The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

earl ho says ft ft ft ft ft ft ce at following president of the united states it

was a sort of saddam hussein was given one last chance set forth in very explicit terms to do what he should have done more than six months ago withdraw from kuwait without conditions or further delay and comply fully with the resolutions passed by the united nations security council regrettably the new deadline passed without the agreement of the government of iraq to meet demands or the united nations security council resolution that six hundred and sixty as set forth in a specific terms spelled out by the coalition to withdraw unconditionally from kuwait to the contrary what we have seen is a re doubling of saddam hussein's efforts to destroy completely the weight and its people i've therefore directly general norman schwarzkopf in conjunction with

coalition forces to use all forces available including ground forces to reject the rocky army from kuwait once again this was a decision made only after extensive consultations within our coalition partnership the liberation of kuwait is now entered a final phase i have complete confidence in the ability of the coalition forces swiftly and decisively to accomplish their mission tonight is this coalition of countries sikhs to do that which is right and just i ask only that all of you stop what you're doing and say a prayer for all the coalition forces and especially for our men and women in uniform who this very moment are risking their

lives for their country and for all of us by god bless and protect each and every one of them and may god bless the united states of america thank you very much we're joined now in this special edition of the macneil lehrer newshour why for military analysts general out johnny wickham in washington he was the army chief of staff from nineteen eighty three to nineteen eighty seven lieutenant colonel ed green a retired a marine corps colonel in the vietnam war now a businessman in washington steven can be a military analyst and richard hugo and military analyst are stealing candy are you confident that as confident as the president that turley allied forces can swiftly and decisively carry out their mission considering what they face in a way going in iraq well i think i would be a little bit nervous

that things might not go as well as as one plans because that always happens in war and i think it's a mistake as many analysts are to build that tool for it before bench we began fall in place and so i were argued that we are taking a risk here and i think that the i think a ground war had to we had to go with the ground war because we couldn't let this war play out i think we should have died away an unusual but more strategy and when the enemy is over extended when there's not roger final attack and do like the germans did at the battle cursed in nineteen forty three when they knew that he'd the germans knew the russians knew where they were coming yet they went ahead because the one the weapons prestige martha final attack and they should run around the deep sides of course we don't know yet exactly what they've done and where they've gotten in about half an artist under half an hour's time there is to be a briefing at the pentagon by senior military officials and your work on nerd do you

share mr kamm days sarah anxieties about no i don't know rob and i believe that we're going to see a considerable success here maybe a day or two before details emerge and we have an adequate understanding what's at war but clearly there's been an enormous effort underway here in preparing the battlefield artillery with rocket launchers are with a special forces inserted behind the lines with the use of aerosol can they say with a hundred first air assault division armored forces and their swift moving a battle here where only a few hours into this thing end to begin to draw some conclusions that it's a bomb for failure or that there with a great anxiety over it i think is that is much much too soon to this awkwardness of the presidents as a statement i think is significant about the deadly think significant is the need for prayer here which indicates

serve as sensitivity to people's lives and families are concerns ginger pro what are your thoughts you were a student particularly of the iraqi army and its republican guards what are your thoughts about the year the difficulties that these allied forces face given the situation that exists now even including all a punishment that the iraqi forces had taken in iraq how my feeling is it iraqi army is and even in quality at this point are certain units are logistically the pride while others are ali better maintained the weakest ones would be where shows where are the frontline units tend to be a light infantry hour they tend to date maybe entrenched bases around the front lines are they are supported some areas stuff in some areas by armor but not a great deal that essentially they are not able to support one another the

breakthrough by the americans or allied forces were the curse of the met only by more reserves of the iraqis which your first stage regular army reserves are into units for the south and up towards the north is of course will be half hammered and mercifully by the air force they are second tier strategic reserves are republicans are completely hammered by the air force's if further the allied troops are attacking them his american they do that at the same time is there are great danger of getting the euro the coalition forces here the there won't be that much danger first was they start moving on the road system out toward a breakthrough i did become immensely vulnerable for more normal the one they're enduring friendships and non firms what's their morning we'll be spotted the lever get to in quantity to meet before age of our breakthrough my belief

