The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

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born seth in i mean good evening i'm jim lehrer welcome to the special sunday night edition of the newshour this was before the iraq war the toughest day so far according to military commanders level full story with the briefings and analysis plus john burns of the new york times in baghdad a report on a colorado town hall meeting about the war and the thoughts of two us senators dianne feinstein of california and george voinovich of ohio major funding for the news hour with jim lehrer is provided by the archer daniels midland company espy's see communications the corporation for public broadcasting and by viewers

like you thank you this was a rugged fourth day award for us and british forces and iraqi troops were killed in southern iraqi others were taken prisoner by the iraqis ray suarez has our word news roundup the us military called it the sharpest engagement of the war as many as ten marines were killed in the battle at nasa rhea and a dozen army soldiers were reported missing the rockies showed at least four dead americans and five prisoners on the arab satellite tv station alleges iran us officials condemned the display is a violation of the geneva convention and in washington president bush had a warning as he returned from camp david i expect them to be treated appealed that is i expect to be treated humanely and just like we're treating the prisoners that we have captured humanely it's not the people who have mistreated

christians should be treated as war criminals in baghdad the iraqi defense minister said the us prisoners would not be harmed he also warned the resistance would grow as allied forces get closer to baghdad as he spoke the fighting continued in cities across southern iraq the army's third infantry division engaged iraqi fighters for some eight hours at nursery or there are conflicting reports whether us and british forces took over the city and its bridges still they did take a number of iraqi prisoners in the area this morning defense secretary donald rumsfeld told nbc's meet the press there are surrender throughout iraq but we have people on the ground in the country in a variety of locations they are talking to a senior military leaders and in a number of instances those leaders have

communicated how they thought it would be appropriate for them to surrender and they have done so there've been a number of units that have surrendered north of nazarene the third division seventh cavalry raced up the euphrates river toward baghdad i covered two hundred miles in two days but today met some resistance at the holy city of nine joffe it's a hundred miles downstream from the iraqi capital called sporadic contact largely not very orderly and there's some around and no no no problems in terms of engagement so it gets a few cylinders and the suffering on the eastern front in the city of lancaster the american and british marines faced heavy fire from iraq the gorillas since friday allied forces have been trying to capture the city water or an intense combat was also reported in basra to the north iraq's second largest

city us led forces said they captured an airport as they moved in but not without heavy fighting iraqi officials said the attack killed seventy seven civilians and wounded more than five hundred given red crescent office who are known for their movement of a few vital ally in the case and there meanwhile was run area loyalty is among the most productive in iraq continued to burn their suppliers presumably set by iraqis if and when bus reforms the marines would advance up the tigris river beginning a separate march to baghdad tonight the iraqi capital was again pounded by air also in baghdad iraqi media reported a downed allied planes in the tigris river some local soldiers searched for any allied pilots while others fired assault rifles into the reeds in the river civilians gathered to watch at us central command in

qatar general john and his aides denied any pilots are missing still he decried the military's actions and you can see by their actions shooting in the water that other search and rescue techniques leave a lot to be desired today the northern campaign also continued allied planes hit the strategic oil city of mosul and hundreds of special forces landed in the area as ground forces moved in on baghdad from the north and the south us commanders say they're confident despite a loss as the enemy remains in grave danger different sort on the iraqi side local official said the air raids hit this home among others killing of dr they also led western media to this damaged hotel north of baghdad the us led campaign also led to a friendly fire mishap involving a british bomber known as a tornado military sources confirm one plane was shot down us patriots it's a

defensive missile meant to intercept the rockies studs in the air the two british pilots are dead another casualty of friendly fire british journalist teri lloyd of independent television news networks as american forces mistook his crew for enemy combatants still fires in kuwait military leaders investigated an american grenade attack on americans it killed one member of the army's one hundred first airborne division twenty seven year old captain christopher seifert you know a division spokesman says the suspect

