The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Day 16 of the Iraq War. With U.S. Troops at the gates of Baghdad, we have the developments; a report from Baghdad by John Daniszewski of the Los Angeles Times; military analysis by retired Colonels Lang, Davis, and Gangle; a home-front story from the small Illinois hometown of a marine killed in Iraq; and the weekly analysis of Mark Shields and David Brooks.

JIM LEHRER: U.S. Forces began to tighten their grip on Baghdad today. They secured the international airport as armored units moved to close a giant pincer on the city. Kwame Holman has our war news roundup.

THE WAR WITH IRAQ

KWAME HOLMAN: Iraqi forces stood and fought in places, and were routed by American firepower. The Iraqi information minister promised the night would bring an "unconventional attack." Later, he said it would not be chemical or biological. Despite that threat, U.S. dominance of the battlefield was evident on the ground. Today the road to the Baghdad looked like this: Burning trucks on the roadside, blown out Iraqi artillery units, and curious residents, here trading currency with American soldiers. Since Wednesday, U.S. forces have moved in on Baghdad from two directions. From the southwest, army units attacked the commercial airport, Saddam International, 12 miles from the city. (Explosion) The army third infantry reportedly captured the runways after a long battle, one that resulted in 320 Iraqis casualties according to U.S. Commanders. No Americans were injured.

LT. COL. SCOTT RUTTER: Hopefully this is a sign that we are able to send to the residents of Baghdad that we're here and they can rise up, deal with the regime appropriately.

KWAME HOLMAN: At central command in Qatar, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said controlling the airport has both tactical and symbolic significance.

BRIGADIER GEN. VINCENT BROOKS: By dawn this morning, the coalition had seized the international airport west of Baghdad, formerly known as Saddam International Airport. The airport now has a new name: Baghdad International Airport, and it is the gateway to the future of Iraq.

KWAME HOLMAN: One goal of the airport assault was to cut off a possible escape route for Saddam Hussein's insiders.

SOLDIER: Our mission up here is to block the entrance from Baghdad. This is about as far east as you can get into the Baghdad proper city.

KWAME HOLMAN: Still, Brigadier General Brooks said the mission is ongoing, and U.S. Forces do not yet control the airport road fromthe capital, nor the facilities beneath the terminal.

BRIGADIER GEN. VINCENT BROOKS: Those require clearance. It's an ongoing process. We don't know what we'll find there. There may in fact be someone to fight in those underground facilities. The work is ongoing. Until we are completely satisfied that there are no threats to the airport or at the airport, we will continue our efforts to ensure that security has been provided for. In the meantime, the force that's present there remains alert to a variety of things that still remain possibilities for the regime, whether it's the use of weapons of mass destruction or attacking forces to try to retake it. And we have seen some of those this morning, and it destroyed nearly all of them.

KWAME HOLMAN: Eventually, the U.S. plan calls for the army's 101st Airborne Division to use the airport for its helicopters as a base to establish control of Baghdad. The 101st is highly trained in urban warfare. Along the second prong of the U.S. advance to the southeast of Baghdad, the first marine division is moving up both banks of the Tigris River from the direction of Kut. The marines took hundreds of Iraqi soldiers prisoners along the way and reported little resistance today from Iraqi republican guards.

BRIGADIER GEN. VINCENT BROOKS: The first marine expeditionary force continued its attack toward Baghdad, destroying remnants of the Baghdad republican guard division near al Kut, and elements of the al Nida Republican Guard division between al Kut and Baghdad. The attack continues.

KWAME HOLMAN: U.S. Marines say they're now on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad. Inside Baghdad, day 16 of the campaign brought more U.S. Bombing and more local reports of civilian casualties.

OMEED MEDHAT MUBARAK, Minister of Health, Iraq: We have just received 36 cases of the injured people from yesterday and this morning's strikes on the civilian region, and we have got in this hospital four martyrs.

KWAME HOLMAN: U.S. officials say Baghdad fighters are ready to take on the Americans and British, even as U.S. leaders repeatedly have exhorted Baghdad's Shia population to turn on Saddam Hussein. But there was no evidence of Shia cooperation during Friday prayers at this Shia mosque in Baghdad.

SPOKESMAN ( Translated ): The jihad is the only thing and everything being said in the media is wrong. People who are helping the invaders are wrong. They hit our hospitals and schools and they are targeting our holy places.

KWAME HOLMAN: While most U.S. forces are south of Baghdad, small numbers of special forces control points along the Euphrates River to the northwest. That was the site of an Iraqi attack today in which three U.S. soldiers reportedly were killed.

BRIGADIER GEN. VINCENT BROOKS: Initial reports do indicate that a vehicle approached the checkpoint. A woman who appeared clearly to be pregnant exited the vehicle, screaming for assistance, in some degree of distress. As coalition forces began to approach, she and the vehicle were detonated. So she was killed by the explosion from the vehicle. We do have some combat losses as a result of this, and we'll provide more information as time goes on.

KWAME HOLMAN: Late today, the Arab TV network al Jazeera showed two women vowing to carry out suicide attacks.

WOMAN ( Translated ): I am the martyr Nora Shanbari. God is my witness and we tell our leader Saddam Hussein you will have some sisters you can be proud of, and their names will be engraved in history.

