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CNN Sunday Morning

Marines Await Orders Near Kandahar

Aired December 02, 2001 - 09:17   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Afghanistan, a battalion of U.S. Marines is deployed at a desert base in southern Afghanistan, poised to strike Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold.

CNN's Walter Rodgers is the television pool correspondent accompanying the Marines. He's live on the phone from southern Afghanistan.

Hi, Walter.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

A U.S. Marine intelligence officer today compared the coming battle for Kandahar to a snake. In his words, the Taliban is feeling a lot of pressure, squeezing in on them and he added, "we hope to get them out of there in the near future."

Marine Major Bo Higgins (ph) said the struggle for Kandahar is reaching, quote, "a culmination point." He said that the Taliban stronghold is seeing a lot of forces coming into play. Afghan opposition groups from the north, moving toward Kandahar. "Others," he said, "coming up from the south," and he added "us, the Marines coming potentially from where we are."

There has been as yet no firm decision to commit the U.S. Marines to the coming battle for Kandahar. Indeed, the Marines are still standing off at a fair distance. But the Marine buildup continues. One officer said, "You see more Marines coming in. Our perimeter is secured." He said, "You see more and more helicopters. We are definitely prepared" he added "for what lies ahead."

Overnight, the complement of Marine helicopters nearly doubled, both attack and support choppers. No one is talking about the specifics of any upcoming military operations. Still, the anticipation is building. At Protestant and Roman Catholic church services this Sunday, both prayed to be delivered from the evil in the coming days.

And now, when you ask the Marines what they're expecting, one captain told me, quote, "we're here for a purpose. We'll tell you after we do it" -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And, Walter, more on a personal side. I know you're spending all day and all night with these Marines. What have the conversations been like? What do they tell you, and what are the -- what's sort of the human side of this war for them?

RODGERS: Our young men and women out here -- this is a Marine contingent. They're the kid next door, if you really want to be colloquial about it. They want to know sports scores. They want to know what's happening with the Northern Alliance around Kandahar because, of course, that has a very major play on the future role they may or may not play here.

But they're very much at ease, and I should say they're living under very Spartan, meager conditions. Latrines here are shared by corporals and privates, and colonels and majors at the same time.

Many of these Marines are living out in foxholes, or what they call their fighting holes -- that is mortar and machine gun nests out in the desert. The desert night here in December is, of course, bitter cold. And they tell you, when you ask them "how do you endure it?" They say, "we put on more and more layers of clothes at night. We take off layers in the daytime," because it is warm in southern Afghanistan.

They're really a fine group of young men and women. They are very eager to do their job. Many of them see their mission here as vengeance or payback to the Taliban and al Qaeda for the terrorist attacks on the United States September 11 -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And our CNN's Walter Rodgers right there with them. Walter, thank you so much.

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