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American Morning
Interview With General Richard Myers
Aired November 11, 2003 - 07:19 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, CNN ANCHOR: As we pause today to honor the American men and women who have served in the military, the issue of whether or not more U.S. troops are needed in post-war Iraq is again front and center.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is with us now live from the Pentagon.
Good to see you, General. Good morning to you.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine. Thank you.
I want to touch on Veteran's Day in a moment. But first, this issue of Iraq. Earlier today, reports from Baghdad say 20 members have been picked up right now fighting for the opposition, perhaps links to al Qaeda. Are you certain that al Qaeda right now is operating in Iraq?
MYERS: We know that there are foreign terrorists operating inside Iraq. We suspect some al Qaeda are part of that. We do know that this group, Ansar al-Islam, which has been operating in Iraq for some time now, well before we got into Iraq, that they are allies of al Qaeda, and that they have sheltered al Qaeda members that left Afghanistan after our efforts there.
So, we're pretty sure that al Qaeda is involved. I don't have the details on those 20 that were reported this morning, and I think we're just going to have to wait and see. I think even General Sanchez said he has to -- they have to continue to do some more detailed research to determine that.
HEMMER: General, why has it been so difficult to determine, and why does it matter?
MYERS: Well, because international terrorists can have passports from lots of different places, and, you know, you just have to do the background checks with their names, with fingerprints and so forth to try to find out. And I think it matters, because, you know, the first thing in being able to take care of the current threat we face is to understand who the enemy is. And we certainly know that the former regime elements, the Baathists if you will, are the major part of that. But we need to understand what part foreign terrorists play as well, and that's why it's very important. HEMMER: In the past few days there have been significant raids carried out in Fallujah and Tikrit, dropping 500-pound bomb, F-16s have been involved, much more firepower than we've become accustomed to in the past several months. General, what's the result of these raids so far?
MYERS: Well, the results are is that we've captured, detained, killed lots of people to try to get to the heart of the Baathists that think with some glimmer of hope against hope that they could prevail again. Just yesterday, we also had Iraqis lead us to weapons caches that totaled 6,000 weapons. So, this is not trivial stuff.
And, you know, the rules of engagement that we operate under inside Iraq are the same rules of engagement we had when we crossed into Iraq from Kuwait. We have not changed those, because we know this is still a very dangerous place. We've never said anything else, and we're going about trying to work it.
Now, having said that, this is not just about the military action. There are other things that have to happen as well. There has to be a good plan for Iraqi self-rule. The economy has to come along. The infrastructure has to be rebuilt. And there's good progress on all of these fronts, and they all will contribute to the security of Iraq.
HEMMER: General, two more points I want to pick up on quickly here, if I could. Senator McCain says you need to put perhaps 15,000 more troops, inject them immediately right now into the Sunni Triangle. Why does the Pentagon not support that view?
MYERS: Well, it's not Pentagon that doesn't support it. It's our field commanders that say they don't need more troops. And I have not had this conversation with Senator McCain, and I respect his judgment greatly. I know he came over to the Pentagon, and he talked to the chief of staff of the Army, he talked to the secretary of defense, and I think he talked to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my No. 2, General Pete Pace. But the troops on the ground and the commanders on the ground say they have what it takes to do the job.
And I might add, by the way, today the largest members of the coalition are now the Iraqis. They went up to 131,000 Iraqis in the various security organizations that support the coalition from the police, the facility's protection services to border patrol and so forth. So, that's part of the reason is that we have more Iraqis every day being trained and equipped to come out and help provide for a new Iraq.
The other thing I would say is if you look at where the concentration of U.S. forces are in the place where 80 to 90 percent of all of the incidents that happened in that triangle between Baghdad, al-Ramadi (ph), Fallujah and up to Tikrit, that we have 130,000 U.S. coalition forces in there and 25,000 in the rest of the country. So, it gives you an idea of where the emphasis is. We have -- this is not just a military matter, and we have plenty of military forces, according to the folks on the ground. HEMMER: It is Veteran's Day. What do you want America to know, General, about its men and women in uniform?
MYERS: Well, I think, you know, clearly, when we think about or World War II veterans, we think about what heroes they were. In Korea, they call that the forgotten war. I think we've done a good job here in the last several years remembering the Korean War veterans as well. Vietnam, we know the story there. Desert Storm almost unheralded after the event.
But I think what Americans need to know today is that, you know, those men and women of our armed forces that are in Afghanistan, in Iraq, other places around the world fighting this war on terrorism, are fighting for our survival, just as previous generations have done. This is extremely hard, dangerous work, but it must be done, because the terrorists have said they want to do away with our way of life. This is a very, very serious threat.
If we just go back to 9/11, 2001, I think you get the image right away what it can do to a country and what it can do to the economy, not just ours, but the world economy. This is very serious business, and I think Americans ought to be just as proud as they can be of our heroes, today's heroes, that are over there defending our freedom.
HEMMER: General Richard Myers, nice to talk with you.