KWAME HOLMAN: Al Jazeera quoted Iraqi media saying these women carried out the Euphrates River attack. In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters captured a key crossing point as Iraqi troops gave more ground. One Kurd could be heard shouting, "the Iraqis are running, and we are chasing." Julian Manyon of Independent Television News has been traveling with the Kurds.

JULIAN MANYON: All morning, U.S. Jets pounded Iraqi positions on the road to Mosul. The air strikes were called in by U.S. Special forces troops and nearby Kurdish peshmerga fighters prepared to move forward to take the strategic bridge at Hassan Shans. The final advance was on foot and ahead of us, U.S. Jets were still at work. There seemed to be little opposition, but then Iraqi artillery opened up. The shells flew over our heads and landed behind us. Near the key bridge, triumphant Kurdish soldiers tore down and destroyed pictures of Saddam Hussein. As the Iraqis tried to flee the village, some of them didn't make it. The truck behind me was hit from the air, and inside it are the bodies of three dead Iraqi soldiers. The village appears to have been cleared. We're not quite sure because we are hearing the pop of automatic fire just every so often, but we believe that comes from a few Iraqi holdouts up on the high ground behind us. We crossed the bridge that the battle was fought for and found more Iraqi positions destroyed from the air. Kurdish troops were pouring forward, confident that they can now go all the way to Mosul.

SOLDIER ( Translated ): We must go to Mosul because it is our city which Saddam stole from us.

JULIAN MANYON: The Kurds are now consolidating their positions less than ten miles from Mosul. Ahead of them, the U.S. Air force is trying to open the way. But Iraqi artillery is still firing back.

KWAME HOLMAN: U.S. troops today investigated two sites for signs of chemical and biological weapons. One was a training facility in the western desert. The other was a large complex south of Baghdad. They found nerve agent antidotes documents on chemical warfare and thousands of boxes of white powder. Wire service reports said it turned out to be explosives. Farther south today, U.S. forces hunted Iraqi paramilitaries in the city of Najaf. And in Basra, British forces said they killed eight Iraqis in a firefight at the edge of the city. The British also moved another mile closer to the center of the city. The Iraqis claimed they shot down a jet fighter over Basra. Iraqis made new efforts today to prove that Saddam Hussein still is in charge. State TV aired new footage suggesting the Iraqi leader is alive and well. Iraqi Television showed a man who appeared to be Saddam Hussein strolling through a residential area of Baghdad, flanked closely by security, greeting cheering civilians. Some saluted, and kissed him in a show of celebration. Traffic came to a standstill as crowds mobbed the man, who at one point was handed a baby to hold. Later, he climbed up on the hood of a car, as crowds chanted "with our blood and souls we redeem you Saddam." Saddam Hussein has not been seen in public since before the war began. He has appeared on tape on TV several times, but these only have raised questions whether they were recorded prior to the start of the war two weeks ago. On March 19, a compound he was believed to be in was bombed causing many to speculate he may have been killed or critically wounded. But earlier today, Iraqi Television aired a Saddam speech in which he called on Iraqis to strike back at the U.S.-led coalition. One statement stood out: A reference to the shoot down of an Apache helicopter by an Iraqi farmer with a hunting rifle. He said, "Perhaps you remember the valiant Iraqi peasant and how he shot down an American Apache with an old weapon." That incident took place on March 23, four days after the start of the war, suggesting Saddam may have survived the bombing attack and still is alive. At the White House today, spokesman Ari Fleischer cited a different segment of the televised speech.

ARI FLEISCHER: I do note that there was one reference in the tape, Saddam Hussein saying that coalition forces or United States forces went around the defenses of Baghdad, which of course is not the facts. The facts, if anybody was there to witness the facts, are we attacked the forces defending Baghdad, we hardly went around them. So I note that.

KWAME HOLMAN: At the Pentagon, officials played down Saddam's televised appearance. Spokesman Victoria Clarke.

VICTORIA CLARKE: We have no idea where the tapes have come from, don't have anything for you on the tapes themselves. I just don't think it's that significant what may or may not be in tapes or when they may have been made. We haven't seen him publicly, and what really matters is not whether or not he's dead or alive, but the fact that whoever is left in this regime, whatever is left of the regime leadership, got up today and realized they have less and less control of their country.

KWAME HOLMAN: Outside the State Department, Secretary of State Colin Powell said it didn't matter if that indeed was Saddam on the tape.

COLIN POWELL: Psychologically, it's not going to affect our efforts. Our troops know what they are there to do. They are there to liberate Iraq and they will be successful in that mission. And whether he is there at the end or not or found or not is almost irrelevant. We are almost totally in control of the country and will be in complete control soon. And a better day is ahead for the Iraqi people.