to bring former marine lieutenant colonel in vietnam a lot of the speculation about these strategies has included speculation that over here the marine corps would launch a couple of amphibious assaults one notch ward so this island area and another in just north auger into around lake city i mean describe what turnout what that would entail in this kind of situation and how important it would be to the operation robin it's early and is it doesn't have to be advancing last question first the surest your last one is no it doesn't have to be one of the key strategic purposes for having forces available are capable of launching an amphibious assault is to hand the opponent's defensive force is in place and they have to defend against our capabilities just like we have to

assume he may have more capability that is actually capable of putting against us but they serve that role him about leaving their ships is that you're going to they do serve rib without leaving their shifts they also serve even more all when they do revisions but don't necessarily have to immediately go ashore author going to look at the capability of that marine air ground team all which still has the navy air and marine air as well as the air force a or with the capability to prep the areas that they will finally decide to a perhaps enter with an amphibious assault what i would say just off the immediate gut feeling ah with the amphibious our role being as he as it is to the marine corps i think before this operation is over you're going to see an amphibious assault somewhere within this operating theater i can't say exactly when it's going to happen in war that i think saddam hussein knows exactly what is going to happen but i think there will be an amphibious assault

but not at a time when it's gonna be high risk for the troops that are going to be employed in that manner are you saying that just because they're there and because the marine corps will have to do what its chief were supposed to do they will do it no that's not what i'm saying as far as the reason for it i'm saying that when you have an amphibious force that has been trained and prepared as well as that one is and you have an area that lends itself to an amphibious operations once that area is preparing to receive those forces they are probably going to come ashore in some form of an amphibious matter it would make sense to have them pulled back and had administrative landing but then when they were first introduced into that theater those forces were there to fight and one the ways they fight the bass is with an amphibious assault get more than a year to make one commenter sur o no it's actually i'm sorry i won this perception by world war two standards were once standard them out of artillery up there it's really not and aren't

great but those standards were one of the ticket with mark a rebel or pieces really lined up for how the russians for war were to flip with nonie artillery division so by those standards are this is not the greatest bombardment that their broker and i wonder if i can just give a little bit of a year is the school lesson here on warfare because it we maybe with maine we may be overlooking some things up your earlier point about how are we going to be to get the enemy vehicles from our vehicles with our airpower that's very easy in a practice that said they are markers that on our vehicles that are visible from the sky they had been the nature of the vehicles also another important point to make here is that the operation is is combined and it's very poor native the artillery this being used is the spotted by people on the ground as well as from the year the armor tanks and the bradley fighting vehicles will be gay other in a pattern

and then the air force using near the close air support weapons via targets are spotted for the air force attacked aircraft by air force fighter personnel better in other aircraft that are beset designated do just that as well as teams on the ground pilots that are on the ground tactical air control parties here they're called so that there's this synergy isn't a coordination to this whole combined operation under the rubric of their land battle it's not just everybody piled north and go like the devil there is a very coordinated carefully orchestrated undertaking that involves almost all of the combined capability statin can be we've discussed the head director trust across the border here as a possibility and we discussed the marine a possibility of a marine amphibious landing the have the scenario that serve been most popular so far is also talked about some form of sweep up on the whole western side of the way describe what the purpose of

that would be and and would you expect that would be launched simultaneously with early operations that were launched in the south why i think south and that you think right now they're doing that would drown out within south are and because they start to make a penetration because the rockies or depends exactly how healthy dr iraq iraq needs extend out out of kuwait into their own character but i think that you probably have to make penetration there i think they've extended all the way to the the obstacle barrier at night this is it's like on your map they sling around they will not have to make right there they sing around here so they would not have to make a penetration test like that and then they want to go it's probably about as fast they could opt to word kuwait begins to broadband back where the first the republican guards are reading here right now ideally what would be best for us but i don't think he would do that is if we can get the republican guards accompanied is halfway through because that would

bring them about the remark that the commerce job so there would have been about that the commerce so that they would be are exposed there are in last week so that is this an ideal hope that they could get such a republican guards out of their entrenched positions years ago they would expose themselves to the allied air power that's right you won't will love leave our own military analysis for now thank you all very much yes i get some diplomatic and political analysis now from geoffrey kemp who handled middle east issues on the national security campus security council staff and the first reagan term and raghida darden the cheek diplomatic correspondent for the london based arabic newspaper our hijab geoffrey kemp the president bush asked americans to pray tonight for the american troops and for the coalition troops he didn't mention the iraqis say journalism was right and that the us and the coalition forces are going to be successful that means an awful lot of iraqis are good guys are a danger here that we could fill to many of the enemy and that the

