a school board, kind of like watching grass grow. It's very important, teaching them how to run city councils, how to meet and compromise, something that's not done in the Middle East. That type of thing doesn't make the headlines. So if you watch what people want to see which is the explosions and the fires and the death, you get the impression that things are going in the wrong direction. The impression I got from the military side is they are very encouraged by the way things are going and think this is doable for us to get out in a reasonable period of time.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about how that's happening then. One thing that caught my attention, the multinational force. It's actually happening in al Halah (ph). Tell me about this Polish general that you met and how he is working also with the Spanish and the Ukrainian and the other 18 nations?

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's 21 nations in the force, the main force being the Spanish, the Ukrainians and the Poles. Major General Tuskovich (ph), a very impressive general.

And those troops I was surprised they're very, very sharp, very motivated. Remember, the Poles are there freeing another nation in Iraq because we freed them by winning the Cold War. These people are very eager to be there, it's a point of national pride. And they just took over from the Marines.

There are also American troops in this multinational division. So things seem to be going very well in that sector. And things appear to be very calm and under control you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Then you talked about of course governments getting up and running. It's been very hard to tackle Baghdad as you and I had talked about a lot because of the Ba'athist influence. But what about when you go over to Mosul and you see what's happening there? And you met with the Governing Council. Major progress you're telling me?

SHEPPERD: We did. Major General David Petrass (ph), the 101st Airborne did some very smart things in the first 30 days. The Mosul area, the northern area is where we expected a lot of trouble. It's the fault line between the Arabs, the Turks, the Turkomen, the Yesthees (ph), the Shebach. You should have had trouble in this area and it's been very, very calm and well controlled.

There are councils, there's cooperation and, again, there's also a good economy in the area. So although there will be problems everywhere, both the north and the south are very calm. It's the Sunni or Ba'athist Triangle where the trouble remains, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: For anyone that may ho forget what type of leader Saddam Hussein was, when you went to Babylon, saw the mass graves, that was a reality check for you.

SHEPPERD: It was indeed. North of Babylon, north of al Halah, north oh an Najaf is a mass execution site, about 3,500 graves uncovered so far. Maybe as many as 15,000 trenches dug, people lined up, shot, close range in the head. Women and children buried alive and the remains of these people, their clothes and jewelry that have not been claimed on top of the ground in plastic bags. It's very difficult to look at. Maybe 200 to 300 sites across Iraq, 300,000 maybe as many as 500,000 people executed by the this regime. It's difficult to imagine. You hear about it in the abstract. When you're there, it's pretty tough.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. General Don Shepherd, thanks for your insights and thanks for the video, too. Great job.

SHEPPERD: Pleasure. Thank you.

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