Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Interview with William Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense
Aired July 15, 2003 - 07:18 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So, does the U.S. need a new strategy in Iraq to stop the violence there?
William Cohen is a former defense secretary and also chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group, and he joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning.
Good morning to you, and thanks for joining us.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Since major conflict ended you have approximately one soldier per day being killed. Also there are reports that there are attacks on soldiers something like 20 times a day. Do you think the president was too hasty back in May when he said major conflict is over?
COHEN: I don't think he was too hasty in saying that major combat was over. We defeated rather quickly -- in fact, I think unexpectedly so quickly were the forces defeated that the remnants just simply disappeared, went into hiding and now are fighting what appears to be a guerrilla war. So, the major combat may have been over, but the expectation was that perhaps the danger was also over and that is a misapprehension. The danger is very much there.
And what we have to do is to internationalize that force much more so than it is today as quickly as possible. I wouldn't want to second guess the field commander in terms of the number of troops or Secretary Rumsfeld. But my expectation would be we need to have as much force there as we can now and not have it come about over a period of time drip by drip, so to speak, or incrementally, because I think the president will lose that support for putting the forces necessary to crush the opposition. And that's what we have to do now, crush the opposition as quickly as possible.
O'BRIEN: I want a little about the internationalization of the troops, but first I want to ask you, when you examine the way that the war ended and you say sort of unexpectedly the troops rolled in -- American troops rolled in, coalition forces rolled in, and the Iraqi forces essentially just crumbled, disintegrated, do you think that that was some kind of planned strategy then on the part of the Iraqi troops?
COHEN: Well, it could have been. I think there are a number of assumptions you make when you go into a war. I think the assumption was it would -- was at that time it would take longer than three weeks to get to Baghdad and control that city and the major urban areas. I think there was an assumption that chemical weapons or biological weapons would have been used. There was an assumption made that we would have the access to bases in Turkey, which was not true.
So, there are a number of assumptions that were made that proved not to be the case -- some positive, some negative. In this particular case, I think the assumption was, following such a quick defeat of the organized elements of Saddam's military that it would follow that peace would be established or stability would be established very quickly. That has proved not to be the case.
And so, now we're faced with choices. It seems to me what the Iraqi loyalists are going to try and do is to attack the very elements that will create stability, autonomy and also economic opportunity. They're going to hit oil fields and gas fields if they can. They're going to target, in my judgment, the political elements. And they're also going to try and do everything they can to defeat any creation of an Iraqi police force.
So, we've got to stabilize all of those elements on all three fronts. And to do so, we'll have to maintain a significant force there for some time to come.
O'BRIEN: You talked about an international force. Right now you've got something like 20,000 international troops, hoping for that number by the end of the summer. You have word from India that no, in fact, they're not going to send 17,000 troops that the U.S. had hoped would be sent over to bolster the coalition forces there. How big of a blow is that and other countries following suit to the U.S. administration?
COHEN: Well, it's a major disappointment. I don't think there's any question about that, and we shouldn't minimize that. There are other countries, however, NATO countries that could make contributions. It seems ironic that you've got many of the NATO countries and European friends who have at least two million men and women under arms but can't come up with sufficient forces to provide relief to the 3rd I.D. or the 4th I.D. or those forces who have been over there now for some time. And we have to call upon those friends now and say you are either with us under the circumstances or certainly we will have to call into question your association in the future.
So, this is a time for us to call upon our friends, saying we need your help. We've got to internationalize it, put as much of an international face on those forces as we can, so it's not just Americans or Brits or Australians, but rather a truly reflective international force. That ought to be done quickly.
O'BRIEN: William Cohen is a former secretary of defense. Thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
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 July 15, 2003 - 07:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So, does the U.S. need a new strategy in Iraq to stop the violence there?
William Cohen is a former defense secretary and also chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group, and he joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning.
Good morning to you, and thanks for joining us.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Since major conflict ended you have approximately one soldier per day being killed. Also there are reports that there are attacks on soldiers something like 20 times a day. Do you think the president was too hasty back in May when he said major conflict is over?
COHEN: I don't think he was too hasty in saying that major combat was over. We defeated rather quickly -- in fact, I think unexpectedly so quickly were the forces defeated that the remnants just simply disappeared, went into hiding and now are fighting what appears to be a guerrilla war. So, the major combat may have been over, but the expectation was that perhaps the danger was also over and that is a misapprehension. The danger is very much there.
And what we have to do is to internationalize that force much more so than it is today as quickly as possible. I wouldn't want to second guess the field commander in terms of the number of troops or Secretary Rumsfeld. But my expectation would be we need to have as much force there as we can now and not have it come about over a period of time drip by drip, so to speak, or incrementally, because I think the president will lose that support for putting the forces necessary to crush the opposition. And that's what we have to do now, crush the opposition as quickly as possible.
O'BRIEN: I want a little about the internationalization of the troops, but first I want to ask you, when you examine the way that the war ended and you say sort of unexpectedly the troops rolled in -- American troops rolled in, coalition forces rolled in, and the Iraqi forces essentially just crumbled, disintegrated, do you think that that was some kind of planned strategy then on the part of the Iraqi troops?
COHEN: Well, it could have been. I think there are a number of assumptions you make when you go into a war. I think the assumption was it would -- was at that time it would take longer than three weeks to get to Baghdad and control that city and the major urban areas. I think there was an assumption that chemical weapons or biological weapons would have been used. There was an assumption made that we would have the access to bases in Turkey, which was not true.
So, there are a number of assumptions that were made that proved not to be the case -- some positive, some negative. In this particular case, I think the assumption was, following such a quick defeat of the organized elements of Saddam's military that it would follow that peace would be established or stability would be established very quickly. That has proved not to be the case.
And so, now we're faced with choices. It seems to me what the Iraqi loyalists are going to try and do is to attack the very elements that will create stability, autonomy and also economic opportunity. They're going to hit oil fields and gas fields if they can. They're going to target, in my judgment, the political elements. And they're also going to try and do everything they can to defeat any creation of an Iraqi police force.
So, we've got to stabilize all of those elements on all three fronts. And to do so, we'll have to maintain a significant force there for some time to come.
O'BRIEN: You talked about an international force. Right now you've got something like 20,000 international troops, hoping for that number by the end of the summer. You have word from India that no, in fact, they're not going to send 17,000 troops that the U.S. had hoped would be sent over to bolster the coalition forces there. How big of a blow is that and other countries following suit to the U.S. administration?
COHEN: Well, it's a major disappointment. I don't think there's any question about that, and we shouldn't minimize that. There are other countries, however, NATO countries that could make contributions. It seems ironic that you've got many of the NATO countries and European friends who have at least two million men and women under arms but can't come up with sufficient forces to provide relief to the 3rd I.D. or the 4th I.D. or those forces who have been over there now for some time. And we have to call upon those friends now and say you are either with us under the circumstances or certainly we will have to call into question your association in the future.
So, this is a time for us to call upon our friends, saying we need your help. We've got to internationalize it, put as much of an international face on those forces as we can, so it's not just Americans or Brits or Australians, but rather a truly reflective international force. That ought to be done quickly.
O'BRIEN: William Cohen is a former secretary of defense. Thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