whole thing could could turn around on us if it drags on for weeks and months yes but i think and it's over very quickly and american casualties in allied casualties are kept a low number of quite frankly the iraqi casualties well terrifying and haaretz it from that point of view i'm not really is relevant what was important to this point where iraqi civilian casualties i presume that the focus of the operation is going to be on the battlefield the most of iraq is that it killed will be soldiers and so does it had lots of opportunities to get out of this war and you think they still have an opportunity to surrender they don't fight yes i certainly know i think the iraqi army is not monolithic as we've been told the last three months and that pockets will route will retire gracefully puppets will fight we don't know that and how it's going to work out out by hour basis but by what i think will be a lot of iraqi soldiers surrendering and i think we will do

everything we can to encourage the surrender using all these modern techniques we have related or anything there's a danger of the allied coalition going too far cause into mad too much destruction killing too many people that's a question that we don't know of course we wouldn't know the answer to it and we know how long this war this convoy is going to take and how many casualties so that footage that are a lot of casualties and that it was mission bibles that i think that is the danger that they might backlash and dan barrett amongst the immediate concerns is the possibility that the iraqis might use these destructive weapons chemical weapons and what might that drink or so every action that knowing the fact that they use of nuclear weapons nuclear weapons have not going out services and that does is it important concern then another multimedia khan says when that with allied forces have to go into iraq it safe and occupy it and then when they have to and i had to go on destroying iraq in order to invade kuwait which means that the civilian casualties might still go on and would that be the bulk of the

action again and on the popular vote as jewel and that might just take its set of fame game tetris actions of something of that nature so there are quite a lot of constant sense of them an immediate the long term ones wouldn't talk about maybe some of the time but basically how long the war will go on and what is the number of casualties from both sides of course that's a very immediate cause one of the hopes i guess the tears of the allied forces or the us leadership is that saddam hussein would would throw in the towel and surrender very fairly certain other words take it a big get and then say ok i've made my point and that said you would you expect him to do that one who learns how to what not to without anything saddam hussein there of course we get of reports about demoralized nation in the army we hear reports that and they might tear want to turn against him and get rid of him and make different decisions on that own that but again this

is this member only a few hours ago that said we were speaking about humiliation of iraq and its people engaged not only saddam hussein has it is out of ultimatums so this might not be as a quick mr ventura and quick dissent as one might expect the one doesn't really know it feel that the edge of camp what that what you would lose your your head or your gut tell you that saddam hussein's gonna gonna hang in there at the last iraqi or we will take a hit mcquaid oh i don't think you're quite name if he doesn't quit after meeting terms of punishment by frankly the united states and the alliance itself and i think if he could bloodiest have been some mistake in the campaign the long lines and steve camby was mentioning and we do have a disaster in any disaster along the way that it would be possible for saddam to claim you need held up essentially a nato army and now he was prepared to do a deal and he would do it through the russians but if that doesn't happen then i don't think that's

likely to happen because i don't think we're going to be amenable two constraints i think there was this war starts if it goes the way i think of the ground war that is the way i think it well then it's going to be up to general schwarzkopf blow the whistle not saddam saying what would you were how would you define a mini disaster well i think you're in if you take the falklands war which i think is a lot of parallels in some eyes whether the british didn't have the openness the united states but there was no doubt i think a lot of people's minds that once the war was engaged the british would when they had a professional army even though they were thousands of miles from shore but they took some hits the sheffield was this cruiser was destroyed they took a lot of nasty casualties we might take some nasty casualties either it's a torn land and then of course the mood of the country's going to change and it's difficult to judge at this moment both of them become more hawkish or more dovish but it's one of those uncertainties of war that the president has to ponder over and its invincible circumstances that saddam hussein if you want to survive he's been very

crafty it might be able to come up with another peace plan a wooden without them for data durham the looking back on this alaska the impossible question but i'm as the dye been cast since saddam hussein then order his troops into kuwait on august the second is that i've been cast for this particular night you believe based on on what he did in the way he did end up the reaction of the others if you mean that you want to do it tonight to get to face a ground war i don't think so simply because they are keys only a few days ago an option and a few hours ago and they say not willing to withdraw out of kuwait unconditionally era and therefore i don't think he wanted to go to the pound button that he gets a member in the beginning he suspects in the word he used to say that i learned at an bombardment find a way to get to the ground better and you see with what happened now i think he blinked just before the current war and i'm not so sure that if it it cannot guess whether this is