sergeant a son akbar of the three hundred and twenty six the engineer's was missing for grenades after the incident the us central command said today he had had reports of a rocky forces with chemical weapons near the town of quote about a hundred miles southeast of baghdad the top american general warned it could take some time to find those weapons or any scud missiles iraq denies having any weapons of mass destruction jim thanks right now here is more of what president bush said on his return to the white house from camp david i am i'm pleased with the progress that we're making in the early stages of a out of the war to eighty rockets weapons of mass destruction and to the fried iraqi people from the crop clutches of a brutal dictatorship of today an hour church service law and i prayed for the coalition forces those in the coalition forces who lost their lives

we pray for their families we ask god to comfort for those who mourn today and we thank all the coalition forces for their bravery courage and operation iraqi freedom is so evident that it'll take a while to achieve our objective or of course were determined and we're making good progress another saddam hussein is losing control of this country that they are that we are slowly but surely achieving our objectives in support of the american people to realize that this is war has just begun and they may seem like a long time

because of all the action on tv and turn the overall strategy we're just in the beginning phases and that we're executing a plan which will make it easier to achieve objectives and the same time to spare innocent life one of the big concerns early on was the southern oil fields as you all remember we had discussions about that there was a lot of speculation about whether or not coalition forces would be able to get to the southern oil fields in time before that so the saddam hussein would destroy them as a matter fact i had frequently talked about the southern oil fields fields in general in my a declaratory policy tommy five put a plant place to move on those are filled quickly and at least in the south they are secure and that is causing those for our broadest most of the south is now in and that coalition has obviously those pockets of resistance in a place like

wash were making great progress in the west were making great progress the area of the launch sites for the scuds were certainly not a hundred percent secure we've made good progress in the south of iraq our coalition forces have worked hard to make the port area secure to make a transit of humanitarian aid as safe as possible as i was told this morning in my briefings that humanitarian aid should begin moving massive the massive new manager nation begin moving within the next thirty six hours we had made a promise to the people of this country that we were we will do everything we can to protect innocent life and were doing there and we do everything we can to help the iraqi people the president also warned turkey against sending more troops into northern iraqi said the us had a firm policy against any such move to avoid clashes between the turks an iraqi kurdish military forces defense secretary rumsfeld said the day there is no evidence of any

turkish troops troop movements so far onward now more details on the war itself today this was the toughest day so far for us led forces on the ground interacts that was the assessment of us and british commanders who briefed reporters today at central command headquarters in qatar tom beard reports from there central command held its second formal briefing since the war began here and it still high headquarters tonight there was a lot of talk about the downing of her british fighter bomber by friendly fire continued fighting in cities previously declared secure and an attack on american soldiers from within their own ranks sun comes deputy commander lieutenant general john adams a conductor debrief in and around baghdad we continue our own special operations activities with that success in the south or their units continue the campaign towards baghdad and to continue to operate in and around the area in support of our ground forces

combat operations have met with resistance in a number of locations the most notable of which is in the vicinity united states marines are suited an enemy attack there while sustaining a number of children wounded in the shark disengagement of the war thus far also in the vicinity of a nursery a united states army supply convoy was ambushed by irregular iraqi forces the number of american service members were wounded in action and as a result of that action twelve us service members are reported missing subsequently iraqi regime officials displayed captured americans on state television this is a clear violation of the geneva convention earlier this morning an american patriot battery is thought to have downed a british tornado in an accident that is both tragic and under investigation the crew

are at this point was a business in the various combat actions in accidents that have taken the lives of many of our common comrades in this campaign all of us mourn the general and his aides said us troops have encountered irregular forces in the vicinity about misery and suffice it to say that in the marine action a non nasr rio it was a combination of irregular forces and regular forces as a matter fact one of the few times that we've seen regular forces fight and it's difficult for me to characterize it right now is whether or not they could have been a special republican guard units that would move down into that area or irregular forces of other touch a regular armies directly to the part of history that there were several incidents reported today in which there were types of a major that i can only describe as reasons that were perpetrated by the enemy and one

