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American Morning
Analysis With General Wesley Clark
Aired February 17, 2003 - 09:44 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: Calling it a diplomatic end around with France still objecting to NATO defense planning for Turkey in case of a war with Iraq, the alliance went ahead without the French.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORD GEORGE ROBERTSON, SECRETARY-GENERAL, NATO: That there is in the current circumstances, a threat to Turkey from one of its neighbors. Therefore, there is an obligation in the alliance to take that into account and to respond with appropriate measures. That's what we've done. These are defensive, prudent defensive and determined measures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: The agreement ends a monthlong stalemate and the secretary-general says alliance solidarity has prevailed.
Joining us now from Washington to talk about that and other military matters, our military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
Good morning. Thanks for joining us on blizzard day here.
So, General -- I'm not sure if you can hear us yet.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I've got you.
ZAHN: How significant of a roadblock was removed by this NATO action yesterday?
CLARK: I think it's an important step forward for the alliance. It's the way NATO comes to grips with issues.
Nations bring in their own individual national positions. They run through a system of NATO meetings and committees and preparing these very complicated documents, every word of which is engineered to meet various national issues.
And then they have to build a consensus out of different national positions, and it turned out that they had to do this maneuver to take it out of the North Atlantic Council, the framework at 19 and move it to the Defense Planning Committee at 18 so that France didn't have to sign on for the resolution.
I think it's a good step. It's one way that NATO handles differences of opinion.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the challenges though, for the Bush administration, Secretary of State Powell getting slapped around pretty good at the U.N. on Friday. Do you think that came as much of a surprise to him and if it did, how does it affect any sort of timetable the Bush administration was contemplating for potential military action?
CLARK: Well, I -- it must have been disappointing to Secretary Powell, but it shouldn't have been a surprise.
European opinion, in particular, is against the war. The information hasn't come out, the urgency hasn't been demonstrated, the governments haven't communicated it to their publics, and so there's more work to be done in terms of building a consensus.
But on the other hand, the military buildup is really -- it's in full force right now. Another month is not going to hurt is militarily or even beyond that, if necessary. And I hope the administration will seize the opportunity to continue to work this issue diplomatically. This is the decisive stage of the diplomatic struggle to bring nations around to the U.S. position, and there are going to be some give and take there, and they'll some blows landed diplomatically. And we just have to hang in there and pull this together.
ZAHN: You say a month or two you don't think would compromise the integrity of our fighting forces. And yet, there's been so much debate about the warm weather coming into -- that you're coming into in Iraq by the end of the March. And a lot of folks were saying that was the end of the window. You don't believe that?
CLARK: No, I don't believe that.
You know it's -- obviously, the troops would prefer to fight when it's 72 degrees and beautiful weather. But the greatest battle that we fought during the Gulf War last time was at night in a storm and the bad weather actually helped us. It was miserable weather. No one would have wanted that.
Our equipment is good enough to fight in all weather conditions. The troops are good enough to fight in all weather conditions and we'll do, you know, what's the right thing for the country and what the commander-in-chief says to do.
ZAHN: You say the equipment is good enough to fight under those circumstances. And yet I know you're familiar with the General Accounting audit that came out a report that suggested that there are defects in many of the masks that our soldiers are wearing, in addition to the chemical suits. And you have Congressman Christopher Shays saying he has expressed concern about the matter and that very little attention has been paid to protecting our troops from chemical and biological attacks if we go to war.
Do you agree with his assessment? CLARK: Well I -- certainly, there have been some problems with the manufacturer of the equipment. And we've always been concerned about the gas mask, the filters, making sure you've got the right filters, some of the agents that are very small in size. A decade ago, it was rumored they would penetrate the gas masks. We've changed the masks, we've changed the filters. And we're continuing to work these things.
There's no magic solution though. Protecting against chemical agents or biological agents requires a whole system in place and lots of individual activities. And occasionally, soldiers will damage their suits or the plastic visor in the mask will be -- someone will sit on it and it will be cracked or they'll have the wrong filter in. And so it's a matter of the chain of command's responsibility to check and double check and recheck, again, to make sure every soldier has what he needs and is properly prepared for the environment.
ZAHN: General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for joining us. I'm not even going to ask you if you're going to run for president or not, because I know you're not going to answer.
CLARK: That's right.
ZAHN: But do you know if you'd run as a Republican or Democrat if you did?
CLARK: Paula, Paula, I'm not a candidate. I haven't declared a party. I haven't taken up any money. I'm just a concerned citizen. I'm really happy to be part of the dialogue and thanks for asking.
ZAHN: Oh yes, we just thought you'd make a commitment here this morning on AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for coming in this nasty weather, General.