a top he's setting where whether he'd to leave lincoln you cannot handle it and i'm afraid that they might be a possibility of house to house one of them asked about fighting and that's that'll be part of the ugly but i think when the decision was made from to the beginning and by president bush the two is not going to allow saddam hussein to stand together and his aggression and there i think the timing of the combat and these more president bush's than that and answered them saints and in fact if that fight to stay at it as and what others think tonight the security council is says the boston have been starting to me at ten o'clock is the time that the president came on to say that the ground baton has been heavy have given instructions so then this is indeed after diplomacy as the security council was meeting to see that possibility yet another possibility to merge the summit proposes an elegant conditions that decision was made at the ground it was inevitable do you think this was bound to

africa i think it's been inevitable since it was clear that saddam hussein didn't want to be i think a deal could have been done right up to the last minute that despite there were at this as about that george bush's intransigence them in the really angered the guy who's really put his life on the line is about his psyche i had dinner there were going to find out now briefing with trainings begin just a short time ago you heard the president announced that coalition forces of operation desert storm at that on a large scale ground operation against iraqi forces inside for it this phase of the combined air land and sea campaign has been carefully planned to force a rack out of kuwait with a minimum of number of casualties to allied forces up to now we've been as forthcoming as possible about military operations but from this point forward we must limit what we say we've now undertaken a major military operation allied military units are on the move

their physicians movements and plants must be careful to safeguard sui mai assume that the enemy is confused about what's happening on the battlefield and is absolutely sure that we not do anything inadvertently ourselves to clarify the picture for him everything we say about the operation from this point forward every detail we offer would increase the likelihood that the military forces of a racket learn more about our operations such information would put military operations at risk and even the most innocent sounding information could be used directly against the men and women whose lives are on the line carried out these operations we cannot permit the iraqi forces to know anything about what were doing and for that reason i will not say anything tonight about the operation that is currently underway we will have nothing to say about it for many more hours when it is safe to begin discussing the operation we will do so in as much detail as we probably can't

but for now our regular briefing schedule here at the pentagon and in riyadh has suspended until further notice i want to assure all of you that we understand our solemn obligation to the american people to keep them informed the development but i'm confident that they understand but this policy is necessary to save lives and to reduce american casualties as well as those of coalition forces i will be happy to take a few questions about the background of the decision that they've made but let me re emphasized once again i will not answer any questions about the military operation underway and at the end of my album remarks we want them now as i indicated previously suspend all further briefings for the time being physically port authority final decision of course to go

forward to wasn't really resolved until it was clear today that the deadline had come and gone and saddam hussein refused to comply with the year un resolutions but this is obviously then a massive undertaking with hundreds of thousands of people in wall warmest logistical planning a great deal of cooperation we're going to take this kind of operation so forth some period of time now we've had a planning days of planning our that was selected by and general schwarzkopf based upon when he believed his forces would be ready based upon when he felt that we would have accomplished all we could with the earlier phase of the campaign by itself based upon preparations of coalition forces and that became a planning day it was subject to change up to the last minute based upon such considerations as weather and the changes the diplomatic situation that saddam hussein had come into compliance with the deadline had denounced by noon today that he

was referred to withdrawn condition his force from kuwait then we would have stopped the preparations for an execution of the operation so in that sense up until noon today president have the option to say stop he had approved the original date again based upon the planet considerations and i think that's correct to the extent that we could extend that we had a specific plan a date in mind or for some period of time now it was this particular day and a particular hour because there are different different units involved going to different times i don't want to be more precise that this was a large scale ground operation against a lot of things that didn't mean to say that the ground operation is only when they were there simply are not going to talk about the operation in a way i am not in a

position to be able to say anything about the operation without compromising the security operation and i simply i'm going to refuse to several such question for the highway do not have any detail reporting that point on the operation still very early early stages the operation i would not expect that we will receive any comprehensive reporting here in the pentagon for some period of time you're welcome well i would not say

that there is minimal risk this as a major military operation against a well equipped and well fortified opponent i would not want to underestimate the difficulties the task at all what we have said repeatedly was that we wanted to conduct an air campaign for as long as possible to do the story as much as possible of the iraqi force and to make it easier for state undertaker the ground phase of the operation when that became possible that we obviously reached that point where we think it's appropriate to kick in the next phase of the campaign for the polling numbers of family members i don't wanna be that tonight that again gets us