incident at a flag of surrender was displayed and was followed up by artillery fire in another incident there were troops dressed in civilian clothes that appeared to welcome the forces in an ambush them so and eric there are a number of incidents occurring out to the rear of the main combat forces and none of none of these incidents however i would characterize as posing a danger to the year that the overall success of the mission or the thrust of the main forces towards by that gen abbott was asked whether the incident and a brigade headquarters for the one hundred first airborne were an american soldier allegedly wrote grenades and the tense of officers would affect morale well it's an isolated incident it was a very tragic and very unfortunate that these things happened i don't think it's at all indicative of the morale of our forces gentle abu zaid had harsh criticism for the qatar based

al jazeera satellite news channel which a broadcast videotape of the dead interviews with the wounded americans i hear from al jazeera television i'm very disappointed that he would betray those pictures of our servicemen i saw that then and i would ask others not to do that the sermon that i can you tell us about the pictures that you do see an al jazeera made you feel i wouldn't want to comment on that i would say the pictures were discussed and several reporters asked whether us forces have found any indication of weapons of mass destruction during their advanced through southern iraq we are continuing to look for weapons of mass destruction we have received reports from various prisoners that have given us leads suffice it to say that we continue to look but so far we haven't found any conclusive evidence we are confident that we will find it this will now taken quite a substantial ball and you have a foundation

to convince the women irene chemical was deployed forward and has been successfully controlled by four siva was concentrated another area where justin think it is that i think will find debbie and the once we have had an opportunity to occupy baghdad stabilize iraqis talk to iraqis that have participated in the hiding and announced the development of that and it will take some time we should not expect to immediately come across it although there are reports that has some units in the vicinity of milk fruit may have some type of chemical weapons and of course we're taking necessary precautions to deal with it but i have no doubt that we'll find weapons of mass destruction but you should think it's going to happen tomorrow general atta that was asked of the resistance encountered today was indicative of control by senior iraqi leadership i believe these are probably the

actions of does for people that are trying to revert to save the regime what we have not seen on the battlefield a single coherent military move these moves are dangerous to the troops in the field but they're not dangerous to the success of the mission now some analysis of the day's military developments from three retired colonel sam gardiner the air force who teaches military operations and planning his aunt and is a longtime consultant to the defense department that require the army former special forces officer and defense attache in the middle east it was she believes that was for the defense intelligence agency during the gulf war and gary anderson of the marine corps especially as urban combat operations growing toughest day so far no question about that what's your overall assessment where we spend the night well i think that in spite of the year's best efforts to put a good face on this which the general did very well and i think that it is

something of a surprise to us that recovering from a stiff resistance from grief or soft country and i am from what i can understand from various sources indeed the regime set up cameras of different kinds of people too dispersed locations provide stiffening for local forces get in the fight and i sort of a vast rail also remembering marian these in and so the spirits of the division and then because on a lot of ground troops in theater there was a way where these folks came back in a mobile political he's able to be in the center of town when that supply convoy in the long term they were going hands and that's where they with the prisoners of war were jailed and they were they were made they were if that may be a pattern of your have a couple of units that are going to continued collision trouble bedouins and saddam for the knowledge cause people you your main supplier are going to the rear

then the whole basis on which the campaign was planned with credit was predicated on about my environment has to the question i think initially think about that you just just dance your group the internet there may be some adjustments needed in a plan some adjustments and i think that there were some surprises today surprises because what we began to see was the republican guard we thought that they might offend but it looks like they'll we knew the regular units work with these people as he said in a briefing from republican guard units sent as caroline seven sent down from baghdad the kind of the backbone of these other voters but the key is that they did a number one in number two the story of losing control from baghdad can continue to be true which even makes this actually more difficult because it says that the republican guard may defend even if the control from baghdad isn't there makes it even more difficult now in a world where we are now but i don't think that

