Military

DATE=3/6/02

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=MCINERNEY AFGHAN

NUMBER=3-77

BYLINE=TOM CROSBY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

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HOST: U.S.-led troops continue to meet stiff resistance as they battle al-Qaeda and Taleban forces in Afghanistan's Paktia province. And U-S commanders expect the fighting to continue for at least a week.

Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Tom McInerney tells V-O-A News Now's Tom Crosby the fierce nature of this latest battle comes as no surprise.

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: The fact is they probably got more than they initially envisioned. They had enough forces going in there, so they knew there was a fairly large force, but I think, as it turned out, it surprised them in some degree in what they were able to do. And of course the helicopter can be vulnerable, particularly at altitude -- at any altitude -- but when it is low down to the ground there in high elevation it makes it vulnerable for them.

MR. CROSBY: And add to that the cold temperatures, that affect the operation of helicopters, too.

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: Absolutely, yes. But it is primarily the elevation. They are up at six-thousand to seven-thousand, eight-thousand feet I think.

MR. CROSBY: And that means they can carry fewer troops into combat?

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: That is correct, they have got to carry a lighter load. But it is still a good high-altitude helicopter. I know when I was in Alaska we used them up there in the mountains, in Denali Mountain and Mount McKinley, sometimes in rescue operations. So it is a very good helicopter. But under combat conditions, when they are being fired at by R-P-G's, rocket-propelled grenades, and machinegun fire, it is vulnerable.

MR. CROSBY: From day one, though, of the conflict in Afghanistan, you have had some reservations, haven't you, about putting U.S. troops on the ground and keeping them operational there? Do you have some concerns, the same concerns, as they fight in Paktia Province?

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: Yes. Here are what my reservations are: We want the Afghanis to retake Afghanistan. And it is very important that we do not have heavy mission creep there and become bogged down and try to fight a land war. I think we have got to bias this asymmetrically. Our strength is with air power. And that is where I think we ought to be putting most of the effort. And when we know in the general vicinity, then we can put a lot of firepower in bombs there. We have dropped now, I think it is, upwards of almost 400-450 bombs. I think I just heard that on the evening news. So there is certainly enough now. The question is, was there enough before?

But when you are in combat, you can not second-guess. You don't know what is going to happen. If you did, it would be entirely different. You do not. We do know that they are going to reconstitute. That is what they are trying to go after now, this reconstitution by al-Qaida and Taliban. And what is happening is they are coming across the Pakistani border. A lot of them got out before, and now they are coming back across to try to form up to create a problem for the Karzai government. And with the warlords and all the other problems, this is a challenge. This will be a challenge.

So that is why General Franks made the decision to go after them. And as I have said, we know we are going to have to do this, and it is just a fact of life. The question is how much we do it and how we fight it.

MR. CROSBY: When we talk about how we fight it, of course this fighting is near the town of Gardez. Gardez has always been a region and a city where the Taliban had some pretty strong support. That must be giving General Franks some concerns, having to look both toward the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the mountains and perhaps some activity in the city.

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: Yes. I think what he was trying to do was to get it so it could not get to the city. We do know there are a lot of sympathizers in Gardez, and there are obviously Taliban and al-Qaida in Gardez -- let us not be naive. The question is, how many? Have they come out or are they still lying low? And I think that is something not only in Gardez but in a whole host of other cities throughout Afghanistan.

MR. CROSBY: Does this suggest to you that the campaign needs to be waged perhaps facing a couple of directions at the same time?

LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: Yes, it will. And that is why I think we need an international force in there as well for peacekeeping, to get that stability, a larger one, not only in Kabul but throughout Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, and other cities. And it should be an international force.

HOST: Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Tom McInerney speaking with V-O-A News Now's Tom Crosby from Vail, Colorado.

NEB/TC/RAE