|
CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Discussion with British Army Spokesman
Aired March 12, 2003 - 12:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: At the moment, the British have deployed about 45,000 troops in the region, along with ships and planes. Many of them right now are based in Kuwait, training and waiting, just as the U.S. troops are.
Joining us from Kuwait city is Colonel Chris Vernon, the British army spokesman. You may recognize him as the former U.N. military spokesman during the Balkans conflict.
Colonel, thanks very much for joining us. I assume the British forces, like the U.S. forces, are working hand and glove. There's been no change whatsoever, that if there is, in fact, a war, you'll be fighting alongside your American counterparts.
COL. CHRIS VERNON, BRITISH MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Yes, that's correct. We built up a significant and capable force here, fully integrated with the U.S. forces. And we are ready, should political divisions be made to utilize us.
BLITZER: Is the 45, 000 figure precise, or relatively precise, how many British troops have been deployed in the air, on the ground, on the sea, to the Persian Gulf region?
VERNON: The ground force in Kuwait is just over around 26,000, 27,000. There's an Air Force presence of about three, and a maritime presence equally within the Gulf region of about five.
BLITZER: And how have you divided up military responsibilities, the war planners, what the British troops would do as opposed to what the U.S. troops would do. With the exception of the United States and Britain, I think there's a small Australian contingent, but I don't see any other international forces aligned to actually move into Iraq.
VERNON: No, that's correct. The coalition is the United States, U.K. and an Australian smaller contingent. We're fully integrated, working with the Americans. We've built up our plans and our training with them to make a coherent coalition force.
BLITZER: Well, does the British force bring something special to the table, to the battlefield, if you will, some unique experiences, some training that the American forces may not necessarily have?
VERNON: No, we broadly mirror much of their capability. We've got a divisional size strength on the ground, which consists of an armored brigade on one end of the spectrum, and two lighter infantry brigades, and that mirrors much of the American capability. But I wouldn't understate our size of force, which is significant. BLITZER: I understand, also, that there's a special operations force that the British has in play, including Arabic language speakers, experts on Iraq, that also mirror some of the U.S. special operations forces who would be involved early on if in fact there is a war.
VERNON: We take a very reserved line on any special operations and don't comment either way on that that.
BLITZER: You don't want to talk about that, I understand.
Colonel, what about the whole area right now of waiting? We've heard from some U.S. military experts that you can't keep these troops poised on a hair trigger status very long. At some point you either have to use it or you have to start rotating troops out. You can't just keep them there forever. How serious of a problem is this right now?
VERNON: It's not a problem. I mean, the British force has only been in place for two or three weeks, and the Americans somewhat longer. From a U.K. perspective, it's a professional, highly motivated focus force. We can sit waiting for some time. Indeed, waiting is part of the military makeup. It's something we're really, really quite used to.
BLITZER: Hurry up and wait. That's what they say. Colonel, thank you very much for spending a few moments with us. Good luck to you and the British forces out there in the Gulf. Appreciate your taking a few moments to join us.
VERNON: Thank you.
BLITZER: And it's the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. military's arsenal, a 21,000-pound giant, known as the massive ordnance air blast, or MOAB. For more about it and the test that was conducted yesterday at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, we're joined from New Mexico by CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army General David Grange.
General, thanks very much for joining us.
I want to show our viewers some pictures the pentagon released of this test. As we see these pictures, this bomb being dropped, talk about the significance of this weapon.
GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this bomb is an improvement of the Vietnam version, called the daisy cutter. This happens to be 21,000 pounds, instead of 15,000 pounds. We're quite a distance away from the impact on the ground, so you don't really get the effect of how awesome this explosion would be if you were on a battlefield, for an example. But it is used for multiple of different tasks, and development continues with even larger size bombs.
BLITZER: It's -- there's also a psychological element that you're very familiar, with psy-ops, as they call them, psychological operations. They're hoping that the Iraqi military sees this awesome capability and draws the right conclusions, isn't that right?
GRANGE: Well, that could happen. And in fact, the psychological impact is much greater than the physical or the kinetic impact of any fight. What you really want to do is save lives. So if you can get the enemy to surrender, to capitulate early, because of the lethality of your force and its capabilities, you want to do that.
So, yes, if you were on the ground, the psychological effect of this thing would be quite devastating. I mean, I've been as close to 1,000 meters to daisy cutters, and it just shakes the earth. I mean, it shakes helicopters almost out of the sky. It's quite impressive.
BLITZER: I was going to say, general,that's why they're also dropped with a parachute, that in effect gives the plane enough time to get away, the C-130 in this particular case.
GRANGE: That's right. In Vietnam they were used quite often to create immediate landing zones for helicopters, if known landing zones were either covered by enemy snipers or machine runs or booby traps, for example. And what it would do is create half a football sized landing zone immediately, and then within less than a minute, you would swoop in and land there, because you knew it would be a safe landing zone, and then go out into the jungle. In this case, it could be used against troops, it could be used against hardened targets. It could even clear mine fields to make a gap in the line so forces can pass through the mine field without detonating the mines that would be exploded during the dropping of one of these bombs.
BLITZER: General Grange, we have some new videotape showing the press briefing room that the U.S. Central Command has established at the Asalia (ph) military base outside Doha, Qatar. That's where General Tommy Franks is going to be stationed, his temporary headquarters at this facility.
As we're showing our viewers where these press briefings are going to be unfolding, hundreds of reporters will be getting briefings once, at least maybe even twice, three times a day at this facility. Talk a little about the strength of having General Franks in Qatar to participate in war planning during the course of a war, as opposed to the normal Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, McDill Air Force Base.
GRANGE: Well, the strength is, you want your commander, your ground commander, the overall commander in this case, as close to the fight as possible, but still be able to handle the maritime, the air and ground. So he's not going to be too far forward to the front, but you want him in the immediate area. His presence is key. The troops have to see him.
This command center looks a little permanent, though it's a temporary, as you stated. It's quite elaborate. I have never seen, just from the pictures you're showing, anything as elaborate as this before my time in service. Sometimes you can get -- it can get too sophisticated, too high tech, and you have to be able to be able to move at times. You have to be able to have an alternate capability if some of your high-tech stuff happens to go foul. So sometimes the old white sheets of paper and map and grease pencil is what you need and not high tech. What you really need is both.
BLITZER: They brought in a Hollywood set designer to help them set up that stage and all those cameras where these briefings are going to unfold. I have to tell you, General, I was at the Asaleya (ph) base in Qatar in December, and it looks anything but temporary.
General David Grange, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
|