into the business of talking about specific forces the city finance and what they might do and can actually operation a significant number of our allies are in fact participating in this phase the campaign and there's really been no work at two levels of them work the military level doing general schwarzkopf near the commanders in the field in terms of planning in the details of the operation for purina forces to carry them out there's also been extensive consultation by the president and secretary baker with of the political leadership of those nations involved well it's been stated repeatedly that allstate again

that the only acceptable solution to this conflict is for complete compliance by the iraqis with un security council resolutions that includes the immediate unconditional withdrawal of their forces from kuwait as made clear by the president yesterday we wanted an invitation from them that they would begin that withdrawal by noon the day and we gave them seven days in which they played no they refused to do that it included as well loved consideration for the fact that the offer you talk about the proposition that the soviets in iraq he's developed involved a cease fire prior to any iraqi with girls made it clear repeatedly not interested in any cease fire so the cease fire would simply of allowing saddam hussein to regroup his forces resupply them and could conceivably it cost even more casualties it's also true that that proposition

embodied with it the repeal of all the other un sanctions and resolutions that have been voted by the security council now we felt that was totally unacceptable that we've seen just in the last seventy two hours what would appear to be a deliberate effort on the part of the iraqis to work further destroy what's left of kuwait to put the torch to the oil fields reports of executions of kuwaiti citizens inside to a city and under the circumstances be of notion that saddam hussein should be permitted to get away scot free without being held accountable for his actions or without having to pay reparations for example so it was an acceptable from the standpoint of a coalition the president's statement yesterday was very clear it was very concise in terms of what we want from saddam hussein by way of compliance with these resolutions it was agreed upon by the coalition it was consistent with the un security council resolutions we would've been wise to accept that you refuse to do so

today we've made it clear repeatedly that if saddam hussein were to be replaced by another government we would not shed a tear over as much but he also made it clear that it is not an objective of us policy to change the garden of a racket that happened soviet with respect to the future application of the sanctions of oregon voted by the un security council oh how well they would be applied for alternate

with respect to this garden of a rack or some future remember rap has really matter that the un security council after aggressive in force once the gunmen were gimlet media by way of closing emphasize what image of the outset that we recognize we have an obligation provide as much information as we possibly can to the press and to the american people but we're currently engaged in an extremely complex military undertaking the lives of literally thousands of americans and our personnel are at stake and we simply have to operate on the basis that we are going to for the time being for the lid on further briefings about to the operation soon as it's says it's possible to do so gen schwarzkopf in riyadh to john faucher at the pentagon will be happy to provide as much

detail as possible about the campaign itself but to that's going to have to wait to develop defense secretary cheney aren't talking to reporters at the pentagon we go back to our team of military and analysts now general john with them was army chief of staff from nineteen eighty three to eighty seven ed green is a retired lieutenant colonel in the marine corps who served in vietnam now vice president of london government services in washington richard you're a navy officer in vietnam as a writer and third world a middle east military affairs steven kennedy is a retired lieutenant colonel in the army reserves and teaches military history at georgetown university and a lot of people in the last couple of weeks have been comparing this a huge land defensive when it began to the head the day invasion in normandy there's one very significant difference this total news blackout that other secretaries just announced well i think

it's understandable for a couple of reasons the wall or perhaps not the powerboat to the media are one of the reasons is that we now talking instead of several hundred aircraft going on coming back to their bases where you can control league the event to a degree we're talking of hundreds of thousands of military people involved and there's a sectarian the gated an extraordinarily complex undertaking far more complex than no reason history of a louse work complex than the deed and yes i think i think that is more complex and that record mating we were talking about molly our identity among the nations we're talking about up against the tougher enemy then we ran into in normandy and we're talking about a broader front hundreds of miles well now i guess about a hundred twenty miles versus over normandy that each is there relatively job but there are two reasons i think that may not emerge and what sector cheney indicated one of them is these commanders

now that have been given their marching orders rather clear what has to be done there are mines need to be focused on fulfilling their immediate tasks and minimizing the amount of information that has to be passed up that report but they must fulfill their immediate nation's first all there is to a degree trying to ease the burden on them of reporting up the second one is an e i think he made that point where we don't want to give the enemy any health knowledge that might be used to their advantage against us and so by constraining the amount of information that is reported about what units or knowing where they might be casualties are taking what the enemy is doing in the way of casualties contributes to uncertainty and fog that the iraqi commanders of the nap to cope with we're joined now from the air pentagon by bruce them close to is the senior correspondent for national security affairs at time magazine there's what do you make of that sir news blackout on me and that's all i think that it's my basic

