Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

America's New War: Recognition of the New Realities Out There

Aired September 20, 2001 - 09:10   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring in Lieutenant General Don Sheppard, retired of the U.S. Air Force, to amplify on some of these points here for a moment.

General Sheppard, your assessment of this deployment? Does that sort of jibe with what you are hearing?

MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPARD, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): You're right on the mark there with what's happening right now, Miles. We're getting forces in place and we don't know where those forces are going, we don't know what they are going to do when they get there, but we're getting in place to do everything that we need to do from a military standpoint.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at a 3D map we have put together here, General, of the area, and this gives you a sense, we've drawn some of the major roads here, but that is sightly misleading I think. What we have, according to government databases, the CIA, is about 12 thousand miles of roads, only about two thousand of it is paved, and that -- I think there is all of about 12 miles of railroad. The infrastructure in Afghanistan is incredibly -- well, it's a big challenge for anybody attempting to engage in operations in this area. How will that affect military planning, General?

SHEPPARD: Well, it really affects the targeting. First of all, you want to go after infrastructure targets, and there's not much infrastructure there. So we're going to have to be very careful and mindful of what we hit. Also, though, it simplifies the targeting problem in another way, and that is if there is not a lot of bridges, not a lot choke points, not a lot of road intersections, you don't have to use that many airplanes to do it. So in one way it's a problem, another way it simplifies our problem.

But, again, remember what the president has said: Wherever you are, we're coming after you. And Afghanistan is one of the areas that we're interested in, it may not be everything we are interested in worldwide.

O'BRIEN: All right, so we may be remiss in focusing too much on it.

Let's put this map in motion and take a look down, kind of get a little bit lower into the picture -- actually, it doesn't seem to be moving right now. There it goes. Those orange areas that we've highlighted here are the areas that are the resistance fighters against the Taliban and the so-called Northern Alliance, which is really an umbrella group for a lot of people. And ultimately, up in this northern section, there is an airfield there. Do you suspect that will be a key -- potentially a key staging point for perhaps some special operations type of activities?

SHEPPARD: Well, we've got the ability to put special operations forces in anywhere we need them. If we have -- we need a staging point, we can go capture it and do it. We also have the ability to air deliver special operations forces. So it's convenient to have a staging base. It's not absolutely necessary.

And also, we're working with other people, obviously, to get access to bases in other countries. So we're going to have access that we need when we need it.

O'BRIEN: So when you talk about special operations, we're talking about members of really all of the services. Let's just talk about the Air Force for just a moment. Special operations for the Air Force involves the type of aircraft that would be able to get in, get in quietly, and perhaps deposit small groups. How big would these teams typically be?

SHEPPARD: These teams vary anywhere from one person to several people. They don't have a lot of firepower. Remember, special operations forces from all services are the James Bonds and the ninjas of the military. These people are quiet, they go in silently, and they may have been there for a long, long time, or they may go in tonight or tomorrow night, whatever. They are basically there for surveillance, for rescue, for intelligence, not huge military operations, but they're essential to anything that we do.

We've been at this special operations business for quite a while now, and we're very, very good at it. And these troops are tough, really tough.

O'BRIEN: All right, recognition of the new realities out there.

Lieutenant General Don Shepperd, retired, of the Air Force, once again checking in with us, we appreciate your insights here on CNN.

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