Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Terence Taylor

Aired December 22, 2001 - 08:46   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Partners in the U.S. war on terrorism are now taking the lead in a peacekeeping mission. British troops are now in Afghanistan, expected to play a key role in the post-war region.

Retired British Army Colonel Terence Taylor is a veteran of his country's peacekeeping missions. He's now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He joins us today from Washington.

Good day, sir. Glad to have you with us this morning.

COL. TERENCE TAYLOR (RET.), INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Good morning. Delighted to be with you.

HARRIS: Well, since you are a veteran of some past peacekeeping missions, how do the challenges of this one stack up or compare to the ones past?

TAYLOR: Well, I think there are some significant differences. I mean here we have, in the first place, still an offensive campaign going on in one part of the country whilst a stabilization force is coming into the capital and maybe eventually in other places, too. So there are mixed missions going on at the same time and British forces are involved in both of them.

So I think that's somewhat unusual at this stage. This is apart from the terrain and the particular conditions. And every peacekeeping mission, I believe, is unique. There's no one that's exactly the same as the other. So there has to be a good understanding of the political circumstances, the ethnic rivalries and all those kinds of things, otherwise the peacekeeping mission or the stabilization force will not be a success.

HARRIS: Yes, well, what have been, to you, the most peculiar challenges in this particular arena?

TAYLOR: Well, I think in this one I think it's the variety of ethnic groupings and individual ethnic groups. You have up in the north of the country the Uzbek and Tajik based groups, the Hazaras in the center, and the Pashtun, the majority, in the south. So you have major ethnic groups who have been locked in combat over a number of years and a very long time, in fact. And also they're resistant to, generally speaking, outside interference. I mean they have a history of disasters resulting from outside interference. And I think that's a very important factor, although the environment right now seems rather benign.

HARRIS: Well, what's being done, then, to make sure that these different factions then don't revert to old habits and pick up their arms once again after the peacekeepers actually get there on the ground?

TAYLOR: Well, I think the key lies in the leader, Hamid Karzai, who's the head of the provisional administration, who seems to be, through his chief ministers and leaders, to be able to get the militias, as it were, under some form of control. I think what they're hoping to achieve is that all of the armed groups, which are still going to be allowed to be armed, will be under a central control of their equivalent of the Department of Defense or Ministry of Defense. That's a tough job and it may be patchy throughout the country.

HARRIS: Yes. How complicated are the so-called rules of engagement? We've seen this happen where, I believe Kosovo may have been the most recent incident -- recent arena where these different rules of engagement for those who are there on the ground trying to keep the order, the rules by which they can actually use force against any other faction there on the ground, they caused some confusion in days past. Are you sure that, or are you confident that this time around that problem won't creep up here?

TAYLOR: Well, you ask a very good question because I think that's a key question to assure the security of the force and to make certain that they can do their job efficiently. It has posed problems in the past, particularly with an international force. If it's a single country, that's a relatively easy job to enforce rules of engagement, although still difficult when you're in a situation where you're not meant to be carrying out offensive operations yet you may in very, very quickly be in a very difficult situation with fighting and armed conflict going on and you have to restore order or to defend yourself.

So local commanders have got to have sufficient flexibility to interpret the rules and apply force when it's necessary.

HARRIS: Finally, if you can answer this one real quickly for us, what about the exit strategy here? We know that within six months or so this interim government is actually going to go away and another body is going to take its place. What happens at that point?

TAYLOR: Well, I think that's another good question. Well, I think so much depends on the stability within the country. If control of the militias continues to be good and they are able to interoperate -- and there has to be an assessment at the time. I think it would be a mistake to assign a specific date to this right now. That could be damaging to do that.

HARRIS: Colonel Terence Taylor, this conversation may be just beginning.

TAYLOR: Indeed.

HARRIS: We thank you very much for your time this morning.

TAYLOR: My pleasure.

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