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CNN Live Sunday

What Can Be Done to Prevent Friendly Fire Incidents?

Aired March 16, 2003 - 19:39   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: As the U.S. braces for the possibility of another war in the Persian Gulf, a possibility which seems to be growing by the hour, we want to re-examine the consequence of the war that the U.S. waged there in 1991, and see what we've learned, if anything, to try to prevent it. Thirty-five Americans fell to friendly fire back then. That's 35 out of 148 U.S. combat deaths.
Now, there are new technologies which war planners hope will greatly reduce that possibility, but those technologies could be a double-edged sword. Joining me from Little Rock, Arkansas, retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander. General Clark, thanks for being with us.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you.

COOPER: A double-edged sword in what way?

CLARK: Well, everything that you do to control friendly fire possibilities also in one way or another can inhibit your ability to deliver fire effectively on the enemy, or at least that's the concern. And I was a one-star general in 1991. After the war, I helped do some of the investigations on this, and as we looked at the whole sorry history of friendly fire accidents in the 20th century, it was just -- it was shocking, it was horrifying, and we knew we had to do something to fix it, without compromising the effectiveness of our forces.

COOPER: There was a very famous incident of this, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, General, in World War II, General McNair was killed by friendly fire. I think we have sort of one of the old newspaper headlines about it, but is it something that as new weapon technologies sort of come to the fore, as we're able to project power from a greater distance, that it becomes more and more likely that these will happen?

CLARK: The further away you can shoot with direct fire, the harder it is to identify what you're shooting at, so with tanks and long-range rifles and other things, then yes, direct fire casualties become greater. These scenes show bombing in World War II. We were dropping dumb bombs. They were often inaccurate, and the instance you refer to did, in fact, happen. He was the highest ranked American ever to die in a friendly fire accident, highest ranked American killed in World War II. General McNair was watching a battle, and as we delivered an enormous rain of bombs from the air, the bombs fell short, and killed him. COOPER: Just talking about General Leslie McNair reminds me of the more recent incident in Afghanistan. In that conflict, you know, it's become now sort of iconic video of, I believe they were special forces soldiers, calling in an air strike. I believe it was in Mazar- e Sharif, and they called it in incorrectly. The bombs fell closer than expected, and they suddenly had to duck for cover. It was one of those things captured on film. What are some of the more recent, I believe, blue on blue engagements, that is sort of one of the terminologies -- Afghanistan would be the most recent, I suppose?

CLARK: Well, these were two that we know of in Afghanistan, where for one reason or another, the incorrect coordinates were sent to the aircraft, the bomb went exactly where it was supposed to go. Of course, you had the incident now where the two Air Force pilots have been moved before court martial for striking the Canadian forces. That's another kind of blue on blue exercise. It happens in war, it happens with increasing or horrifying regularity.

COOPER: As we look ahead, what can be done, what is being done to try to prevent -- I mean, it's a given it's going to happen, it happens in wars, it's one of the horrors of war, but obviously there are ways to try to prevent it. How?

CLARK: There are. The most common cause of this is that people don't know where other friendly units are. And so what we've been working on for the last 10, 12 years in the United States Army is a way of electronically updating unit locations, and we now have this out there. It's called the battlefield command and control system. It shows unit locations, it can show individual vehicle locations. It's like a laptop computer in a vehicle. And so you know if you're going over a hill the vehicles you are going to see on the other side are probably going to be friendly vehicles.

What we don't have is anything that, say through sight identification system, so for the tank gunner, when he sees a distant hot spot out there, he has to know that there is enemy in that area, or friendly in that area, because he could hit it with a target and not be able to clearly identify what it is. So we still have that risk out there.

We also still have the risk that you could call for artillery fire or all in air support on a location that may be occupied by the enemy, but given the cue or the wait for artillery or air, it might be five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour -- by that time, some other unit could drive over that position and actually receive the fire on itself, its location, even though the fire was originally aimed at the enemy. So there is still hazards of friendly fire out there.

COOPER: It's every soldier's nightmare. General Clark, appreciate you joining us to talk about this. Thanks very much.