professional interests i think that in the perfectly predictable thing because as the secretary's mind where launched on a very complex operation which line which lives are really as this operation did not start at one particular time there are still a lot of other aspects the operation which will continue throughout the evening and tomorrow and so therefore he made it very clear at the beginning that the way he was in cells for a much tonight and secondly that we can expect much before the pentagon of your forthcoming in the days to come he said one is available for its colorful there was a proper breathing and until that time all we got to go on is what the secretary said tonight and that of course was not very much can you add anything to that though there are reports from saudi arabia of some of the networks are reporting there that the allied forces had penetrated some of the report set up to eighteen miles or further into kuwait can you add anything to back yes there were some reports of that this afternoon already effect we knew that right a considerable ground operations have been taking place along the border so

what we didn't know was whether this is true we conduct the reconnaissance and force as some famous in some other maneuvers to determine whether iraq is working or whether it was the precursor of the ground offensive now we know do you know anything more about whether there is an attack on more than one from more than one side of the way i don't know that for sure but i can get my left arm that the service involves not just a straight thrust up from saudi arabia into kuwait but also most likely are these peripheral operations included major faint and the flight in operation way out in the western deserts of iraq are beyond the kuwait border and there are quite quite likely airborne operations going into kuwait proper itself there's also of course always been the expectation that the marines have either land with an amphibious operations are there and they say would be a major fight but let's be let me be very clear we do not know in detail any these operational aspect of the undertaking and as a secretary says oh we really shouldn't press too

hard because there are lives at stake you heard the answer secretary cheney gave to our reporter jeannine lock there and whether the air campaign had gone on as far as they had intended you know to reduce the risk secretary cheney who is one of the smoothest of public officials in washington seemed to hesitate a little bit there well what one is you're my reading too much into that have they had they'd add they had as much time to do the air campaign is i really would have liked ah i think if you ask any general of it like another day of their campaign they probably would have said yes we were i'm doing a great deal of damage as we learned earlier today again it up the percentages on on the damage projections thirty nine percent of those tanks forty percent of the recall the artillery each day more and more he says the roc equipment been destroyed are logically if you can keep doing this longer have more destruction of parallel to this was the political to michael as well i don't think

that it's unfair to say that president bush had to make a decision when the launches campaign based not only on the ideal circumstances it might like a virtue to the military the deployment but also the developments in the diplomatic side of the operation and that was a judgment he had to make it was clearly prepared as the one thing that she did tell us of course is that today was the day so clearly haven't prepared operationally for launching today and so therefore there's no surprise in that regard the president was prepared and early byzantine just went ahead unencumbered by any changes in the situation steven cannon they are how do you feel about the year the timing of all this is that the effectiveness of the air campaign reducing risk and as is this the optimum timing for the ground offensive well i think everybody thought that got the award last week the air war would go on a spin and as they so successful so successful when i continue with a good thing honestly i think they were then set intervene and we had to get this work and then and i think that's right one mr

cheney helped a little bit on that so your belief is that they would have liked the military would like to guarantee or war on further and the political events of speed up the ground that's right ever since they'd the bunker and in baghdad was that when they see a whole change in how people that were speeding up inside the whole place to be when the ground war began which also to read but i would like to return to be normandy of knowledge if i may if you caught that battle reception was extraordinarily important because were the germans had placed their operational reserves and we made a big deal but the faint so there could've been a campaign we're a news blackout would be more important in that sense also i do with them had said earlier that this enemies but the claps and semi same it's much more formal than the germans and about mock i think most people will concede was probably the best army of this century did you want a comeback in recent hours worked well either yes this just come in and what was to send that is that

there was a consideration as well how finely honed you were getting the ground forces after all some of these trips of another dozen there for three four five months they've been up ready to go shortly for a four dollars as i was there are surely an end richard rohr with his troops are ready to go it would be very difficult to sleep two office of the all the questions for the success of their campaign the complications the diplomatic situation combined effect interest rate ago certainly help to dictate the timing of the decision today at green how do you have an opinion on this whether they have been pushed politically to donald center with a ground war and would have liked to know and we're one longer robin i think we'd be naive not do think there are some political considerations in this in his timing i think if we look at the reports that were coming out of our kuwait today concerning some of the brutal treatment of the two a kuwaiti population that was still exposed to us about ms sainz troops are not only the figure but the literal raping of the country

