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American Morning

Bush Gathers Military Advisers in Texas

Aired August 21, 2002 - 07:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, President Bush meeting today with top military and security advisers at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. That White House is saying, though, the meeting has nothing to do with Iraq or Saddam Hussein; rather, the talk will be on retooling the U.S. military.
Our senior White House correspondent up early this morning in Crawford, John King is with us.

John -- good morning.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

And yet, at the very same time, senior administration officials say you cannot bring together such a group, the president's top national security advisers, and not discuss Iraq in some context.

Still, as you noted, the main focus of the meeting: defense spending in the next several months and over the next year or two. The Pentagon has to decide how many new ships to build, how many new fighter jets to buy, how many fights to pick with the Congress over canceling weapons programs that have deep support in the Congress.

Still, amid this international debate about this president's stated policy of removing Saddam Hussein from power, there is no question among top administration officials there will be at least a brief discussion of Iraq at the meeting at the president's ranch today.

And coming down here is the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, among others. Yesterday at the Pentagon, he said this debate, all of the criticism, all of the caution voiced about President Bush's policy, in Secretary Rumsfeld's view, quite healthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think that there are properly people in our country and people in the world looking at the circumstance that our world is in and expressing their concerns about it. And people fall on one side of the spectrum or another side of the spectrum or all across the range of the spectrum. And I think that's understandable, because if these things were easy, there would be no debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Vice President Cheney among those here, Secretary Rumsfeld as well, the chairman of the Joints of Staff, and the general who runs the missile defense program. One person who will not be here: General Tommy Franks. He is the commander, of course, of the Central Command, leading the campaign in Afghanistan, and the man who would be in charge if there is a military confrontation down the road against Iraq -- Bill.

HEMMER: One noticeably absent individual is Colin Powell. Any significance there, John?

KING: He's on vacation, Bill. The president does have secure video conferencing here. If he wanted to reach out to the secretary of state, he could. Some might say, why isn't Colin Powell there? He is known to be a moderating force, known to be someone who says if there is to be a military confrontation with Iraq, a lot more work needs to be done with the allies.

But again, the administration says the decision about how to proceed with Iraq has not yet been made. When it is made, the White House insists Secretary Powell and other key players will all be involved, all be on board, all trying to sell the president's policy, not only to the American people, but to key allies overseas as well.

HEMMER: Thank you, John -- our senior White House correspondent at the western White House in Crawford. Thank you much.

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