MYERS: Nice talking to you, Bill. Thank you.
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 November 11, 2003 - 07:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As we pause today to honor the American men and women who have served in the military, the issue of whether or not more U.S. troops are needed in post-war Iraq is again front and center.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is with us now live from the Pentagon.
Good to see you, General. Good morning to you.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine. Thank you.
I want to touch on Veteran's Day in a moment. But first, this issue of Iraq. Earlier today, reports from Baghdad say 20 members have been picked up right now fighting for the opposition, perhaps links to al Qaeda. Are you certain that al Qaeda right now is operating in Iraq?
MYERS: We know that there are foreign terrorists operating inside Iraq. We suspect some al Qaeda are part of that. We do know that this group, Ansar al-Islam, which has been operating in Iraq for some time now, well before we got into Iraq, that they are allies of al Qaeda, and that they have sheltered al Qaeda members that left Afghanistan after our efforts there.
So, we're pretty sure that al Qaeda is involved. I don't have the details on those 20 that were reported this morning, and I think we're just going to have to wait and see. I think even General Sanchez said he has to -- they have to continue to do some more detailed research to determine that.
HEMMER: General, why has it been so difficult to determine, and why does it matter?
MYERS: Well, because international terrorists can have passports from lots of different places, and, you know, you just have to do the background checks with their names, with fingerprints and so forth to try to find out. And I think it matters, because, you know, the first thing in being able to take care of the current threat we face is to understand who the enemy is. And we certainly know that the former regime elements, the Baathists if you will, are the major part of that. But we need to understand what part foreign terrorists play as well, and that's why it's very important. HEMMER: In the past few days there have been significant raids carried out in Fallujah and Tikrit, dropping 500-pound bomb, F-16s have been involved, much more firepower than we've become accustomed to in the past several months. General, what's the result of these raids so far?
MYERS: Well, the results are is that we've captured, detained, killed lots of people to try to get to the heart of the Baathists that think with some glimmer of hope against hope that they could prevail again. Just yesterday, we also had Iraqis lead us to weapons caches that totaled 6,000 weapons. So, this is not trivial stuff.
And, you know, the rules of engagement that we operate under inside Iraq are the same rules of engagement we had when we crossed into Iraq from Kuwait. We have not changed those, because we know this is still a very dangerous place. We've never said anything else, and we're going about trying to work it.
Now, having said that, this is not just about the military action. There are other things that have to happen as well. There has to be a good plan for Iraqi self-rule. The economy has to come along. The infrastructure has to be rebuilt. And there's good progress on all of these fronts, and they all will contribute to the security of Iraq.
HEMMER: General, two more points I want to pick up on quickly here, if I could. Senator McCain says you need to put perhaps 15,000 more troops, inject them immediately right now into the Sunni Triangle. Why does the Pentagon not support that view?
MYERS: Well, it's not Pentagon that doesn't support it. It's our field commanders that say they don't need more troops. And I have not had this conversation with Senator McCain, and I respect his judgment greatly. I know he came over to the Pentagon, and he talked to the chief of staff of the Army, he talked to the secretary of defense, and I think he talked to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my No. 2, General Pete Pace. But the troops on the ground and the commanders on the ground say they have what it takes to do the job.
And I might add, by the way, today the largest members of the coalition are now the Iraqis. They went up to 131,000 Iraqis in the various security organizations that support the coalition from the police, the facility's protection services to border patrol and so forth. So, that's part of the reason is that we have more Iraqis every day being trained and equipped to come out and help provide for a new Iraq.
The other thing I would say is if you look at where the concentration of U.S. forces are in the place where 80 to 90 percent of all of the incidents that happened in that triangle between Baghdad, al-Ramadi (ph), Fallujah and up to Tikrit, that we have 130,000 U.S. coalition forces in there and 25,000 in the rest of the country. So, it gives you an idea of where the emphasis is. We have -- this is not just a military matter, and we have plenty of military forces, according to the folks on the ground. HEMMER: It is Veteran's Day. What do you want America to know, General, about its men and women in uniform?
MYERS: Well, I think, you know, clearly, when we think about or World War II veterans, we think about what heroes they were. In Korea, they call that the forgotten war. I think we've done a good job here in the last several years remembering the Korean War veterans as well. Vietnam, we know the story there. Desert Storm almost unheralded after the event.
But I think what Americans need to know today is that, you know, those men and women of our armed forces that are in Afghanistan, in Iraq, other places around the world fighting this war on terrorism, are fighting for our survival, just as previous generations have done. This is extremely hard, dangerous work, but it must be done, because the terrorists have said they want to do away with our way of life. This is a very, very serious threat.
If we just go back to 9/11, 2001, I think you get the image right away what it can do to a country and what it can do to the economy, not just ours, but the world economy. This is very serious business, and I think Americans ought to be just as proud as they can be of our heroes, today's heroes, that are over there defending our freedom.
HEMMER: General Richard Myers, nice to talk with you.
MYERS: Nice talking to you, Bill. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