KWAME HOLMAN: Earlier a message read in Saddam's named warned those who invaded the Iraqi capital would be defeated and forced to retreat. The number of U.S. confirmed casualties edged up today. The military named 54 dead, not including the members of the suicide bombing. Sixteen U.S. troops were listed missing, seven prisoners of war. The British military death toll remains 27. The Iraqis claim more than 1200 civilians killed. They say more than 5,000 have been wounded, and it was confirmed today that journalist Michael Kelley was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq last night. He had been traveling with the army's third infantry division and was the first American journalist to die in the war. Kelley was editor at large of the Atlantic Monthly and columnist with the Washington Post. He was 46 years old. A soldier in the 101st Airborne Division was charged with murder today in a grenade attack on fellow troops. Sergeant Hassan Akabar is accused of throwing grenades at a tent last month. Two soldiers were killed. A former American prisoner of war had more surgery today on her two broken legs and a broken arm. Doctors operated on army PFC Jessica Lynch at a U.S. military hospital in germany. It's still not clear how she was injured, but there were more details today of her dramatic rescue by U.S. Special Forces from a hospital in Nasiriyah. USA Today and the Washington Post reported an Iraqi lawyer named Mohammed tipped U.S. Forces to Lynch's whereabouts at risk to his own life. He said he did it because "a person is a human being, regardless of nationality." Jim.

JIM LEHRER: Thanks, Kwame. The first major humanitarian aid shipments began to arrive in northern Iraq today. The U.N.'s World Food Program trucked 23tons of wheat flour across the Turkish border. And in the south, the Red Cross began delivering medical supplies in Basra. President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair will discuss plans for rebuilding Iraq, and other issues, next week. It was announced today they'll meet in Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. It was widely reported today the U.S. Could act as early as next week to install an interim Iraqi government made up of exiles. President Bush today praised Congress for taking quick action on his war budget. Late last night, the House and Senate passed bills giving the president most of the $80 billion he had sought. Lawmakers are expected to work out differences in the bills next week. Arabs protested against the war today across the Middle East. Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza, burning President Bush in effigy. And thousands of people marched in Amman, Jordan, chanting slogans and burning U.S. and British flags. In Bangladesh, protesters ransacked the office of an American company. Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse the crowd.

FOCUS - ADVANCING ON BAGHDAD

JIM LEHRER: Now back to the war itself, and the view from inside Baghdad. It comes from john Daniszewski of the Los Angeles Times. Ray Suarez spoke to him earlier today.

RAY SUAREZ: John Daniszewski, welcome. As the fighting has come so close to the capital city has life changed where you are?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: One striking thing today is how few people came outdoors. The streets were really empty. The lights have gone out, the power is out. It makes the city very quiet and still at night. It's dark here now. I can only see a few lights in the city. I can hear in the distance the sound of artillery and a little while ago, there was sort of a fierce barrage of anti-aircraft fire right here by the hotel in the center of town with bangs loud overhead.

RAY SUAREZ: Are there still civilians that you can see in the center of Baghdad?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Well, no, actually on the street, you don't see that many civilians right now. What you see are more armed men at the street corner. They're the Ba'ath Party militants. And they're the volunteers, and they're out with their side arms and their Kalashnikovs. They have been on the street corners for a few weeks now. But today they were out in larger groups. Before there were three or four of them -- now on the corners you see ten or fifteen.

RAY SUAREZ: You're one of a dwindling number of Americans still in the city as the American forces noose is tightened around the capital has the noose tightened around you reporters? Are you allowed to move around very much?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: We cannot move as freely as we used to. Today they allowed journalists to go to hospitals to see victims of the fighting and to go to the downtown area, talk to people on the streets. But the situation is now though, that we are not even to go to a restaurant or to buy groceries unless we have our official guide with us, and never to get into a taxi unescorted, so there's quite a strict leash on it. In their view, the information ministry people who work with us say it is for our own protection and you sometimes do feel among some of these militants on the street that it is a good thing you have this guide with you because they might very well like to arrest you as a spy or something like that.

RAY SUAREZ: If you're a person who has decided it is finally time to get out, what are the roads getting out of the city like?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Well, you cannot go south anymore. They've blocked that so people cannot go south in the direction of where the Americans are. The people tend to be going out in the northern direction, northwesterly direction. I talked to someone tonight who came in from Jordan. He said that the road was blocked. But he was able to make it through to Baghdad using back roads and going through villages that way.

RAY SUAREZ: Is there much sign of people who are refugees from the fighting south and west of the city near the airport?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Yes, they fled that area immediately around the airport and into the center here with their belongings and staying with friends and relatives. And they also are some of the people who are heading out towards the north, trying to get away from the fighting -- not necessarily to leave Iraq, but to get away from where the fighting is.

RAY SUAREZ: Are you still able to get a hand on the basics of life? Is water in decent supply, daily food?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Well, it is going to become a more critical problem with the power out because they need electric power to keep the water supply flowing. So here at the hotel where we're staying now, we are now limited to two hours of running water in the morning and two hours in the evening. And I think out of the neighborhoods also, it is going to be a problem. People are going to have to rely more on their own personal wells or wells that they've put in the neighborhood.

RAY SUAREZ: Are there generators? Can people get their hands on gasoline?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: There are generators. A lot of people bought them in anticipation of the fighting figuring it would come to this stage eventually. Most of the people here are very poor and the generators are too expensive, even if it is only $100. They're using kerosene cookers, kerosene lamps and candles.

RAY SUAREZ: Are you still getting aerial attacks in the city the way you were when the American forces were still much further away?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Yes, some of those are still happening. We can't quite see what the targets are, but there are bombs being dropped. On the horizon you can see flashes of bombs, explosions from time to time. Earlier this morning there were several big blasts. I think they were hitting some of the palaces again, that had been hit earlier.

RAY SUAREZ: Saddam Hussein, himself, was said to be on the streets of Baghdad today. Are you getting any word from the government about the state of the ruling clique, the cabinet?

