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American Morning

General Garner to Head Post-War Effort in Iraq

Aired April 06, 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.


BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: Let's talk about post-war Iraq and what happens with the government and what happens in terms of governing the Iraqi people.
Jane Perlez, a writer for "The New York Times" is our guest now here in Kuwait. She wrote about this just recently.

Good afternoon to you. Nice to see you here in Kuwait.

JANE PERLEZ, "NEW YORK TIMES" WRITER: Thank you.

HEMMER: We're going to start hearing an awful lot about a gentleman by the name of General Jay Garner, age 64. What should we know about him?

PERLEZ: Well, he's the man in charge of winning the peace.

He's a retired American general. He was in charge of looking after the Kurds in the early '90s. He's very friendly with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. They served on the presidential panel together. And he has been appointed to look after the post-war reconstruction. He reports directly to General Franks. So he's a Pentagon man.

HEMMER: You write that this mission will unfold depending how the war ends. Give us a better idea about what you mean by that.

PERLEZ: Well, I guess the war can be -- wrap up fairly quickly and be perhaps a neat and tidy ending and a surrender which would make it easy. Or it could be a messy ending with lots of fighting afterwards, skirmishes in many cities. And that will make it difficult to bring the country together and will make it difficult for the security of the Americans who are going up there to try and win the peace.

HEMMER: And when you talk about trying to bring the country together, some people turn to the model of Japan after the Second World War, to Germany after the Second World War. But they were all Germans, they were all Japanese. Now they're all Iraqis, but they're divided among religion, they're divided among ethnic groups.

What is the feeling right now in terms of bringing the Iraqi exiles away from this country back into the country and the argument that may or may not determine what they do?

PERLEZ: Well, exactly, every country is different. As for the Iraqi exiles, I think there's a big division in Washington, which is after all where the decision will be made. And I think in the Pentagon, there's a feeling of the Iraqi exiles perhaps should come in quicker than the State Department would like. I think others feel that the Iraqis inside the country should have a very prominent say.

I would -- noted last night that Adnan Facaci (ph), a prominent Iraqi exile, said Iraq was not born yesterday and the Iraqis know how to run their own country. So even though he is an exile, he was saying, the Iraqis inside the country should be given an opportunity to come forward.

HEMMER: Do you think the Americans are sensitive to that? Because we have heard time and again that the Iraqis do not want, quote unquote, "foreigners" in their country making decisions for them.

PERLEZ: Well, one hopes they know that, because the longer an American presence -- and I think most people would say American occupation -- goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the United States, perhaps, because the resistance and the resentment by the locals will grow.

HEMMER: Jane Perlez, New York Times, thanks for chatting with us. And this is an issue that long after the war goes will have to be dissected in so many different ways.

PERLEZ: Thank you.

HEMMER: Good to see you. All right.

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 April 6, 2003 - 09:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: Let's talk about post-war Iraq and what happens with the government and what happens in terms of governing the Iraqi people.
Jane Perlez, a writer for "The New York Times" is our guest now here in Kuwait. She wrote about this just recently.

Good afternoon to you. Nice to see you here in Kuwait.

JANE PERLEZ, "NEW YORK TIMES" WRITER: Thank you.

HEMMER: We're going to start hearing an awful lot about a gentleman by the name of General Jay Garner, age 64. What should we know about him?

PERLEZ: Well, he's the man in charge of winning the peace.

He's a retired American general. He was in charge of looking after the Kurds in the early '90s. He's very friendly with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. They served on the presidential panel together. And he has been appointed to look after the post-war reconstruction. He reports directly to General Franks. So he's a Pentagon man.

HEMMER: You write that this mission will unfold depending how the war ends. Give us a better idea about what you mean by that.

PERLEZ: Well, I guess the war can be -- wrap up fairly quickly and be perhaps a neat and tidy ending and a surrender which would make it easy. Or it could be a messy ending with lots of fighting afterwards, skirmishes in many cities. And that will make it difficult to bring the country together and will make it difficult for the security of the Americans who are going up there to try and win the peace.

HEMMER: And when you talk about trying to bring the country together, some people turn to the model of Japan after the Second World War, to Germany after the Second World War. But they were all Germans, they were all Japanese. Now they're all Iraqis, but they're divided among religion, they're divided among ethnic groups.

What is the feeling right now in terms of bringing the Iraqi exiles away from this country back into the country and the argument that may or may not determine what they do?

PERLEZ: Well, exactly, every country is different. As for the Iraqi exiles, I think there's a big division in Washington, which is after all where the decision will be made. And I think in the Pentagon, there's a feeling of the Iraqi exiles perhaps should come in quicker than the State Department would like. I think others feel that the Iraqis inside the country should have a very prominent say.

I would -- noted last night that Adnan Facaci (ph), a prominent Iraqi exile, said Iraq was not born yesterday and the Iraqis know how to run their own country. So even though he is an exile, he was saying, the Iraqis inside the country should be given an opportunity to come forward.

HEMMER: Do you think the Americans are sensitive to that? Because we have heard time and again that the Iraqis do not want, quote unquote, "foreigners" in their country making decisions for them.

PERLEZ: Well, one hopes they know that, because the longer an American presence -- and I think most people would say American occupation -- goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the United States, perhaps, because the resistance and the resentment by the locals will grow.

HEMMER: Jane Perlez, New York Times, thanks for chatting with us. And this is an issue that long after the war goes will have to be dissected in so many different ways.

PERLEZ: Thank you.

HEMMER: Good to see you. All right.

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