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American Morning

Iraq Promising Better Cooperation With Inspectors

Aired January 20, 2003 - 09:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq promising better cooperation with inspectors. It's turned over four empty warheads this past weekend, in addition to the 12 found last week. Is the White House, though, convinced now that Iraq will fully disarm.
Dana Bash live at the Front Lawn of the White House for more on that perspective.

Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, you're right, the White House has very been skeptical of what Iraq calls cooperation. Administration officials making clear that what Iraq needs to do is not necessarily open doors for the scientists, open doors for the inspectors; what they need to do is disarm, and they need to prove that they're disarming.

Colin Powell, secretary of state, and other administration officials made the rounds on the talk shows yesterday, to make it clear that time is running out for Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: Everybody knows what they have to do, come forward, tell the truth, give an accurate declaration, tell us what happened to the stocks of biological and chemical agents, tell us what you've got, and put it out there for the inspectors to see. If you say you don't have them, if you say you're clean, then come clean. And time is running out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But U.S. officials are going to have to convince allies U.S. allies, U.N. officials and even some U.S. lawmakers who think these inspections should last through March, should take some more time. They are going to make the case, Secretary of State Colin Powell is in New York to make the case to some of his counterparts who are up there, to say Iraq is not come plying, they are not disarming, and time is running out. And this is leading to the January 27th deadline for the U.N. inspectors' report. That's one week from today. That's what the administration is calling the beginning of the last phase of dealing diplomatically with Saddam Hussein -- Bill.

HEMMER: And, Dana, to what does the White House right now credit the recent discoveries, these 3,000 pages found in the home of these Iraqi scientist, the dozen empty warheads found last week? Is this being credited right now, the intelligence-sharing that's been going on now between the U.S. and the inspectors, or is there more to it than that?

BASH: Well, they're not specifically saying whether or not it was intelligence that led them to that. Really, when they were asked about it yesterday, a lot of officials were saying, look, there's probably a lot more to it than this, they know there's a lot more to it than this; it's just kind of a fluke that they actually found some of the warheads and found some of these documents, and this is proof that Iraq has a lot of information that they're just not giving up.

HEMMER: Dana, thanks. Dana Bash, front line of the White House today.

BASH: And while the White House questions Iraq's sincerity, the deployment now of U.S. troops to the Gulf continues to grow by the day. Where does the buildup stand right now? And what is ahead? Our military analyst Brigadier General David Grange, now, live in Madison, Wisconsin.

Good to see you, general. Good morning to you.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning to you.

HEMMER: Let's put the map over the region right now. Over the weekend, you have seven more ships deployed out of Southern California, about 10,000 more sailors and Marines. Right now, as we look at what's assembled in the Persian Gulf, what are the capabilities of the U.S. military at this point?

GRANGE: Well, Bill, all deployments are phased. They're synchronized, so if something kicks off earlier than planned, there's some kind of force there capable of starting a fight, to defend an area, to take down limited objectives. And so what they're going to do is phase the forces in to have the capability to fight all the way up until they have the optimum force, which will probably be by, I'd say, mid-February.

HEMMER: At this point, knowing that 250,000 troops will be there in mid-February, but knowing the numbers right now on the ground, is this force capable of carrying out the mission and the duty of overtaking Iraq and Saddam Hussein?

GRANGE: I would say if -- in an extremist. In other words, if Saddam caused some fight to start early, for instance, if something was done to U.N. inspectors, a chemical attack, a biological attack was to take place on our troops or an ally, or let's just say something was fired at Israel, something to cause an early fight, that this force is capable to go ahead and take down, probably, a good portion of Iraq, especially when you integrate the airpower with the ground forces that are assembled.

HEMMER: As we await the potential for military conflict, there are some estimates right now, general, that say in February, this could cost the U.S. government $1 billion a week. The financial cost, the toll of waiting and floating then, is what?

GRANGE: Well, it's -- the financial cost is extensive, obviously, probably a $1 billion a week or whatever is probably close to an accurate estimate.

I think what's more important than that is the human factor involved, in maintaining these kind of units, at a peak readiness level, to go where they're told to go on a moment's notice, and the effect on the families of the troops at home, and, for instance, when you talk about reserve components of the National Guard, the effect on their employers.

HEMMER: I think you made an interesting point to our producers, when you first joined the military, I believe late '60s, possibly, correct my math if I'm wrong?

GRANGE: Actually, January '70.

HEMMER: Yes, OK, well, we got that. Don't mean to throw you out there, but the point I'm making is that, you say, when you joined the military, only 5 percent of the people involved in the U.S. military were married. Today, that number is well over 60 percent.

When you talk about impact on people, men and women of families back home, measure it for us, if you could, with the changing in demographics? The 30 years I served, it really changed a lot of the responsibilities that commanders have. Not only do you worry about, of course, your troops when you're deployed overseas or even in the states or in another country that supports our troops, you have those responsibilities, but you also have responsibilities for the family members, and it's quite extensive.

Of course, as the numbers grew, the infrastructure to take care of the soldiers, in my case, you needed a lot of improvements. These had to be added, and added on, to take care of families. Of course, that involves money. That involves a lot of effort. And so, not only do you have to worry about the deployments, but you have to worry about the families that are left behind. And a lot of military members are dual serving. In other words, both the dad and the mom are in the military, so who takes care of the kids? Or you have a single parent, just like you have in the civilian sector, cases like that. So all those things have to be considered, and the longer you're deployed, the more impact that has on the morale, on the capability of the family.

HEMMER: Thank you, David. David Grange, in Madison, Wisconsin today, and thanks for being so candid, too, on your own personal history. Much appreciated.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Talk to you again soon.