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: At the news conference today, the information minister Sahaf was asked about when he last had seen President Saddam Hussein in person. And his only reply was, "next." He didn't want to answer the question. That has sort of been their attitude. People don't talk about seeing him. The fact that he appeared on the street in this video that appeared on Iraqi Television is really interesting. He doesn't normally appear in public, so clearly he is trying to send a message to those members of his population who still have television, despite the power outage here. He is showing that he is alive and well and with them.

RAY SUAREZ: John Daniszewski, thank you for joining us. Be careful.

JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Thank you. My pleasure.

FOCUS - ADVANCING ON BAGHDAD

JIM LEHRER: Our military analysis now, and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: And to assess the latest military action, and what may lie ahead in the battle for Baghdad, we hear from two of our war-time regulars. Retired Army Col. W. Patrick Lang was a special forces officer and long time Middle East intelligence analyst. Former marine corps Lieutenant Colonel Dale Davis was an air defense and counterintelligence officer in the Middle East and north Africa. Joining them tonight is retired marine corps colonel Randy Gangle. He commanded a regiment during the first Gulf War, and is now executive director of the Marine Corps Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities. Welcome to you all. Let's start with the video of Saddam or was it Saddam. Pat Lang, what is your assessment and that of folks you know in the intelligence community about whether either or both of these videos was the real guy in real-time?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: I think the general impression is that it probably was the real guy. He may well still be injured and have not been functioning very well up until now. One of the things very noticeable about this character is that he has picked up a lot of weight, which is unusual. And it's the same kind of image in various pictures we've seen lately. And Saddam is very careful about his training, he has a private trainer of course.

MARGARET WARNER: I didn't know that.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: He is very fussy about that. So at the same time, to see him walking around in public like that in a public setting is an amazing thing. He hasn't been seen in public in about three or four years. But my impression is that it is a sign of the desperation of the situation in which they feel they have to make some show of the fact that he is still alive and still in the game for the Arab world and Europe and places like that.

MARGARET WARNER: I noticed the video in the street that went on at some lends, the video panned around and you could see buildings. Could people who know Baghdad well look at that video and tell where it was shot?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: They're of the general opinion it is out along the road to Jordan in a part of the city that is not terrifically populated there. Was a lot of smoke showing on the horizon as you observed earlier. The idea of Saddam kissing babies is quite an amazing thing. So it shows how hard up they are.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think, Colonel Davis, that this would be effective in either rallying his troops or his party leadership or membership or public into thinking he as round for a while?

LT. COL. DALE DAVIS: I'm not sure how effective it will be. It certainly was done because of the nature of the regime. So much of the control the regime exerts on its people is based on the aura of Saddam himself, his personality. I'm certain that they believe that they were in a position now where they really had to demonstrate that he was still around and still in control. They felt like his presence today would somehow gel whatever resistance forces they have left and perhaps intimidate the population to prevent them from assisting the allied forces.

MARGARET WARNER: Or defecting. Colonel Gangle, at the airport which U.S. forces say they have seized, nonetheless the fighting is going on in some fashion. U.S. Forces are going to reinforce their forces overnight. Why more resistance there? What does it tell you?

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: Well, you know, we are getting very close to the city now. And they've announced from the outset that their intent was to retreat into the cities and fight. I think there is a certain amount of symbolism with the airport as well. It is an international character to it. So I think it is a combination of factors. We are getting into the city where they said they were going to defend and the symbolism of the airport.

MARGARET WARNER: Pat Lang, General Myers said today it was not yet appropriate... I don't remember exactly his word... but for U.S. forces to use to it fly into. Is that because they would still be vulnerable?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Oh, yes. From the foot am today you can see from the fighting of the 37th cavalry on the place, the surrounding area is still contested and the possibility of shoulder fired SAM's -- surface-to-air missiles is still pretty high until they push the envelope out somewhat.

MARGARET WARNER: Colonel Davis, now add to this the complete today from the information minister that there was going to be an unconventional attack. He said it was not chemical or biological. And at least the reporters there seemed to infer that he meant sometime tonight. What... I mean we are talking about speculation here, but how might that fit into the defense of the airport?

LT. COL. DALE DAVIS: I'm not sure what they're up to -- more unconventional infantry guerrilla tactics. But this is coming from a man who declared there is no single U.S. soldier or marine on Iraqi territory or they're not within hundreds of miles of Baghdad. So when we look at the source, we can assume that it has no credibility whatsoever. So I doubt that we'll see anything bold and innovative. But we might.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Well, you know, I'm always impressed with the idea of counter attacks against the third infantry division with guys riding in dump trucks firing AK-47s at U.S. tanks. That's an amazing thing. You can't fault these people for lack of courage; for they sure lack in skill. That's really their big problem. They just can't make it against us.

MARGARET WARNER: In the battle for Baghdad proper, Colonel Gangle, you had a piece in the L.A. Times today that said that the allies have to be patient and shift their emphasis away from this premium on speed which has been the hallmark. Explain what you meant by that.