are i don't think any country like ours are those made up of the coalition forces could sit back along and say that we'll still do what we can from the air because eventually kept going with troops on the ground in order to take that objective i think the timing was such where we just had to move and i'm also sure are based upon what the general schwarzkopf has said and also secretary secretary cheney and general powell from the beginning i don't think the leadership is going to commit ground forces without a consideration for minimizing yet like that of heavy casualties richard job but i'm considering that we have so little information to go on except the fact that we know it started how do you feel about the timing is of the optimum time i think that the odds obvious stresses that the iraqi leadership has shown over the last week have been law in response to the threat of the ground operation league wide rumors that last weekend was was where it was going to go that's all of a sudden a flurry of diplomatic activity erupted from

the iraqis the contradictory for you or whatever it says clear that stress is showing at that level and additionally i just charting the year if nothing else that the tank attrition a reason and given readily by central command the dentist is offered you trust i did it largely trust it i think it would be unwise to question too closely at this point i'm sure that they have approached the thirty percent attrition rate which is something that many military band recognizes the point on the broad average workday i'll you it is damaged are considerably if they got beyond in some cases even better what would you say i want to go back to state county would you say that political considerations have pushed the launching of a ground offensive into work and what timing that is is more dangerous than know they would've liked know i don't think that you know that there are places that i think given that the

fear was producing search results are seen been better to continue accept you can continue to talk because you are taking a public relations beating and also the key of march winds and rains and they are modern begins to you were going to reveal about the timing i think the timing is just right and i think it is unfair to assume that their president bush and i've seen him function and their capacity when he was a vice president to assume that he is a moving in a political direction and that he's not listening to his military people this plan has been long developed and there've been certain times as echo cheney indicated some of those times even tonight there were reaching a crescendo of capabilities the readiness of the ground forces they owed them out of damage that the air force has continued to do and we were within a window that there is about this time and soul i don't believe what i told her that there was any political consideration that would drive us to do something earlier and risk american and

coalition allies i think it is a man's world jonah welcome steven can be a green or juju congress and worst of the pentagon thank you will jam as ilana posen i wasn't filed diplomatic analysis of all of this but before we do here again as president bush making the announcement of the opening of the ground war at ten pm eastern time on the white house yesterday after conferring with mice your national security advisers and following extensive consultations with our coalition partners saddam hussein was given one last chance set forth in very explicit terms to do what he should have done more than six months ago withdraw from kuwait without condition or further delay and comply fully with the resolutions passed by the united nations security council regrettably the new deadline passed without the agreement of the government of iraq to meet demands or the united

nations security council resolution the six hundred and sixty as set forth in a specific terms spelled out by the coalition to withdraw unconditionally from kuwait to the contrary what we've seen is a really doubling of saddam hussein's efforts to destroy completely the weight and its people i've therefore directly general norman schwarzkopf in conjunction with coalition forces to use all forces available including ground forces to eject the rocky army from kuwait once again this was a decision made only after extensive consultations within our coalition partnership the liberation of kuwait has now entered a final phase i have complete confidence in the

ability of the coalition forces swiftly and decisively to accomplish their mission tonight is this coalition of countries sikhs to do that which is right and just i ask only that all of you stop what you're doing and say a prayer for all the coalition forces and especially for our men and women in uniform who this very moment are risking their lives for their country and for all of us a god bless and protect each and every one of them and may god bless the united states of america thank you very much that was president president bush in the briefing room at the white house at ten pm eastern time tonight we go now to jeffrey camp who handle middle east affairs on the national security council staff in the first reagan term and raghida dirt on the cheek diplomatic correspondent for the london based arabic newspaper how high up geoffrey kemp the

president said this is right and just do you think it will be seen as right just throughout the world know but i think you'll be seeing is right and just where it counts that is to say amongst our allied partners i think in a large number of arab countries has certainly i think the soviet union if we win decisively is going to be an outside there's bound to be opposition that that's inevitable the opposition in this country but the key question here is at saddam hussein had dozens of opportunities to get out of this blind he's in he's the one who's destroying iraq he's the one who's destroying to wait united states is doing an enormous service to the rest of the world i think that's how it'll be saying if this victory is quick and decisive for good or in your brain that this will be seen by most of the world as writer and by not all yes maybe head and that can by not all of the word but i think it should not they're not only