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






Aired January 20, 2003 - 09:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq promising better cooperation with inspectors. It's turned over four empty warheads this past weekend, in addition to the 12 found last week. Is the White House, though, convinced now that Iraq will fully disarm.
Dana Bash live at the Front Lawn of the White House for more on that perspective.

Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, you're right, the White House has very been skeptical of what Iraq calls cooperation. Administration officials making clear that what Iraq needs to do is not necessarily open doors for the scientists, open doors for the inspectors; what they need to do is disarm, and they need to prove that they're disarming.

Colin Powell, secretary of state, and other administration officials made the rounds on the talk shows yesterday, to make it clear that time is running out for Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: Everybody knows what they have to do, come forward, tell the truth, give an accurate declaration, tell us what happened to the stocks of biological and chemical agents, tell us what you've got, and put it out there for the inspectors to see. If you say you don't have them, if you say you're clean, then come clean. And time is running out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But U.S. officials are going to have to convince allies U.S. allies, U.N. officials and even some U.S. lawmakers who think these inspections should last through March, should take some more time. They are going to make the case, Secretary of State Colin Powell is in New York to make the case to some of his counterparts who are up there, to say Iraq is not come plying, they are not disarming, and time is running out. And this is leading to the January 27th deadline for the U.N. inspectors' report. That's one week from today. That's what the administration is calling the beginning of the last phase of dealing diplomatically with Saddam Hussein -- Bill.

HEMMER: And, Dana, to what does the White House right now credit the recent discoveries, these 3,000 pages found in the home of these Iraqi scientist, the dozen empty warheads found last week? Is this being credited right now, the intelligence-sharing that's been going on now between the U.S. and the inspectors, or is there more to it than that?

BASH: Well, they're not specifically saying whether or not it was intelligence that led them to that. Really, when they were asked about it yesterday, a lot of officials were saying, look, there's probably a lot more to it than this, they know there's a lot more to it than this; it's just kind of a fluke that they actually found some of the warheads and found some of these documents, and this is proof that Iraq has a lot of information that they're just not giving up.

HEMMER: Dana, thanks. Dana Bash, front line of the White House today.

BASH: And while the White House questions Iraq's sincerity, the deployment now of U.S. troops to the Gulf continues to grow by the day. Where does the buildup stand right now? And what is ahead? Our military analyst Brigadier General David Grange, now, live in Madison, Wisconsin.

Good to see you, general. Good morning to you.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning to you.

HEMMER: Let's put the map over the region right now. Over the weekend, you have seven more ships deployed out of Southern California, about 10,000 more sailors and Marines. Right now, as we look at what's assembled in the Persian Gulf, what are the capabilities of the U.S. military at this point?

GRANGE: Well, Bill, all deployments are phased. They're synchronized, so if something kicks off earlier than planned, there's some kind of force there capable of starting a fight, to defend an area, to take down limited objectives. And so what they're going to do is phase the forces in to have the capability to fight all the way up until they have the optimum force, which will probably be by, I'd say, mid-February.

HEMMER: At this point, knowing that 250,000 troops will be there in mid-February, but knowing the numbers right now on the ground, is this force capable of carrying out the mission and the duty of overtaking Iraq and Saddam Hussein?

GRANGE: I would say if -- in an extremist. In other words, if Saddam caused some fight to start early, for instance, if something was done to U.N. inspectors, a chemical attack, a biological attack was to take place on our troops or an ally, or let's just say something was fired at Israel, something to cause an early fight, that this force is capable to go ahead and take down, probably, a good portion of Iraq, especially when you integrate the airpower with the ground forces that are assembled.

HEMMER: As we await the potential for military conflict, there are some estimates right now, general, that say in February, this could cost the U.S. government $1 billion a week. The financial cost, the toll of waiting and floating then, is what?

GRANGE: Well, it's -- the financial cost is extensive, obviously, probably a $1 billion a week or whatever is probably close to an accurate estimate.

I think what's more important than that is the human factor involved, in maintaining these kind of units, at a peak readiness level, to go where they're told to go on a moment's notice, and the effect on the families of the troops at home, and, for instance, when you talk about reserve components of the National Guard, the effect on their employers.

HEMMER: I think you made an interesting point to our producers, when you first joined the military, I believe late '60s, possibly, correct my math if I'm wrong?

GRANGE: Actually, January '70.

HEMMER: Yes, OK, well, we got that. Don't mean to throw you out there, but the point I'm making is that, you say, when you joined the military, only 5 percent of the people involved in the U.S. military were married. Today, that number is well over 60 percent.

When you talk about impact on people, men and women of families back home, measure it for us, if you could, with the changing in demographics? The 30 years I served, it really changed a lot of the responsibilities that commanders have. Not only do you worry about, of course, your troops when you're deployed overseas or even in the states or in another country that supports our troops, you have those responsibilities, but you also have responsibilities for the family members, and it's quite extensive.

Of course, as the numbers grew, the infrastructure to take care of the soldiers, in my case, you needed a lot of improvements. These had to be added, and added on, to take care of families. Of course, that involves money. That involves a lot of effort. And so, not only do you have to worry about the deployments, but you have to worry about the families that are left behind. And a lot of military members are dual serving. In other words, both the dad and the mom are in the military, so who takes care of the kids? Or you have a single parent, just like you have in the civilian sector, cases like that. So all those things have to be considered, and the longer you're deployed, the more impact that has on the morale, on the capability of the family.

HEMMER: Thank you, David. David Grange, in Madison, Wisconsin today, and thanks for being so candid, too, on your own personal history. Much appreciated.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Talk to you again soon.

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