this represents a major setback for the camp is or i'd be surprised if they didn't just stay behind forces i be surprised aaron played the bad guy and on the signs are of course the last twelve years that's what i do i don't do the best i could relive the bed you mean and i just i had an outsized and so forth and arkansas be very surprised they didn't try that at the issue this fall out what they are or how much money that today that i have with various tactical actions it if they're okay if i could see a pair of over really coordinated effort to disrupt things and so for that i think i'd be more concern but rhino this subject those banners of years old it's terrible what i think we need to keep our eye on the ball and realizes there were upfront and fun and i don't think they're as usaid said when a decompression on the weekend well as a

special forces unite my instinct is to say an end apartheid voicing happened before is that when the economy are spirits of a conventional force move down the road with special forces wants to do is get a bunch of grow as an audience together they cut that supply one behind him to three places very hard to keep going then a few quick and still there was you know senator iran is easiest and that obviously an infantry division has something like two thousand vehicles and gasoline jp for like him believe and if you're not throwing kerosene tanks and that if you do that in the area and the armored vehicles and tried to lose or i guess you would have a real serious problem and that if this is an emerging pattern so far no one has experienced that in the summer of the parent for sesame bell this is a serious political problem well it is going to build on that i think it could be we will see over the next couple days i cannot but he's a very interesting term to

regular forces that's a very interesting notion because if you look at the order of battle the combat forces or attract is no category for regular people that's the question if it's good the ba'ath party people who have taken off their uniforms it could be one or two of the categories of republican guard the iraqi version of the special forces know the people of our special forces would lead on job growth from the light yet at odds and ends but the song and civilian uniform without uniformed it's really close its review calls that's a difficult yes in a briefing given by the iraqi ministry of defense in baghdad today show and he listed all these people whom he said were a nursery and he went through there were pieces of a regular brigade that were down there there were saddam fit anywhere party militia what the brown shirts and redirect the origin or a bedouin tribes from under the other and it's just the kind of girl you would get together under some his leadership to start and your point is

that don't dismiss those people too cavalier like as i can kill people just like other people re record your board trucks you need gas i know the city of prisoners issued today how grievous a violation of the geneva convention to see what happened with the iraqis to take a walk geneva convention is very plain that you know displayed people for propaganda purposes of prisoners or humiliate them the planetary diversity that guttural but that one i don't think that they're going to put this on the retribution for anything that they do and i think all we can do at this point to make it clear to them that will be held accountable colonel ellis this week on the newshour made a decision not to run race war isn't in the rundown this nowadays

overview leave me mention that we're in the pictures we have the picture and most of the networks decided not to do that the question is and for taste reasons the family seminal father all kinds of legitimate reasons not to do it is there a danger that we own and we don't run out will run the the brutal part of announcing that bloody part of war were all we're going to see is the big explosions and an end and tanks running down the video in the desert is or downside to not showing their awfulness of this so i think it really has you know there's a tendency in approaching this war to think of it as a kind of game you know especially since the roots of this strategy have its roots in a lot of think tanks or a washington my opinion and so there's a tendency to think that all of this is a relatively low cost it's a grant to political adventure in a way there is a downside to naturally because we don't want people to think that there are there isn't as horrible cost of soldiers pay for her these kinds of adventures at the same time the iraqis these nothing to them

on its president's army and they are inherently cruel what they're going to do terrible things and then there's another side of their commercial clothes write that little screen pitch that may show for bodies but to the whole world you know that's you know that's the image that they get nih i think the the right decision was was made and that and i go back to somalia and we you know one you know that not one they only know out one black hawk down occurred that shortly before that that one image of violence a leader at being dragged through the streets it has a lot more impact and this global information age and so forth they can't be ripped her fourth of what stupak trade because i think secretary rumsfeld so right now you just sing a slice no longer an undercover wars is raising levees were

