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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
U.S., Britain Urging Iraqis to Stay Put in Event of War
Aired March 10, 2003 - 12:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The United States and Britain, meanwhile, are urging Iraqi civilians to stay put in the event of war to try to prevent what they fear could be a humanitarian disaster, but that may not necessarily be very realistic. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis could be expected to flee their country for safety somewhere around the neighborhood.
Aid agencies already stationed along Iraq's borders are already preparing for a potential flood.
CNN's Richard Blystone is in Kuwait. He is joining us now live with more. How nervous are they over there, Richard?
RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the military and the civilian authorities say that they're prepared, but I think that everybody has some reason to be nervous about this. Everybody agrees that war in Iraq could touch off a humanitarian crisis that would make battle look easy.
Two million displaced people, by the worst case estimate, and U.S. and British planners have built relief operations right into their war plan. The Joint Humanitarian Operations Center, at a news conference today to try to reassure reporters that it was on top of the situation. But where is the evidence?
Officials have been very reluctant to show the supplies that they supposedly have in line to deal with the crisis. So we asked a U.S. adviser, where is the stuff? Where is the medicine? Where is the water? Where is the food? Where are the tents? And here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES BROWN, KUWAITI HUMANITARIAN COMMITTEE: There is no secrecy to it. You can't see classified stamps on the stuff we're working on, but we just don't care to share with everybody through the media what's going on, and who's willing to talk to us about how we're going to try to deal with a problem of this magnitude.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLYSTONE: Well, OK. But a U.S. military officer who's involved said to me today, and I wrote it down. "Everything can go right militarily, but if we get this wrong, we've lost the war."
Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Richard Blystone on the front lines for us in Kuwait City. Richard, thanks very much.
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