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American Morning

In Afghanistan, U.S. Forces' Mission Far From Over

Aired December 17, 2001 - 09:04   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: Donald Rumsfeld is praising the U.S. and its fighting force for a job well done in Afghanistan, while reminding them that their mission is far from over. The secretary, of course, also met with Kabul's new leaders.

And joining us once again from Little Rock, Arkansas, CNN military analyst General Wesley Clark.

Welcome back, general.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Let's talk about the importance of these meetings with some of these folks that will make up this interim government. There is a whole issue of an international security force. What do you see unfolding there?

CLARK: Well, it's important that the process of forming this government proceed without recourse to violence, and the key question is how can these people settle their differences in a nontraditional way. The traditional way is, I've got the power, I've got the guns, I've got the territory, you can't pass through my territory unless you give me a certain position. So what we want to do is get an international force in there that can facilitate the government that's been agreed to gradually taking power, reduce the grip of the war lords on their territories, encourage people to put their weapons away, and generally act to deter violence.

ZAHN: Talk about reducing the grip of the warlords, and yet we know that a number of deals have been cut that allowed Taliban leaders to go free, many of them just assimilating back into their normal communities. What kind of a threat does that pose to the stability of this new government?

CLARK: I think it is a threat, and I think it's one of the reasons that the secretary of defense has said the forces will be there for some time. We know that there's, as recently as last week, there are still some areas that were actually held by the Taliban. Now gradually, these people have just melted back into the population. So far as we know, not a single top member of Taliban has been detained, including Mullah Omar, and it's going to be one of the continuing problems we have with the transitional or provisional government there, is to get our own forces the authorization to move, make sure that we've got freedom of action and support in the area, and then we've got to go about rounding these people up, getting information and making sure they don't come back to pose another threat.

ZAHN: General, you mentioned Mullah Omar, and we have some breaking news to report that I want to get reaction to. According to the Associated Press, that the supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has -- is holed up with hundreds of fighters in the town of Bagaram (ph), which is northwest of the southern city of Kandahar. If that is true, what does that mean for U.S. military forces?

CLARK: It would mean, I think that first there would be discussions with Mullah Omar Hamid Karzai. And basically, Karzai holds the trump hand. He's got the United States' support. He's got his forces. We've got airpower. We've got our special forces on the ground. And if Mullah Omar does make a stand, then his days are numbered no matter where he is.

Greater threat really is that he won't make a stand, and just hang out there and move from city to city and form sort of an underground movement that will act to destabilize the government.

ZAHN: Also want to close off this morning by talking about the challenges for the Marines stationed near Kandahar, three of them injured from an exploding land mine. What must the U.S. do now to protect the Marines from that happening again? I mean, isn't the place so heavily mined it's all been an impossible task?

CLARK: Well, all reports say that it is heavily mined it's been mined over a period of years, and no one knows where the mines are. You have to decide which areas that the airport are critical for access, and then you have to bring in the right equipment. The Marines may have some of it. Some of it they may not have. It's got to be flown in, and gradually, bit by bit, the airport made safe to operate from. The Marines have and the Army have various pieces of gear, ranging from outsized footwear that distributes the weight and protects the foot to armored suits to special detectors to push devices that go in front of armored vehicles that will explode mines, and all of that can be used here, it just hasn't all been not yet.

ZAHN: I wanted you to try to make some sense of the reporting you heard this morning, Walt Rodgers saying that he had the chance to interview some Al Qaeda prisoners, who said they had been in contact with Osama bin Laden, or at least seen him as late as this past Saturday. What do you make of those reports, and some of the confusion about where Osama bin Laden may be?

CLARK: It's just a confused time in the battle. Whenever you close into objective like this, and especially when you've got various groups of forces and there's no unified command and control, there's different reporting networks, the terrain is extremely difficult, people are speaking different languages, it's going to will be some time before we sort everything out.

I think what we can be sure of is that U.S. Forces on the ground are going to move through the area, in conjunction with the local Afghans, are going to will search the caves or look for the caves. They are going to find isolated pockets. They are going to find some people that are dead and dying on the battlefield. They are going to find documents. They may find the key information. Maybe Osama bin Laden's dead there under tons of granite. We'll never know it. Maybe he's escaped. Maybe we'll find people who can say he went that a-way.

But we are going to have be patient enough to give several days to really sweep through this area, because it is very difficult, up and down terrain, probably booby-trapped, a lot of debris there, and so it's just going to take some time.

ZAHN: And in terms of the time period, I think Mr. Rumsfeld even suggested you could be talking about the year that the American troops might be in place there.

CLARK: Could be a long time.

ZAHN: All right, general, we are going to leave it there, because you're now being upstaged by Donald Rumsfeld.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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