Author:
Publication: CNBC
Date: August 8, 2003
But first, it's been 100 days since
the end of the combat phase of the Iraq war, and today President Bush said
they're making significant progress toward democracy in Iraq. But it's
also been a violent week for US troops and civilians. A deadly car bomb
ripped into the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, killing 19. Three more soldiers
were killed in separate incidents. US forces face guerrilla-style attacks
now on almost a daily basis. So where do we stand really after those 100
days? We're joined now by retired general and NBC News military analyst
Barry McCaffrey.
Give us some sense of the trend
here. Are things getting better or are things getting worse?
General BARRY McCAFFREY (US Army,
Retired; NBC News Military Analyst): Well, first of all, I think it's going
to be confused for at least a year.
MURRAY: A year?
McCAFFREY: Yeah. The good news is--the
good news is all sorts of the economic and political underlying factors
are getting better--there's no question about it--newspapers are opening,
the food problem, the hospital problem, communication getting better. The
bad news is we're now seeing some very sophisticated attacks on American
troops. Many of them are foreign fighters. A lot them are using clearly
not improvised explosives but some real training's going into this.
MURRAY: More organized, more focus
than before.
McCAFFREY: Yeah. Yeah. And I think
it's several different factors. It's not just criminal dead-enders. It's
not just the Fedayeen and the Ba'athist regime in their dying gasps. Some
of it's nationalists are now coming out, the Sunni Muslims. And more importantly,
I think we're going to see this become a magnet for terrorism. Now one
can argue, and I certainly would, better we fight terrorists in Iraq than
in the streets of New York. But I think that's what's happening.
MURRAY: Well, you say that these
are foreigners. Are they coming into the country now or were they there
at the time of the invasion?
McCAFFREY: A bunch of them were
there. Saddam brought them in. The fighting in Baghdad--a lot of the people
3rd Infantry Division were killing in their so-called thunder runs were
Assyrians, lots of them, some Pakistanis, some Saudis and others. Now I
think we may well be seeing some terrorist organizations that say, 'Look,
if you want to do jihad, if you want to die attacking Americans, Iraq is
the place to do it.'
MURRAY: There was a story out this
week that came from one of the commanders in Iraq saying that the bounty
available to people in Iraq who kill American soldiers has gone considerably,
to as much as $5,000 an attack. Where is that kind of money and organization
coming from?
McCAFFREY: Well, you know, Saddam
and his sons looted the treasury for the better part of 30-some-odd years,
so they've got lots of cash floating around.
MURRAY: So Saddam is somewhere handing
out $5,000 bounties?
McCAFFREY: I don't think so. I think
they had a pretty good scheme to go to ground when it was clear they were
going to lose. And they went to ground with caches of weapons, of explosives,
with money. And now we may also be seeing--again, Alan--Pakistani, Saudi,
Syrian and others coming in with outside sources.
MURRAY: One of the things that that's
forcing US forces to do is to conduct raids, to conduct roundups, to conduct
things that, frankly, irritate the citizens of Iraq. Is that--any danger
that causes a backlash?
McCAFFREY: Well, sure. And I notice
they're reacting to it. Lieutenant General Rick Sanchez, a very clever
officer, is running this whole ground area enterprise inside Iraq. But
I also think it would be very easy to overstate that. Much of the antipathy
is in the Sunni Muslim region, and it's among the hard-core leadership
of the Ba'athist regime. And to some extent we're going to have to stay
aggressive.
One of the reasons the cost of attacking
and killing an American has gone up is 'cause it's very dangerous work.
You know, shooting at the 3rd Infantry, the 4th Infantry Division is a
good way to get killed. And the ones who are willing to do that, lots of
them are now getting stuck in plastic handcuffs and hauled away.
MURRAY: Let's take a quick look
at what President Bush had to say about this today.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: (From
today) The best way to secure America is to get the enemy before they get
us, and that's what's happening in Iraq. And we're grateful for the sacrifices
of our soldiers. I said, Scott, right after September the 11th that this
war on terror is a different kind of war, and it's going to take a while
to win the war on terror. However long it takes to win the war on terror,
the administration is committed to doing that, because our most solemn
obligation is the protection of the American people.
MURRAY: Now you said it may take
another to really get things under control in Iraq. Can we tolerate another
year of the kind of violence we've seen this week?
McCAFFREY: Oh, no question. I mean,
the armed forces is up to doing this. You know, the United States Army--these
kids who enlist to serve in one of these combat brigades, they're very
tough, very well trained, very capable. It's dangerous, complex work. It's
ferociously uncomfortable. They miss their families. But as long as we've
got a scheme to maintain the true presence we require in Iraq, we're going
to be OK.
My concern is more likely to be
200,000 of our 900,000 reservists have been called up already, to what
extent we run into a bubble, a retention problem. And then finally, 73
percent of our Army brigades are now deployed. They're overseas. They're
fighting. We can't maintain this level unless we add to the active force.
MURRAY: Bring in more people. Yeah,
as you've been saying.
McCAFFREY: And I think we're going
to move in that direction in the coming months.
MURRAY: You think so?
McCAFFREY: Yeah, sure.
MURRAY: All right. General McCaffrey,
as always, great to have you on the show.
McCAFFREY: Good to be with you.