thinking we set the difficulty for sells them is when you would announce in advance of war which are going to change the regime when you announce that that's that these ten people i think the numbers ten or war criminals in ways then to appeal for them to do with this rationally were according to the convention sort of this is a little hollow feel so we got up we've created a problem that babies can make this more difficult it is to say people were brutal them an actor why would recently surprised elite status or the other yeah well i would have to lead special knowledge here associating with these people once upon time and that's because the ice we used to go on the trips to baghdad and i think they're inherently brutal in fact big ruckus society is a society in which are physical punishment has a very common thing people slap each other around and quite often and i think that the chance that they would not of triggers a war brutally is very small

like another incident today colonel anderson one of several more actually have several of these different what's called friday night the first airborne a sergeant who threw a grenade in and among his own troops is that anything to be expected at this many troops in this kind of a combat tell me which letters with those guys they just an hour we have this is quite as vietnam vietnam war you know every once a while as the screening process or fall down timothy mcveigh for example was was certainly army and so a portland you don't know what happened at this guy with apparently korean due to the oppressive force of the discipline recently and so forth so i'm not the cat i don't think he could make a lot of that there was a lot of there were two or three of them are not be concerned that when they had already identified him as a potential problem that so they said they would let him go to the writers the system was working at what should worry but in fact they said that the

reason they were going to go forward because he'd been acting strangely know and evidently this man is a muslim and i know there was talk about this kind of thing i'm putting a muslim soldier in this venice a jewish combat situation flight against other muslim a special stresses on this bag and i think it is a question of a special very careful the leadership has to be interviewed this is and i don't know what happened but that was unfortunately current owner of the friendly fire in another incident of today british a tornado jet shot down by a usb three of those or how can something like that the assessment is there's probably a technical problem because we've been doing this for since nineteen sixty a no fly zone because that they've been transmitting the air defense network of kuwait and michigan something that we knew had been fairly well say is it is serving to get into the technical parts of it i am i must

say that ice verifying that this would not be something that you would be totally surprised at the ones that infusion start growing up finally a president sit with his driver and say it on our club where this war has just begun that is hard for people to accept first three days isn't but now today we now know it has just begun as it and i think that's really really true you know i have the assumption on which the plan was bill was the distributor level environment and this would become a triumphal progress to baghdad where we might have to fight the republican guard and hopefully the regime would be demoralized by your campaign well from what we see so far it doesn't look like it's going to be like that and if if that's an indicator of the fight our way through this city all up through the cities of baghdad the us are things your celebrity it's more ground similarly chicken in line and prevent the central government really have enough force roberta turned into baghdad to make sure this is a

sure thing and not a gamble colonel storey thank you very much still to come on the newshour tonight the view from baghdad a colorado town meeting and senators feinstein and voinovich once again we hear from john burns of the new york times in baghdad karen smith talked with him earlier the st john burns welcome once again tell me about the day in baghdad well it's been it's been a very interesting day i think many americans were thin and curator of the vote was five the tigris river in the center of baghdad and with the knitting pilot the pilot who is opposed to the bailout from high altitude long history of their growth of british or american who parachuted so the people in central baghdad was a straight into the tigris river straight into the river side of the area

that was absolutely obliterated by him and bombing it was that friday night and saturday morning and this astonishing era the previous night's riot whether there was a mixture of clarity pilot we never level those tight late night sunday night gold shooting into the river or russia like a really intriguing thing to me was helping turn into a sunday afternoon and came down and the facts about that that we're reviewing movies but the war amongst the crowd of several thousand people who gathered on the bridge of the time and they get to the particular have been dropping bombs on par with a lot of whom of that you know a lot of you know destruction of infrastructure or that and i've gone down the politicians were aware of