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: We are at a critical point. We are at a point now where the senior commanders are going to have to use their best judgment. This is what we call the operational art. They have to assess and determine is this enemy really teetering on the verge of collapsing? If he is, we may want to rush rapidly into the city. But if he's not, and if we will see something like we're seeing unfolding in Basra, then we need to slow down, collect ourselves and then slowly start to build the intelligence picture inside the city using the citizens themselves because that will be our most valuable asset, build the intelligence picture of who is the enemy and where he is and carefully and precisely go after them. That will do two things. One, it will eliminate the enemy and two, it will prevent a lot of collateral damage and non-combatant casualties.

MARGARET WARNER: So in other words, this is a scenario for avoiding kind of classic urban combat, the Blackhawk down scenario the officials have said they want to draw the U.S. into.

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: It will stilling urban combat because our forces will still have to go in and patrol understand and they will be at risk. The reason I also say patience is what we don't want to do in my view is declare victory too soon and find out we have not rooted out all of these men, these thugs. And four months from now when we're supposed to be at peace, we now find ourselves back into a low intensity conflict. That to me would be the worst scenario.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: But at the same time wars are fought for political reasons and the continuing existence of this government or regime is hurting us all over the Arab world. And the images they're propagating are being pumped into everybody's heads throughout the Islamic world and we can't allow this to fester but so long. We'll have to deal with it.

MARGARET WARNER: Colonel Davis, we have a map of Baghdad. And if this is the strategy, how do you... first of all, how do you array your forces around the city and then what are the features in Baghdad that will play into this?

LT. COL. DALE DAVIS: First of all, you obviously want to control the major avenues of ingress/egress -- in and out of the city. You want to control those so that those forces in there do not escape and are not allowed to be reinforced. Then as Colonel Gangle said, it has to be a very deliberate and intensive intelligence-driven operation; to take our time and probe those areas by a variety of means and determine really where the important elements of the resistance forces are. Then we talk about key terrain; well key terrain in the city as we discussed last night is a bit different from key terrain in urban areas. We want to control the key bridges. That's the only, really significant geographical piece of terrain in the city is the river and river crossings. Then we want to look at the elements of power -- buildings that represent symbolic power and then infrastructure like energy production, water distribution, we want to be able to provide the services to the people to demonstrate that we have a benevolent intent.

MARGARET WARNER: Colonel Gangle, what is the sort of ethnic make-up in the different neighborhoods, again if we could look at the map and how that plays in? General Myers said yesterday for instance, when the Shiite areas he said we have to either hope they will be helpful or assume they will want to be helpful. Where are those areas and does that sound plausible to you?

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: Well, we do know in the eastern part of the city, ironically named Saddam city, I might add, there are about two million Shiites who live in that area. That may very well be where we might see our original or early thrust in trying to develop this intelligence picture. Now one of the things that worries me is that if Saddam or his regime intends to use chemical weapons of some type, that we would enter into the areas where the people are not supportive of Saddam, that he might use them and that would have a devastating effect not so much on our forces as we have the protective equipment, but the people who live there.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: One of the striking things about the information minister's briefing today was the complete lack of connection to reality in his descriptions of the American situation. And I think Dale would agree with me that this is characteristic, in many ways, of the culture of this part of the world under stress - is that people tend to create a world of ideas and illusions and their desires of how things should be and then they go and live in that world. And when really placed under a lot of pressure, they have a very hard time coming out from that to make contact with what is really going on.

MARGARET WARNER: Yet the L.A. Times reporter, John Daniszewski, was just describing in the streets you have these, they look like irregular kinds of forces. I mean at some point, as Colonel Gangle said, U.S. forces have to engage them. You can't just do this in an antiseptic way, can you?

LT. COL. DALE DAVIS: We will have to engage certain elements of the forces. I don't know about old men with old rifles but the Special Republican Guard, the special security organization and certainly whatever is left of the Fedayeen Saddam, we are going to have to engage them because they'reso closely tied to the regime, their fate is tied to that regime. They know if the regime goes, they go.

MARGARET WARNER: Can that be done without incurring big civilian casualties or huge U.S. casualties?

LT. COL. DALE DAVIS: Well, it can be done once again if we let intelligence drive the operations and develop a good human intelligence network and allow the Iraqi civilians that wish for the regime to be eliminated to help us. The bad guys are in that building over there. We take our time. We probe. We take out those bad guys. We don't rush into the center of the city with guns blazing.

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: The model is there. If you look at what the British forces are doing in Basra, that is the model. They've isolated the city. They've established control over the key nodes that was talked about earlier, the power and the water. And they're carefully building rapport with the citizens to get this intelligence. Now the more we do that, and the more we spread it, I think it is an exponential thing at some point, it starts to snowball and build on itself and it can move rapidly but we must move carefully at first.

MARGARET WARNER: Just briefly -- in the meantime at some point you also move in closer, do you not? You tighten the noose?

COL. RANDOLPH GANGLE: I think you'll see a variety of tactics. You may see some units move in and establish what you could call a node or patrol base and say battalion size force and run smaller patrols out from that. There may be larger size patrols. There will be a variety of techniques. We do not want to establish a pattern that puts ourselves at risk but there will be a number of techniques used.

MARGARET WARNER: All right, gentlemen, we have to leave it there. Thank you all three.

