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dc~troycd two znorc tod~y.   I wO~i~d say tha~ le~vc'; us ~ co~~lc tnat w~' r*~ ~~~
procc&s of fightin9 riy1it now.

      Q:   Did you ti0ink this would turn out,  I realize a great dcal of ~trategy and
planning went into it, but when it took place, did you think this would turn out to
be such an easy cake walk as it seems?     And secondly, what are your ~~P~es3iOns of
Saddam Hussein as a military ~trategist     (L~ughter)
      A:   First of all, if we thought it would have been such an easy fight, wc
definitely would not have stocked 60 day's worth of supplies on these log bases.       As
I've told you all for a very, very long time, it is very, very important for a
military commander never to assume away the capabilities of his enemy.    ~hen you're
facing an enemy that is over 500,000 Strong, has the reputation they've h1d of
fighting for eight years, being combat-hardened veterans, has a nurber of tanks and
the type of equipment they had, you don't assume away anything.     So we~certainly did
not expect it to go this way.

      As far as Saddam liussein being a great military strategist,   he is neither a
strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is
he a general,  nor is he a soldier.    Other L~han that, he's a great rnl.litary man. I
want you to know that.   (Laughter)

      Q:   I wonder if you could tell us anything more about Iraqi casualtiea on the
battlefield you Said there were large numbers.    Are we talking thousands, tens of
thousands?   ~ny more scale you can give us?
      A:   I wish I could answer that question.   You can imagine,  this h~s been a very
fast-moving battle,  as is desert warfare.   As a result, even tod~y when I was asking
for estimates, every commander out there said we just can't give you an estimate.       It
went too fast, we've gone by too quickly.

      Q:   Very quickly, the special operations folks -- could you tell us what their
front role was?
      A:   we don't like to talk a lot about what the special operations do, as you're
well aware    But in this case, let me just cover some of the things they did.      First
of all, with every single Arab unit that went Into battle,   we had special forces
troops with them.   The job of those special forces was to travel and live right do~n
at the battalion level with all those people to make aure they could act as the
communicators with friendly Knglish-speaking units that were on their flanks, and
they could also call in air strikes as necessary, they could coordinate helicopter
strikes, and that sort of thing.    ?hat's one of the principle roles they played1    and
it was -a veryr very Important role.    Secondly, they did a great job in strategic
reconnaissance for us.   Thirdly, the special forces were 100 percent in charge of the
combat search and rescue,  and that's a tough mission.   When a pilot gets shot down
out there in the middle of nowhere,    surrounded by the enemy, and you're the folks
that are required to go in and go after them, that is a very tough mission, and that
was one of their missions.   Finally,   they also did some direct action ~~ssions,
period.

      Q:   General, there have beeo reports that when the Iraqis left Kuwait City they
took with tnem a number of the Kuwaiti people as hostages.    What can you tell us
about this?
      A:   We've heard that they took up to ~0,000.    I think you've probably heard th
Y~%~aitiC t~emselves who were left in the city state that they were taking people, ard
that they have taken them.   So I ~0n't think there's any question about the fact th?
there was a very,  very large nur~er of young Kuwaiti nales ta};en out of that~city
within the last week or two.   But that pales to insignificance compared to the

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