the telephones they still love was still has ranked article three people on cruise missiles are going to be overwhelmingly in the military and political progress that was the attitude of the people watching them and encourage and then firing into the water just people feeling like the bull rushes one of them and then they wanted him badly that many of the people on the bridge my mind was like what that there'd be over cotton merchants heavyweight united states against the show is that iraq of many iraqis see it whenever the government but only on the color much more modest than a book in which the rockies came into the ring with an even or rent an even chance along with this we had had two other very intriguing against two major number three man in the slums and go vice president gore are in ramadan suddenly showed up for instance a very rare event for somebody so high

and come to us very very risky people he spoke at great length and with great business about iraq having been abandoned particular patrol was with was was was directed towards kofi annan secretary general united nations who had become a full running dogs of the americans for failing to live in security council on the nation law how are other arab countries or think silent for love recording of the street but this was a company making my fire eight you mean by that his account of the very details sector by sector accounts and repetitive about this that we're holding our own against the americans when we can fight them in fall in the area and elsewhere that they notified us very much well what they're doing is they're coming to be a big event now and then

they're giving up driving on up for the fight to go on doing that they can go on and on what they can go with your book that was then eventually go and with more than half of that back then when they come back that night and then the plot well finally there was an extraordinary exchange of autonomous and so there's a nano has appeared on television in a recent night but i'm convinced of it because many iraqis believe it may be hopeful but when i at the news conference when he was there the president's our request to meet to discuss a war then you replied that the president would not make any such people would be making major speeches from time to time and even more even a lot of it is always being

android questions as to what really happened last saturday morning when the war began with a part of the strike as now i must ask you weren't where almost out of time but i must ask you don about the year i believe a rocky television showed footage dated of american prisoners of war a good and they do you have on your us marines it was extremely smart and very frightening possible for the show the very of the situation there's a lot of the conventional business but that it has arabic and islamic traditions of treating farmers and even their enemies with respect or listeners were sewn on television i would say the camera kept wandering around but i would say that there were five officials several of the bodies which perhaps for a show so clearly on american television warm years and i would go to strategy

and there was some disrespect one moment about the overarching thought planning one of the bodies but that we never would've expected that you do that i think that the way we wrote of the geneva conventions dr john burns thank you so much once again for giving a sad sense of what it's like there in baghdad and down please take care of yourself and right now the war on the us home from polls continue to show growing support among americans for the war but public protests have also continued around the nation a handout reports on one town hall meeting held in colorado this weekend an anti war demonstrators held up signs as

hundreds of residents walk past melting snow banks into a suburban denver meeting hall where the atmosphere was anything but shelling peas ruiz colorado congressman scott's town hall meeting a democrat mark udall was opposed to the war represents liberal democratic older and a spread of other suburban areas that are more conservative republican bob o'brien supports that represents a brand new district it is among the most diverse and politically mixed in the state the two men took questions from the overflow crowd of more than three hundred in what became an emotional heated discussion dominated almost entirely by anti war sentiment what i'm hearing this morning is what is happening to democracy what i'd like to say to both of you is yes we're all americans but before we're americans we're human being if

the congress voted in the fall to provide the president with what i thought were too broad based set of opportunities and options but we voted i continue to speak out justin and a possible credit remembers just about two weeks ago i went to the for the house he was in the chair he was serving as the speaker pro tem of the house and i urge the administration to slow down i asked why the rush to war why not try for another period of time to disarm saddam hussein through peaceful means and i will continue to make that case there is no good war and there is no bad please i think we all know that occasionally history would tell us though that in order to secure peace sometimes force those become the earth i understand some people would disagree with that we don't know where his weapons are and we believe

that we can win and we believe was at some point when you say or else you have to be willing to enforce or else as mayor ken feldman had to repeatedly called for clients to allow the small number of war supporters to speed i do support bush and sixty five percent of american public apparently does to a party doesn't this action in the long run for the united states will stand up for freedom and gain some respect in the world community i think the jury is still out when it comes is jones points question in one of the years and which i really focusing my kitchen right now is the second front in this conflict in a second foreigners are we gonna keep our commitment to rebuild iraq are we to keep our commitment to providing a democratic opposite of