SERIES - ON THE HOMEFRONT

JIM LEHRER: Now another home- front story. Elizabeth Brackett reports from WTT-Chicago reports from St. Anne, Illinois.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Spring is coming to St. Anne. The small Midwestern town sits amidst the farm fields of central Illinois. But instead of celebrating the rites of spring, the town is mourning the loss of one of its brightest and most promising young men -- 30-year-old Marine Captain Ryan Beaupre was one of the first to fall in Iraq, killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed in the opening hours of the war.

SPOKESMAN: He was at the same time both the boy next door and a courageous war hero, and they both lay on his shoulders comfortably.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The town that nurtured the fallen marine hasn't changed much since young Ryan bicycled its streets and sat in the barber's chair at the Clip and Curl on Main Street. The news of Beaupre's death hit the town hard.

THONDA TURNER, Hair Stylist: It was pretty devastating because we knew him, you know, and you just couldn't believe that some of the first deaths that happened over there actually hit our little town, because we are so small.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Serving one's country has always been taken seriously here. Besides Beaupre, there are eight others from this town of thirteen hundred now on active duty in Iraq. And despite the loss of Beaupre, support for the war remains strong.

MARY BLUM, Restaurant Owner: We support our men and women that are over there. There's dads, there's kids, former employees, friends, cousins, and we support what they're doing. I think it's important to support your country, protect yourselves from the bad people.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Support for the Beaupre family has also been overwhelming. More than 1,000 people came to offer comfort and support at the wake. That's just the way it is in a small town, says the mayor.

RON GRUBBS, Mayor, St. Anne: They had to call the local grocery store and say, "don't send any more food," you know. And then they called the florist and said, "hey, stop the flowers," you know. They were just inundated with response, and people really care -- no other motivation-- they care.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The wake was held in the grade school Ryan attended. Back then he was a red-headed kid who loved sports, starred on the speech team, and led his eighth grade class. Today the school's walls are filled with tributes to the former student, now called a hero. By the time he attended Bishop McNamara High School in nearby Kankakee, his principal says the values that shaped him were already evident.

JIM LAURENTI, School Principal: The values of honesty, integrity, and I guess I would just really focus on his honesty. It was admirable in such a young person. It took very little for us to develop. It was already embedded fairly strongly, so I think those qualities, as you work with teenagers, that quite impress you, and they did with him.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Fifteenth out of a class of one hundred thirty-nine, Ryan excelled in both academics and athletics, leading his relay team to a state championship. His track coach says he was a product of both his family and his town.

KEN KLIPP, Track Coach: St. Anne's is a really close- knit community and small town. Growing up a lot of people say he was the boy next door, you know. He was "Opie," he was your hometown kid.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The next step for Ryan was Illinois Wesleyan University in nearby Bloomington, Illinois. ( Cheers and applause )

SPOKESPERSON: Ryan Beaupre.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: He graduated with honors in 1995. It was his contagious smile that Ryan's college roommate and fraternity brother will remember about him. That and the shared values of two small town boys.

DR. MICHAEL HOWARD, College Friend: Coming from a small town myself, I just really can identify with him. You know all of your friends, you know your neighbors. Your neighbors are your friends, your family, and there's really no secrets. You can just be honest and you can help somebody out on a moment's notice whenever needed.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: He joined the corporate world after graduation, but left it for the marines, telling his parents serving his country meant a more meaningful and fulfilling life. His death has brought this small town closer together, but has also left it shaken.

RON GRUBBS: I think it's made us more aware, you know, that this is real and that we hope... hopefully not, but we might be able to expect more, and I think it just... everybody would like to see it finished. I don't necessarily mean quick, but I think finish and get on with it. I think it's made us aware, much more aware than if you just read it in the paper about other tragedies in other families.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: On Thursday, nearly the entire town, plus family and friends from around the world, came to the Catholic Church in St. Anne where he had been baptized and confirmed, to help say good-bye to Ryan Beaupre. The tall marine at Nicole Beaupre's side had trained with Beaupre at Camp Pendleton in California and was in the air behind him the day the sea knight helicopter went down. He then took on the sad assignment of bringing his friend home.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Why did you want to come home with him?

CAPT. JOHN WASCHER, U.S. Marine Corps: Because it was an honor, and because he would have done it for me.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: As the rituals of laying a loved one to rest continued, the overwhelming support from St. Anne and elsewhere could only slightly ease the pain of losing a son.

FOCUS - SHIELDS AND BROOKS

JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, some closing words from Shields and Brooks. Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and David Brooks of the Weekly Standard.

Mark, how do you feel about this war two weeks in?

MARK SHIELDS: Well, I guess, Jim, I feel relieved that so many of the bad things haven't happened. There have been no chemical or biological attacks. There have not been enormous civilian casualties. There have not been any attacks upon Israel, to include that. There hasn't been any entrance by the Turks engaging with the Kurds up north. I mean in that sense, you know, I feel that the worst has been avoided. I'm still not, you know, I don't think it is a great idea or a wonderful thing, but I'm relieved and pleased. And I think in the earlier segment, it was right, that the capturing of the airport does give an enormous psychological lift to the U.S.-led coalition forces. But, you know, if it comes down to block-to-block, house-to-house....

JIM LEHRER: It scares you.

MARK SHIELDS: It scares me and I think what you saw this week most of all that surprised me - not surprised me but alarmed me this week is that people like King Abdullah of Jordan and Mubarak of Egypt were moving away from their support, or at least tacit backing of the United States, making public statements and it was in response to the fact that what they want is a short decisive war with no civilian casualties because the populations of those countries as well as the populations of Europe are still very much against the United States action.