for those in the alliance the dishes you can just as just an end unlike a jiffy mentioned earlier i believe that it's important to pay attention to the emotions and the feelings of the people of the region because they are the people now are going through the war i think we should try to really be sensitive to do that is that have a as i would like to solve sega jeffrey essence you mentioned earlier that i think he was understood me to have said that because president bush is in town seizures that brought about this war and if it did leave such an indication i blocked corrected it to saddam hussein who asked for this war he was before june seven to think that he could fight a superpower but i believe that the president and allies did not permit diplomacy to interfere with limited decisions so maybe an eight beat him in trying to explain why we arrived at women of iraq maybe it is better that we take into account all of the people is i included those are standing right now against said this warren who think that it is not just all right what you mean you think a

military decision was made very early on that was irreversible by the united states in the collision when they're technically cheney just said today that the date today for that combative today was over the sec entered automated of course was given yesterday to be anointed a sound pretty sure that these things were taken into consideration that diplomacy was not they're allowed to interfere and was not permitted to reflect on the medically decisions and what that might take to go and have a decisive victory in this war and it seems to me that the gun battle was decided to be taking place now despite diplomatic flattery geoffrey kemp what you think the diplomatic history of this whole epic but that's what i mean what we're used to this whole other thing as to look like when it's written lots lots of studies fish bees and written about it but i do think that created us have one point that i would agree with that i do think the calendar was as important a factor in determining the diplomatic schedule as anything else we were we've known right from all this when this was first

discuss the favorite was an optimum time for military operations you run into deep trouble few other major latin and offensive in late march and april for whether reasons political reasons this that and the other leading told all the way through the fall and three christmas that's the energy bill that would be completed in february that it wasn't us pastor davis saddam hussein you'd said that the pain to see the all the briefings that i've seen every day a scene presumably by those in baghdad you can still get cnn said that there should be no surprise and that if saddam hussein was not prepared to see which way the wind was blowing on august the fertile forty should've seen the witch with away was blowing in december and in january and then frederick if it's his fault i ask you that that really is has been the case since the august second vote of people talking past one another that they're the united states and the coalition of the united nations security council resolutions all said everything nothing is

negotiable you have to get out of kuwait and that saddam hussein and his people sell come on everything is negotiable and nobody ever really believe the other until these last few days and i'll finally ended today it's i think they had to but it was time to record each other's bluff and obviously we know who lost that but i think that is where thinking that they could bank on the public opinion may be on the leading down from out of regimes may be on expanding the war and it seems that today and they didn't even about at one point an underground batter and they thought this is going to be the decisive rebuttal for the victory but it seems that no one and believed that other out and at his bluff was cool and we saw what happened since january fifteen up to now and it is a process of not even to each other steps and with europe facing the consequences of that and i think the implications of all this are yet to come and we are told see a different map in the middle east obviously it a new imbalance in the region not a new balance and i think in them biggest losers in this whole war i that absolve together on the in the collision an

outside and the biggest winners are going to be as that early on and turkey is well i think yeah i think that clearly a lot of arab world arabs who put their money on saddam hussein are going to be big loses but i wouldn't at this point say that the sat is actually to get the country back to a smaller and rats at egypt i wouldn't say they're going to be the moses i would say have they come out rather strong particular is that since they've shown it's metal and they stood by us and that they could be seen as the great allies and so the eu has not been to try to break them apart we have to go there and geoffrey kemp thank you very much again president bush announced tonight that they allied ground war against iraq began earlier this evening the president called it the final phase in the liberation of kuwait later secretary of defense cheney said the air land and sea campaign was carefully planned the force iraq out of kuwait with a minimum number of casualties is that it was an extremely complex military operation with

thousands of lives at risk as a result he said a news blackout would be imposed for the time being also this evening the british and french governments issued statements saying that their forces were drawing the ground campaign tonight's action came about eight hours after the deadline set by president bush for a rocket just to leave kuwait earlier today the vice chairman of iraq's revolutionary command council rejected that automated imagine and i run with say on monday night have a nice what's left of those difficult weekend on world bank and it now i guess