opportunities in the middle east this is the big challenge for us or old enough to still think about these things ask ourselves how in god's name did the good german people remained silent while hitler i am not suggesting that president bush is able to get there but i am suggesting that the american people are in danger of making the same mistake at the german people may laugh this is a review this is a regime that will gouge out the eyes of joe crush the bones of the two year old girl before from other devolved her father's work less lethal

diego why there it's nice this is hollow but congressman agreed on one point to support american troops while they're in battle and now finally tonight so summit reaction and margaret warner and were joined tonight by two senators who've been receiving regular briefings from the administration on the state of the war democratic senator dianne feinstein of california a

member of the select committee on intelligence and republican senator george voinovich ohio who sits on the foreign relations committee welcome to you both both of you of course did vote for the iraq war resolution and and sen voinovich the only spoke toward the beginning of the tape we actually didn't run this particular by of hers but she said she didn't feel it was listening to her do you think that people in positions of power now in washington are listening to the roughly one quarter of americans who say they do oppose this war that we have to listen to them and that we have paid attention to what they have said maybe they don't have the same information that we have the information that caused this to a support of the president dove going interact interact in the event that done all diplomatic maze were exhausted so are we understand them but that and i wish that they had the same

information that we had and i think some of them are getting a glimpse of the kind of person he is by what how this war's been conducted by the iraqis sen feinstein and you've been critical of the bush administration for its prevention policy which says its reliance on military power last week however on the floor of the senate you said you are reserved those issues now for the quote appropriate time are you saying you think at this point it is inappropriate for people at least in public life to be questioning the president's decision now that we're in a conflict well i didn't have a foreign policy discussion with anybody anytime i suppose but i think right now we've got thousands of armed men and women in harm's way and i would hope it's time for americans to come together i think one of the things that i wanna stresses and one of the reasons i believe there's a big support for this is it nine eleven really ripped into the psyche of america and you know we are

a nation that doesn't hit first general except in this case i think a sleeping giant was awakened and i think there was this need in this body politic so to speak i to hit back even though there was no connection directly in nine eleven or directly to our kaiser do you think it's inappropriate for for average americans to be demonstrating against the war no i don't think it's an appropriate all our might think it's fine for them but i think for us those of us who were in the position of elective office and particularly in the senate or the house we've had our debates on the floor are the war is now underway i want us to win it and win it fast and when it was bloodless way as we possibly can so the senate where senate just let's go the progress of the war how would you assess it well i think that that some of the things that we were concerned about

for example the oil lot of fields beyond air bases up in the western part of a rack of where we were concerned that the us cuts would be a motion shot off into it and it is real love are good signs up i critically and pleased with the fact that we have control the of ramallah oil fields that we're the south who are uninsured and that god looks like the word wrought in control of on kos are now the real issue is can we get control of both the shark but the fact the matter is that that is i assess that after being briefed i said to myself if i if they fight like baytown there with or foe adding right now this is going to be a much longer war than what many people anticipate we forget that we were announced in a desert storm forum for forty three days we forget that in this war we dropped more bombs

annika rack that we did during that forty three day period done during the year the desert storm so while i think we're in there for a long time and i think that we also can realize he was coming back from red today from reporters that are there that this is going to be a bloody war that they're going to use every trick up their sleeve i wouldn't be surprised at all the lovely they don't use chemical and biological warfare it's looking that way as senator feinstein along more likely to judge it by dan desert storm is the wrong thing the desert storm was never about regime change this war has been about regime change i can say that i envisioned the use of force in a different way i thought after secretary powell spoke to the united nations about the camp up in northeastern iraq that that camp was going to be taken out with the alleged al kind of that were theoretically there that night it wasn't and it hasn't been clearly to me this is about regime change there