JIM LEHRER: David, your thoughts.

DAVID BROOKS: I think we are coming off some of the bipolar highs and lows, too high early on. If you looked at the press Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I thought it read like we were withdrawing from Moscow with Napoleon. It was just way too negative. I think that was unsustainable. The success to me has been remarkably good. I think you've begun to see a couple things. One, you've begun to see Iraqis who are jubilant and happy in the cities where they do know they're liberated. If you've read the last few days of the New York Times, you've really seen some exultant crowds, including one who had to me, the slogan of the war, a happy Iraqi fellow who went up to the troops and screamed out, democracy, whiskey and sexy, showing that he understood -

MARK SHIELDS: He got it right.

DAVID BROOKS: It's a little weird to hear a Muslim talking about whiskey. And then the final thing -- to hear the marines talk and to hear them talk about liberating the Iraqi people. When asked by the embedded reporters, why are you doing this? They never talk about the weapons of mass destruction. They talk about the people they're seeing right there. And I think that is having a tremendous cultural effect in the United States, and making us feel a little better about ourselves.

JIM LEHRER: The weapons of mass destruction issue, Mark, a lot of people have said they better find some soon or the president and the backers of this war have got a problem. Do you agree with that? Is it soon they must find these?

MARK SHIELDS: One cynical former military person said to me, you know, you've been around enough city police departments, they always find the cigarette in the suspect's raincoat or the illicit substance. No, I mean, I think Jim, probably the most disturbing report all week I got is that the Pentagon now is working on a contingency plan for the invasion of Syria and that the argument is that the weapons of mass destruction, one of the rationalizations is that the weapons of mass destruction have been transported to... across the border.

JIM LEHRER: Have you heard that, David?

DAVID BROOKS: I've heard talk of that but I really not get too alarmed about that. There has been talk for months that somehow these wild guys in the Pentagon are going to attack one country after another there. Is anger at Syria. There's no question about that. Syria is playing both sides of the fence here. On the one hand they've restrained Hezbollah from bombing northern Israel. On the other hand, they really have done some things to help the Iraqi regime. But I really do not think there is any... I have not heard from people in the administration any hunger to do another country.

MARK SHIELDS: I would say this about the weapons of mass destruction. If Saddam Hussein has them and uses them and thus by jeopardizing not only coalition troops but the civilian population, that the public opinion in Europe and everywhere else will swing against him overwhelmingly and give a certain validation. But I think there's a whole bunch of questions that have to be answered long before the celebration begins. I mean do they get Saddam Hussein or is it Osama bin Laden? Does he get away sort of thing? Are there weapons of mass destruction? Are we welcomed -- is the U.S. coalition welcomed as liberators rather than occupiers? Is there, in fact, you know, a long-term, you know, acceptance? I mean because this is the first war since World War II that the United States has entered with the demand for unconditional surrender. Not only in a change of government, but an occupation anticipated. So this is... the president set a very high bar for what is success or would be success by his own terms.

JIM LEHRER: And the war of course isn't over yet. What do you... speaking of war itself and the plan, one of the major stories at the beginning of the week had to do with the flap between Secretary Rumsfeld and the retired and present day military officers criticizing the plan. What do you make of that?

DAVID BROOKS: I guess my first reaction was sort of visceral. I was appalled at the way the generals and officers in the Pentagon went leak happy to the New Yorker and to the Washington Post in particular. This goes back pre-9/11 to the transformation that Rumsfeld and people associated with him tried to do to the military, which hurt the army, helped some other parts. And he did it in a hand fisted way, which is his style, and he made a lot of people angry. That was submerged with 9/11 and then came up in this war as you had people rushing after two or three days simply because the Fedayeen had the audacity to shoot back at us, suddenly declaring this was a quagmire and that this was a horrible war plan. To me events have not vindicated that to you by a long shot there. But there was just a dismaying and unseemly start of leaking. The ironic thing about the way it ended up politically is a lot of he hawks in the administration were actually on the side of the army for what is called boots on the ground for a greater and larger force. But to me, the advantages of speed, and I'm glad I don't have to have military opinions, but to me just as a citizen, the advantages of speed and getting in there quickly maybe outweigh the weaknesses you suffer.

JIM LEHRER: That of course was Rumsfeld's point. How do you think Rumsfeld handled this, this week?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, what happened was that he and chairman of the joint chiefs came out and said to these guys, the leakers in the military and some of the retired generals on some of the TV channels, you are undermining our troops. Now when the chairman of the joint chiefs comes out and says that, that is the ace card; that shows real anger. You began to see some of the retired generals in the TV studios backtracking furiously.

JIM LEHRER: Mark.

MARK SHIELDS: I could not disagree more strenuously, Jim. The first person who said we encountered more resistance than expected was the official briefer, Gen. Wallace. He was the person --

JIM LEHRER: The commander of --

MARK SHIELDS: Who said it was worse.

JIM LEHRER: He said it on the record.

