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American Morning
Interview with William Cohen
Aired March 13, 2003 - 07:24 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: As war looks more and more likely, one question Pentagon officials are asking, what could go wrong? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is said to have a growing list of disaster scenarios.
Joining us now from Washington, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.
Welcome back.
Good to see you again, sir.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Good to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: Before we get to some of Mr. Rumsfeld's concerns, let's talk a little bit about your expectation at the U.N. that there's a possibility now that the U.S. will even drop the drive for a second resolution.
Good idea, bad idea?
COHEN: I think that it'll depend upon how many votes they have. If they clearly are going to be unsuccessful in getting the nine votes, then I think that the United States might well consider at that point simply going forward without bringing a second resolution to the Council. Before, your previous piece, the question was asked what more can they do? Well, what more can the Iraqis do is to produce evidence that they've destroyed their chemical and biological agents. They can release some 30 scientists and their families to be interviewed outside of Iraq. There are a number of things they can do.
But clearly these particular "benchmarks" are reasonable requirements which I think the French and others are simply unprepared to accept and so hopefully the other members that the United States and Great Britain are seeking to persuade will find the support among the nine members in order to go forward.
ZAHN: On to Secretary Rumsfeld's concerns about some of the potential scenarios his troops could be facing, the threat of a chemical or biological attack.
How is it that the U.S. military prepares for that prospect if you don't even know who he's going to target or how he will target them?
COHEN: Well, no battle plan is ever executed with a hundred percent perfection. There is something that is called the fog of war, as old as warfare itself and still in this age of digital clarity, that fog still exists. So there are many things that could take place. It could be chemical and biological agents released on the battlefield. We have biological and chemical detection units in the field to determine whether such elements have been released, which will pose a life threat to our forces. We also have chemical garments, anti-chemical garments and biological garments that our forces can wear. We take that into account.
But there are other factors we have to look at, namely friendly fire, our own forces being killed by our own forces. We have to consider that Saddam may try to blow up the oil wells and create an environmental and humanitarian type of disaster, releasing tens of thousands of refugees streaming across the battlefield, so to speak, putting suicide bombers in those refugees.
All of that has to be taken into account and planned for in a number of contingent ways. And that's all part of looking at a potential war, which could be nasty, brutish and hopefully very short should it come to it.
ZAHN: A final question for you this morning. What are your concerns about the potential of hand to hand combat in Baghdad, if it comes to that?
COHEN: That's a potential and it's one I think that the United States will have to take into account, the United States and the British forces. Perhaps that can be avoided. I think that we will strive to maximize our advantage and not succumb to Saddam's tactical effort to bring us into door to door fighting or hand to hand combat where more people are likely to be killed, certainly our forces, but also many, many innocent people in Baghdad.
ZAHN: Bill Cohen, we're going to have to leave it there this morning.
COHEN: You bet.
ZAHN: Former secretary of defense, now CEO and chairman of the Cohen Group.
Thanks for your time this morning.
COHEN: My pleasure, Paula.
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 March 13, 2003 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As war looks more and more likely, one question Pentagon officials are asking, what could go wrong? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is said to have a growing list of disaster scenarios.
Joining us now from Washington, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.
Welcome back.
Good to see you again, sir.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Good to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: Before we get to some of Mr. Rumsfeld's concerns, let's talk a little bit about your expectation at the U.N. that there's a possibility now that the U.S. will even drop the drive for a second resolution.
Good idea, bad idea?
COHEN: I think that it'll depend upon how many votes they have. If they clearly are going to be unsuccessful in getting the nine votes, then I think that the United States might well consider at that point simply going forward without bringing a second resolution to the Council. Before, your previous piece, the question was asked what more can they do? Well, what more can the Iraqis do is to produce evidence that they've destroyed their chemical and biological agents. They can release some 30 scientists and their families to be interviewed outside of Iraq. There are a number of things they can do.
But clearly these particular "benchmarks" are reasonable requirements which I think the French and others are simply unprepared to accept and so hopefully the other members that the United States and Great Britain are seeking to persuade will find the support among the nine members in order to go forward.
ZAHN: On to Secretary Rumsfeld's concerns about some of the potential scenarios his troops could be facing, the threat of a chemical or biological attack.
How is it that the U.S. military prepares for that prospect if you don't even know who he's going to target or how he will target them?
COHEN: Well, no battle plan is ever executed with a hundred percent perfection. There is something that is called the fog of war, as old as warfare itself and still in this age of digital clarity, that fog still exists. So there are many things that could take place. It could be chemical and biological agents released on the battlefield. We have biological and chemical detection units in the field to determine whether such elements have been released, which will pose a life threat to our forces. We also have chemical garments, anti-chemical garments and biological garments that our forces can wear. We take that into account.
But there are other factors we have to look at, namely friendly fire, our own forces being killed by our own forces. We have to consider that Saddam may try to blow up the oil wells and create an environmental and humanitarian type of disaster, releasing tens of thousands of refugees streaming across the battlefield, so to speak, putting suicide bombers in those refugees.
All of that has to be taken into account and planned for in a number of contingent ways. And that's all part of looking at a potential war, which could be nasty, brutish and hopefully very short should it come to it.
ZAHN: A final question for you this morning. What are your concerns about the potential of hand to hand combat in Baghdad, if it comes to that?
COHEN: That's a potential and it's one I think that the United States will have to take into account, the United States and the British forces. Perhaps that can be avoided. I think that we will strive to maximize our advantage and not succumb to Saddam's tactical effort to bring us into door to door fighting or hand to hand combat where more people are likely to be killed, certainly our forces, but also many, many innocent people in Baghdad.
ZAHN: Bill Cohen, we're going to have to leave it there this morning.
COHEN: You bet.
ZAHN: Former secretary of defense, now CEO and chairman of the Cohen Group.
Thanks for your time this morning.
COHEN: My pleasure, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