for you know he's going to pull back his guard you know he's going to deploy them around baghdad and you know that the battle is going to be baghdad and taking him out of off to see you share for example the concerns the colonel len expressed just down the discussion with jim beck good month of the fierceness of the of the resistance albeit in pockets in the south that it's more then apparently was expected that the us force may be too small to really do this job you know because in our briefings we were told that more opposition was anticipated that the early rb victories ah work of the lesser tree today lot lesser troops actually is me the early victories were against lesser iraqi troops it was anticipated as we proceeded to the north that the opposition would become stronger ah so this is not a surprise and i think when you consider the number of troops over there

now are losses because one person it's too many to lose our our losses bothers but if you consider the number they're still very small are you comfortable sen voinovich with the level of american troops there are we have to rely upon our generals and joe meyer in our defense secretary rumsfeld believes that we have the number of people that we made and the equipment we need to win this world and there's no question about us winning the war the question is how soon will it be over and i like to remind people in particular some of the people are demonstrating around the country i have an orange ribbon that i'm wearing i wore the storm driven when i was a commander in chief of the ohio national guard when i was governor of ohio i want to remind them is that the desert storm vague of the persian gulf war really never ended there was a ceasefire saddam hussein agreed and resolution six seventy eight by the security council that he was going to disarm there's been thirty nine war resolution since that time

seventeen talking about this charming and he has continued to thumb his nose at the un at those resolutions and we're just following through on something quite frankly that we should've done a lot earlier finally on weapons of mass destruction and the search for them senator feinstein what have you been told about the search for weapons of mass destruction cited it's filled with confusing what we heard from the pentagon well i had been no briefings on that subject are my i think that he does have chemical and biological weapon ants are the biggest mistake he could make i would be to use them because that would be complete vindication for the united states position so i would be not surprised if he did but i think in a way that would be that dramatic and if this in our favor us sen voinovich there were reports in the new york times today that us and australian commandos have especially in the western part of the country gone after the suspected

sites try to take out the command and control of the delivery systems at those sites that can you confirm that if you've gotten any briefings about the search for weapons of mass destruction no i haven't except the same stuff that you've heard is that they've been at a place where they thought the chemical weapons were being developed which innocent then i don't think we're gonna have this information even during this period of time i think that some of this is going to be discovered and filed after this war is over and finally auburn what can you tell us about the latest intelligence on saddam hussein's fate will maybe diana was more than i do but dove from everyday i know i think you said he's still alive and well as they understand it from us intelligence that he's still alive is he still well i think the final impression my impression is that the years libby's is around seventy five so i think it's not known at this

time are my think the evidence is still equivocal i think the assumption has made it still around senator lugar said earlier today that he had had intelligence that his body was removed on a stretcher after that first night i've not heard that in direct intelligence briefings we have one at nine in the morning tomorrow and that will certainly be asked but i think the operative decision has to be that he's still around and one has to function as if he is senators feinstein avoid at stake in both thank you al and again the major award of elements of the day and the race wars as many as ten marines were killed in fighting in nursery and in southern iraq and a dozen army soldiers were reported missing the rockies showed at least four dead americans and five prisoners on the arab satellite tv station

al jazeera the us military condemn the display as a violation of the geneva convention and us forces accidentally shot down a british tornado bomber with a patriot missile killing the two crew members jim thanks again re before we go the us military also suffered losses outside a rec today a blackhawk helicopter crashed in afghanistan killing all six people on board us central command said it happened during a medical evacuation mission the cause of the crash was under investigation but the military said the helicopter was not shot down we'll see you online and had our regular newshour time tomorrow evening for now i'm jim lehrer thank you and goodnight major funding for the news hour with jim lehrer is provided by the archer daniels midland company espy's see communications the corporation for public broadcasting and by viewers like you thank you

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