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American Morning

Marines in Afghanistan Set Up Forward Base; Historical Motivations for Marines in Afghanistan

Aired November 27, 2001 - 07:19   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. marines in southern Afghanistan are stepping up a forward base near Kandahar. Others are on the main road between that remaining Taliban stronghold and the Pakistan border.

Let's go straight back to CNN Center. That's exactly where we find Miles O'Brien standing by with more on the marines' mission -- good morning again.

O'BRIEN: Hello again, Paula.

I guess the question on a lot of people's minds is the differences between north and south. Why are the marines in the south, why the marines are on the ground now, the most significant deployment of ground forces since the war in Afghanistan began, in stark contrast to what happened in the north when there was a proxy effort there on the part of the Northern Alliance, aided by the U.S. air campaign.

To help us understand a little bit about how this strategy is quite different, we turn now to Major General Don Shepperd, military analyst, retired, of the U.S. Air Force. General Shepperd, good to have you with us.

Let's take a quick look at the map and just give people a sense of what we're talking about here. First of all, let's talk about this area this morning. We've been hearing from Nic Robertson at Spin Boldak, which is not far from Kandahar, indicating to us that it has fallen, the Taliban has given up, apparently, there. And then puts us in a situation where the U.S. is solidifying in the south.

Much different, though, than it is in the north, where the Northern Alliance was very powerful.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, basically the Northern Alliance, the word northern is what it's all about. You had the Pashtun northern forces, of course, part of the United Front and the Northern Alliance in the west around Herat, and then you had the Uzbeks and Tajiks and Hazaras in the eastern part of the north.

Now, the northern part of the country is essentially secure. So now if you're coming down to Kandahar, you have to come with the Pashtuns from the northwest from Herat. That's Ismail Khan. And then you have to come from the northeast and Kabul down the narrow passes and that type of thing, the road to Kandahar.

So now we also have a marine, if you want to call it, a blocking force to the south between Kandahar and Spin Boldak there.

Now, right on the other side of Spin Boldak on the Pakistan side is a city called Chaman. It's the Chaman Pass and it's basically an open border that's been used for years. So you have three main roads with the marines, if you will, south of the intersection of those three main roads and ability to block from all areas if and when a battle begins.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's move north for just a moment because even as the marines solidify their presence at that base near Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, we continue to see this ongoing prison rebellion. Reports yesterday confirmed by the Pentagon that five special operations soldiers were injured when an air strike came in and something went awry.

Now, you have a lot of experience as a forward air controller in Vietnam. Give us some scenarios that can lead to this sort of situation. We're talking about what is called close air support here.

SHEPPERD: Right. I've been a forward air controller both on the ground and in the air and also dropping bombs from the air in Vietnam. And what can go wrong is several things. Dropping ordinance is exceedingly dangerous. These bombs have large frag patterns, several hundred feet. So it's a possibility -- and we don't know, it's under investigation -- a possibility that the target was designated wrong. If you're using laser designators. It's possible that the wrong coordinates were relayed if you are using satellite guided weapons. And the other way you use there is you talk it in. You say hey, they're on the west side, we're on the east side. There could have been some misunderstandings. It also could have been an errant bomber, a malfunction in the bombing system or the cockpit systems.

All of those are possibilities. But clearly whatever happened, the U.S. soldiers were too close to the bomb and that's what caused the injuries.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Major General Don Shepperd, our military analyst. We appreciate that and we will keep following it -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Miles.

The marines in Afghanistan may have an extra bit of motivation for success of their mission -- history. There was the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the attack on American peacekeepers in Somalia and the bombing of the marines' barracks in Beirut.

So is this payback time? J. Kelly McCann is a former major in the marines and a special operations commander. He is currently president and CEO of Crucible Security Specialists. That is in Fredericksburg, Maryland -- or, excuse me, Virginia. He joins us now from Washington.

Good to see you, Kelly. Thank you very much for being with us this morning.

J. KELLY MCCANN, FORMER MARINE SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: We have sort of gotten cryptic information on what the marines are up to in southern Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld describing their mission as a vanguard force that would put force on Taliban and al Qaeda forces. What exactly do you think that means?

MCCANN: Well, the MEUs are a very powerful combat element. The base of a MEU, marine expeditionary unit, is the marine battalion or a battalion landing team. So they can be used in support of security operations by basically holding an envelope around an objective area.

So if it's Kandahar, the marines could be well used to basically block off areas of ingress and egress, fixing in place the enemy so that other assault elements can go inside and engage in combat.

ZAHN: So do you think that's the primary purpose of the mission, to choke off all the routes and prevent the entry of goods and the escape of Osama bin Laden?

MCCANN: I think there's that, Paula, and I think that the other reason for the marines to be there is to establish a forward operating base for existing special operations forces and also to give a rapid reaction capability. Remember, there's been a time element. Intelligence is so fluid right now, to fix somebody in place in order to go kill them, you've got to be able to respond quickly for that kind of information to be useful.

So now with the marines on the ground, you're talking about a reaction time that's under an hour in some cases, maybe minutes. So that's significantly different than what we had before.

ZAHN: The -- your company, Crucible Security, has been described as a so-called finishing school for special ops forces and many of the operatives in and around Afghanistan have been to the school. What do they learn there?

MCCANN: Basically, our company provides niche support in areas of mastery where it wouldn't pay the services to maintain that mastery. Some of that usage of small arms, some of that is surveillance, detection and individual protective measures for when people are traveling abroad and need to be secure. Just niche type of knowledge areas that people find useful in these areas.

ZAHN: We mentioned that you're a former marine. Describe to us this morning what the mind set may be of these young marines, many who are confronting combat for the first time in their lives.

MCCANN: It's like a football game. I mean, basically what these fellows are doing, and you saw them on the ship, they've got their game faces on and this could be one of the most important things that they engaged in in their lifetime. So I think that there's probably some butterflies in stomachs. But it's kind of like let's get into the football game, take the first hit so we can shrug that off and get to business.

But these are motivated men and very tough men and they've got an axe to grind, as you said in your intro, all the way back to Beirut. The usual suspects have been involved, Macnea (ph), Zawahri, all of these fellows. So there may be a little bit of payback and it's about time.

ZAHN: And how will we know when these marines are successful in their mission?

MCCANN: Basically when we leave. You know, I don't think that we're going to engage in the same kind of ongoing operations that have been an Achilles' heel previously. I think they're going to be used as General Franks has done so far brilliantly. He's used people within their roles. So I think we'll know success largely from the things that the public is allowed to know.

Now, previous to this, the amphibious ready group commander, the ARG commander where the marines fly off of, had said on newscasts that the marines had been used previously, it's just that the American public did not know about it. They were also the force that conducted the TRAP, the tactical recovery aircraft and personnel when we had aircraft down previously. So they've been engaged previously.

There are things we'll know and there are things we'll never know.

ZAHN: And a wealth of information for us this morning.

J. Kelly McCann, thank you very much for your time.

MCCANN: Thanks, Paula.

ZAHN: Appreciate your dropping by.

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