Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Afghan Warfare is "Bizarre"

Aired November 23, 2001 - 08:24   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on the Taliban and the war, let's go over to Bill Hemmer at the Big Board -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Leon, and good morning once again folks, as we continue to talk about the events from overseas. The Taliban maintaining their positions in Konduz as the U.S. drops more bombs again today. And the Taliban struck a deal to surrender that town on Sunday, but the opposition not convinced that will happen.

Retired Major General Donald Shepperd with us live this morning from Washington. General, good morning -- hope you had a good holiday yesterday. Let's get back at this war, huh?

MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You bet, Bill -- good to see you.

HEMMER: What are we talking about right now with the situation in Konduz, when there is a negotiated surrender, yet the fighting continues from both sides, and the U.S. continues to drop bombs from above? What's happening here?

SHEPPERD: Bill, we are watching the Afghan way of war, and it's absolutely bizarre. Now, the great reporting by Satinder Bindra and Carol Lin that I've just watched, along with you, shows how bizarre this is.

First of all, we hear that there is a surrender negotiated with solid terms from Mazar-e-Sharif to be in effect on Sunday. Then, we see fighting breaking out all over. I also talked to Ryan Chilcoff (ph) by cell phone, who is at the front, and he says they were coming under rifle fire while we were talking. It's really, really bizarre.

Then, we see the surrendering Taliban troops coming in in Datsun pickups being treated as heroes. This is truly, truly bizarre, and what it appears is going to happen is that the Taliban, some of them at least, will be allowed to surrender.

The ones that remain, the longer they remain, the more hard line they seem to be and the more likely they will to be killed, and it remains to be seen what happens to those Arab, Chechen, Pakistani and Kashmiri troops that are supporting as foreigners, if you will, what happens to them. They're going to be interred, and they say subjected to Islamic law -- lots to be figured out there. HEMMER: Back to the confusion, though, is it possible that the commanders, on both sides, the Northern Alliance outside of Konduz and the, let's say, the Taliban-al Qaeda leaders inside the city, do not have control over their own troops?

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's a really -- these are not disciplined troops, well trained with total loyalty to their chain of command and excellent communications that you are able to say at 11:00 on Sunday morning, everyone will lay down their arms and march out in like (ph) step. That doesn't happen in Afghanistan.

You're going to get the 10 percent that don't get the word. The 10 percent that at the last minute changes their mind, and it's going to be very dicey to effect the terms of a surrender. It always is, but particularly dicey in Afghanistan.

HEMMER: But knowing that the U.S. are still dropping bombs -- there are reports of B-52s flying overhead. We know the U.S. position. They have a concern right now that the Arab fighters will get out, possibly go to another country, and then ultimately inflict some sort of terrorism on U.S. interests somewhere else in the world. Is it in their interest right now to eradicate those fighters inside that town?

SHEPPERD: It's in the U.S. interest and the coalition interest to support what the Northern Alliance troops on the ground need to have done, which is to destroy the people that are fighting them and their positions. Those positions, obviously, are being marked by Special Forces. We get intelligence of where people are, and that's what the B-52s are striking.

That will continue until such time as there is a surrender and a resolution to the conflict up in Konduz. Of course, we are very concerned that these people not be released to attack our troops on another day, or go to another country and do this, and we're pushing hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

HEMMER: The fog of war continues. Don, thanks -- General Shepperd, we'll talk to you next hour.

Back to Leon now here at the CNN Center -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Good deal -- thanks, Bill. We'll check back with you in a bit.

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