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American Morning

Strategic Perspective from Brigadier General David Grange

Aired March 28, 2003 - 09:26   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: And welcome back. We're just about four minutes away from a briefing by the British Defense Ministry. We will take it live when it happens.
In the meantime, we're going to get some strategic perspective now from Brigadier General David Grange, a CNN military analyst. He is at the CNN Center, along with Renay San Miguel. Good morning, both of you.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Paula.

As the coalition forces get closer to major cities like Baghdad and Tikrit, and the situation developing around Basra, the battlefield moves from the desert to inside a city. Our CNN military analyst, General Grange, joins us now to talk about this.

We have some animation to show what this might look like, when we're talking about urban combat in Baghdad. It seems to me a very difficult thing to talk about coordinating all of these elements, ground troops, air cover and armor in a city.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Very tough. And the key thing to remember, I think, from the animation, is it is a combined arms team. There's tanks, there's helicopters, there's infantrymen and Marines on the ground. Because the enemy has taken advantage above the ground, right on the street level, up in the buildings, in the sewers, below the ground.

A lot of coordination involved, very confusing. Short, close combat. The effectiveness of long-range weaponry is degraded because they're all close shots. So it's very intensive, in-the-face type of battle. And it's going on right now in places like Nasiriya and Basra.

SAN MIGUEL: How do you train for something like this? What kind of efforts have been made to train American soldiers for this?

GRANGE: Well, there are training sites throughout the United States. As an example, to include forward deployed places like in Germany. And the training is very realistic. A lot of effort in the last 10 years has gone into improving training facilities and operational scenarios for both the Army and the Marine Corps, to prepare soldiers and Marines for this kind of battle.

And, again, combined arms, realistic training, civilians on the battlefield, how you control your fires, what effects your particular weapon system. Like let's say a tank has in a built-up city, what effect the sniper has, the effect of smoke. Engineers are used to get through buildings and get underground.

And these sites are all over the United States, and all units go through some phase of this training. Obviously, some units go through more training than others to prepare for urban combat because we know it happens.

SAN MIGUEL: And we know what happens because our viewers are used to seeing video of places like Beirut and Mogadishu, and even going back to the Vietnam War and cities like (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But the difference is, in similarities between those situations, is to take, for example, Beirut, and what we might see in Baghdad.

GRANGE: Well, for instance, in Beirut you had a force like is depicted here in this live video of close combat in Beirut of different groups. Christians and Muslims fighting each other in Beirut, or fighting U.N. forces, as an example. But you can see from these live shots, again, very close-up, window-to-window, door-to- door, a lot of casualties are produced in these kind of fights. So the medical requirements are quite extensive.

SAN MIGUEL: General Grange, as always, we do appreciate your insight. Thank you for that. Paula, Back to you.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks, gentlemen.

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 28, 2003 - 09:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. We're just about four minutes away from a briefing by the British Defense Ministry. We will take it live when it happens.
In the meantime, we're going to get some strategic perspective now from Brigadier General David Grange, a CNN military analyst. He is at the CNN Center, along with Renay San Miguel. Good morning, both of you.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Paula.

As the coalition forces get closer to major cities like Baghdad and Tikrit, and the situation developing around Basra, the battlefield moves from the desert to inside a city. Our CNN military analyst, General Grange, joins us now to talk about this.

We have some animation to show what this might look like, when we're talking about urban combat in Baghdad. It seems to me a very difficult thing to talk about coordinating all of these elements, ground troops, air cover and armor in a city.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Very tough. And the key thing to remember, I think, from the animation, is it is a combined arms team. There's tanks, there's helicopters, there's infantrymen and Marines on the ground. Because the enemy has taken advantage above the ground, right on the street level, up in the buildings, in the sewers, below the ground.

A lot of coordination involved, very confusing. Short, close combat. The effectiveness of long-range weaponry is degraded because they're all close shots. So it's very intensive, in-the-face type of battle. And it's going on right now in places like Nasiriya and Basra.

SAN MIGUEL: How do you train for something like this? What kind of efforts have been made to train American soldiers for this?

GRANGE: Well, there are training sites throughout the United States. As an example, to include forward deployed places like in Germany. And the training is very realistic. A lot of effort in the last 10 years has gone into improving training facilities and operational scenarios for both the Army and the Marine Corps, to prepare soldiers and Marines for this kind of battle.

And, again, combined arms, realistic training, civilians on the battlefield, how you control your fires, what effects your particular weapon system. Like let's say a tank has in a built-up city, what effect the sniper has, the effect of smoke. Engineers are used to get through buildings and get underground.

And these sites are all over the United States, and all units go through some phase of this training. Obviously, some units go through more training than others to prepare for urban combat because we know it happens.

SAN MIGUEL: And we know what happens because our viewers are used to seeing video of places like Beirut and Mogadishu, and even going back to the Vietnam War and cities like (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But the difference is, in similarities between those situations, is to take, for example, Beirut, and what we might see in Baghdad.

GRANGE: Well, for instance, in Beirut you had a force like is depicted here in this live video of close combat in Beirut of different groups. Christians and Muslims fighting each other in Beirut, or fighting U.N. forces, as an example. But you can see from these live shots, again, very close-up, window-to-window, door-to- door, a lot of casualties are produced in these kind of fights. So the medical requirements are quite extensive.

SAN MIGUEL: General Grange, as always, we do appreciate your insight. Thank you for that. Paula, Back to you.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks, gentlemen.

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