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 March 16, 2003 - 19:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: As the U.S. braces for the possibility of another war in the Persian Gulf, a possibility which seems to be growing by the hour, we want to re-examine the consequence of the war that the U.S. waged there in 1991, and see what we've learned, if anything, to try to prevent it. Thirty-five Americans fell to friendly fire back then. That's 35 out of 148 U.S. combat deaths.
Now, there are new technologies which war planners hope will greatly reduce that possibility, but those technologies could be a double-edged sword. Joining me from Little Rock, Arkansas, retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander. General Clark, thanks for being with us.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you.

COOPER: A double-edged sword in what way?

CLARK: Well, everything that you do to control friendly fire possibilities also in one way or another can inhibit your ability to deliver fire effectively on the enemy, or at least that's the concern. And I was a one-star general in 1991. After the war, I helped do some of the investigations on this, and as we looked at the whole sorry history of friendly fire accidents in the 20th century, it was just -- it was shocking, it was horrifying, and we knew we had to do something to fix it, without compromising the effectiveness of our forces.

COOPER: There was a very famous incident of this, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, General, in World War II, General McNair was killed by friendly fire. I think we have sort of one of the old newspaper headlines about it, but is it something that as new weapon technologies sort of come to the fore, as we're able to project power from a greater distance, that it becomes more and more likely that these will happen?

CLARK: The further away you can shoot with direct fire, the harder it is to identify what you're shooting at, so with tanks and long-range rifles and other things, then yes, direct fire casualties become greater. These scenes show bombing in World War II. We were dropping dumb bombs. They were often inaccurate, and the instance you refer to did, in fact, happen. He was the highest ranked American ever to die in a friendly fire accident, highest ranked American killed in World War II. General McNair was watching a battle, and as we delivered an enormous rain of bombs from the air, the bombs fell short, and killed him. COOPER: Just talking about General Leslie McNair reminds me of the more recent incident in Afghanistan. In that conflict, you know, it's become now sort of iconic video of, I believe they were special forces soldiers, calling in an air strike. I believe it was in Mazar- e Sharif, and they called it in incorrectly. The bombs fell closer than expected, and they suddenly had to duck for cover. It was one of those things captured on film. What are some of the more recent, I believe, blue on blue engagements, that is sort of one of the terminologies -- Afghanistan would be the most recent, I suppose?

CLARK: Well, these were two that we know of in Afghanistan, where for one reason or another, the incorrect coordinates were sent to the aircraft, the bomb went exactly where it was supposed to go. Of course, you had the incident now where the two Air Force pilots have been moved before court martial for striking the Canadian forces. That's another kind of blue on blue exercise. It happens in war, it happens with increasing or horrifying regularity.

COOPER: As we look ahead, what can be done, what is being done to try to prevent -- I mean, it's a given it's going to happen, it happens in wars, it's one of the horrors of war, but obviously there are ways to try to prevent it. How?

CLARK: There are. The most common cause of this is that people don't know where other friendly units are. And so what we've been working on for the last 10, 12 years in the United States Army is a way of electronically updating unit locations, and we now have this out there. It's called the battlefield command and control system. It shows unit locations, it can show individual vehicle locations. It's like a laptop computer in a vehicle. And so you know if you're going over a hill the vehicles you are going to see on the other side are probably going to be friendly vehicles.

What we don't have is anything that, say through sight identification system, so for the tank gunner, when he sees a distant hot spot out there, he has to know that there is enemy in that area, or friendly in that area, because he could hit it with a target and not be able to clearly identify what it is. So we still have that risk out there.

We also still have the risk that you could call for artillery fire or all in air support on a location that may be occupied by the enemy, but given the cue or the wait for artillery or air, it might be five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour -- by that time, some other unit could drive over that position and actually receive the fire on itself, its location, even though the fire was originally aimed at the enemy. So there is still hazards of friendly fire out there.

COOPER: It's every soldier's nightmare. General Clark, appreciate you joining us to talk about this. Thanks very much.

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