MARK SHIELDS: On the record, more resistance, okay -- the same conservative publications, from this I exempt David, but the same conservative publications who welcomed and crowed about every leak from the Pentagon or anyplace else about Bill Clinton when he was president, now, I mean is, are horrified that generals are going to talk to the press. I mean my God, Bill Clinton you would have thought was submerging our entire national interest. Now you've got a legitimate debate. Has Donald Rumsfeld alienated? You better believe he is alienated. Was Gen. Myers over the top? He was ludicrous over the top. You had on this show last night a woman named Airman Shannon Murphy who was interviewed by Tom Bearden; she is in the theater of operations, she is on the lines and so is her husband. He asked her, her reaction about the TV coverage of anti-war demonstrations. This is what Airman Shannon Murphy said on the Lehrer NewsHour: It's what we are defending. We can do that in our country and that's what we're pretty much here to defend. I wish Don Rumsfeld would meet Shannon Murphy.

DAVID BROOKS: I'm in favor of a big debate about this. I don't mind and I said it last night - I thought the administration was wrong to pretend to be omniscient. I said it last week - that they should have said we are adapting. The situation has changed. The question is whether you go out and leak en masse in the nasty way they did in the middle of a war and one thing Shannon Murphy also said last night is that she was upset... she said I defend their right to protest but she said she is upset. To me, traveling around the country this week from Florida to Massachusetts, so the East Coast, a few different groups, one thing I would say, I would notice this week, among people who oppose the war, there is a dismayed or at least an uncomfortableness with the peace marchers that I hadn't seen months ago. They may agree substantively but they disagree tonally with the peace march. We're in the middle of a traumatic experience here. There is a little post-Sept. 11 feeling here -- we should pull together; we should not be divisive, we should not be spreading bile, and I think there is a growing sense that the peace marchers are out of tone with the American people.

JIM LEHRER: What about the generals? What about Gen. Wallace?

DAVID BROOKS: I think Gen. Wallace was being a "Braveheart" to coin his name. I think he said exactly the right thing, which he should say, and I wish the administration had been more up front about saying of course we changed.

MARK SHIELDS: He committed a gaffe, Jim, which is defined by Michael Kinsley as speaking the truth in official Washington when you shouldn't. I mean, that's what Gen. Wallace did do, and they got upset. They got --

JIM LEHRER: Couldn't attack him so they attacked the other one.

MARK SHIELDS: That's exactly right. Let's get one thingstraight about Shannon Murphy. Asked if she felt betrayed -- she said, no, I don't feel betrayed, I don't; I don't feel betrayed. You don't park your conscience once a decision is made. If you think the wrong decision has been made to go the war, you are not undermining your troops by saying I think this is the wrong policy. I mean, you just don't fall behind. I mean I thought we resolved that at Nuremberg for goodness sake. Whatever the leader says, that's the decision made. I mean, or goodness sakes, I mean, protest is at the core of what our citizenry is about. I'm not talking about, you know, doing ugly things or sabotaging installations. I'm talking about a citizen's right to petition his or her government for a policy they think is --

DAVID BROOKS: We are talking past each other here. We obviously support the idea to disagree. The question -- let's start with the military leakers. What they were doing -- they were fighting a budget battle in the middle of the war through anonymous leaking. This was not about the war. They were talking about a quagmire. They were wrong about where the war was. It is clear they were wrong because they were saying we were bogged down because we had a horrible war plan. And if you read Cy Hersch's piece in the New Yorker, you thought we had lost this war. And that was not because of an honest opinion. That was because they were lobbying for budgetary authority in the next budget -

MARK SHIELDS: It is an honest difference; it's an honest difference; we are invading militarily; if you're invading another country, another installation, you want to have more troops than they do. Donald Rumsfeld, they're settling the score with Donald Rumsfeld, he got rid of Gen. Shinseki 18 months to go in his term.

JIM LEHRER: I have to get rid of this wonderful discussion. Thank you both very much.

THE WAR WITH IRAQ

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major war developments of the day, and to Kwame Holman.

KWAME HOLMAN: U.S. Forces tightened their grip on Baghdad. The army's third infantry division held the international airport and marines moved up from the southeast. The Iraqi information minister warned of an unconventional attack on American forces, but he said he did not mean chemical or biological weapons. A suicide car bombing reportedly killed three U.S. troops in western Iraq. And Iraqi TV showed footage of a man said to be Saddam Hussein reading a speech and being cheered on the streets of Baghdad. Jim.

JIM LEHRER: Yes. Again, thanks, Kwame. In non-Iraq War news today, President Bush gave U.S. Health officials the power to quarantine people with SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. He signed an executive order granting that authority. Officials said there were no immediate plans to use it. In Hong Kong, police resorted to a manhunt for people who had been exposed. At least 2,300 cases and 85 deaths have been reported worldwide so far, most of them in Asia. In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department reported unemployment held steady in March at 5.8 percent, but at the same time, businesses cut more than 100,000 jobs. The two numbers come from different federal surveys, and sometimes conflict. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 36 points to close at 8277. The NASDAQ fell 13 points to close below 1384. For the week, the Dow gained 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ 1 percent. And again, in silence, more names and photos of U.S. Military personnel killed in the Iraq War. We present them after the families have been notified and as photographs are made available.

JIM LEHRER: A reminder,that Washington Week can be seen on most PBS stations later this evening. We'll be here for special NewsHour editions tomorrow and Sunday nights. Please check your local listings for the time in your area. And we'll see you online, and at our regular NewsHour time on Monday evening. For now, I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.