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 February 17, 2003 - 09:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Calling it a diplomatic end around with France still objecting to NATO defense planning for Turkey in case of a war with Iraq, the alliance went ahead without the French.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORD GEORGE ROBERTSON, SECRETARY-GENERAL, NATO: That there is in the current circumstances, a threat to Turkey from one of its neighbors. Therefore, there is an obligation in the alliance to take that into account and to respond with appropriate measures. That's what we've done. These are defensive, prudent defensive and determined measures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: The agreement ends a monthlong stalemate and the secretary-general says alliance solidarity has prevailed.
Joining us now from Washington to talk about that and other military matters, our military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
Good morning. Thanks for joining us on blizzard day here.
So, General -- I'm not sure if you can hear us yet.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I've got you.
ZAHN: How significant of a roadblock was removed by this NATO action yesterday?
CLARK: I think it's an important step forward for the alliance. It's the way NATO comes to grips with issues.
Nations bring in their own individual national positions. They run through a system of NATO meetings and committees and preparing these very complicated documents, every word of which is engineered to meet various national issues.
And then they have to build a consensus out of different national positions, and it turned out that they had to do this maneuver to take it out of the North Atlantic Council, the framework at 19 and move it to the Defense Planning Committee at 18 so that France didn't have to sign on for the resolution.
I think it's a good step. It's one way that NATO handles differences of opinion.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the challenges though, for the Bush administration, Secretary of State Powell getting slapped around pretty good at the U.N. on Friday. Do you think that came as much of a surprise to him and if it did, how does it affect any sort of timetable the Bush administration was contemplating for potential military action?
CLARK: Well, I -- it must have been disappointing to Secretary Powell, but it shouldn't have been a surprise.
European opinion, in particular, is against the war. The information hasn't come out, the urgency hasn't been demonstrated, the governments haven't communicated it to their publics, and so there's more work to be done in terms of building a consensus.
But on the other hand, the military buildup is really -- it's in full force right now. Another month is not going to hurt is militarily or even beyond that, if necessary. And I hope the administration will seize the opportunity to continue to work this issue diplomatically. This is the decisive stage of the diplomatic struggle to bring nations around to the U.S. position, and there are going to be some give and take there, and they'll some blows landed diplomatically. And we just have to hang in there and pull this together.
ZAHN: You say a month or two you don't think would compromise the integrity of our fighting forces. And yet, there's been so much debate about the warm weather coming into -- that you're coming into in Iraq by the end of the March. And a lot of folks were saying that was the end of the window. You don't believe that?
CLARK: No, I don't believe that.
You know it's -- obviously, the troops would prefer to fight when it's 72 degrees and beautiful weather. But the greatest battle that we fought during the Gulf War last time was at night in a storm and the bad weather actually helped us. It was miserable weather. No one would have wanted that.
Our equipment is good enough to fight in all weather conditions. The troops are good enough to fight in all weather conditions and we'll do, you know, what's the right thing for the country and what the commander-in-chief says to do.
ZAHN: You say the equipment is good enough to fight under those circumstances. And yet I know you're familiar with the General Accounting audit that came out a report that suggested that there are defects in many of the masks that our soldiers are wearing, in addition to the chemical suits. And you have Congressman Christopher Shays saying he has expressed concern about the matter and that very little attention has been paid to protecting our troops from chemical and biological attacks if we go to war.
Do you agree with his assessment? CLARK: Well I -- certainly, there have been some problems with the manufacturer of the equipment. And we've always been concerned about the gas mask, the filters, making sure you've got the right filters, some of the agents that are very small in size. A decade ago, it was rumored they would penetrate the gas masks. We've changed the masks, we've changed the filters. And we're continuing to work these things.
There's no magic solution though. Protecting against chemical agents or biological agents requires a whole system in place and lots of individual activities. And occasionally, soldiers will damage their suits or the plastic visor in the mask will be -- someone will sit on it and it will be cracked or they'll have the wrong filter in. And so it's a matter of the chain of command's responsibility to check and double check and recheck, again, to make sure every soldier has what he needs and is properly prepared for the environment.
ZAHN: General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for joining us. I'm not even going to ask you if you're going to run for president or not, because I know you're not going to answer.
CLARK: That's right.
ZAHN: But do you know if you'd run as a Republican or Democrat if you did?
CLARK: Paula, Paula, I'm not a candidate. I haven't declared a party. I haven't taken up any money. I'm just a concerned citizen. I'm really happy to be part of the dialogue and thanks for asking.
ZAHN: Oh yes, we just thought you'd make a commitment here this morning on AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for coming in this nasty weather, General.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
