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File: doc53_14.txt
A : t don' t kno~, 1)ut we' ic Sui('. (joilly ~0 find O:jt 5 f th2r~' cilythin0 lC:f~
The SCUD:, that were being fired a9.~inst Saudi Ardbia came from ric;ht here. So
obviously, one of the things we'r~~ goin9 to check on wijei ~e f:n~l~y Set to that
location 15 ~at'~ left.
Q: Could You tell u3 in terms of the air war, of how effective you think it
was in ~peeding up the ground campaign Obviously, it's gone much faster than you
ever expected. As a second part of that, how effective do you think the air/land
battle cafl~aign has been?
A: The air war, obviously, was very, very effective. You just can't predict
about t1~ings like that. You can make your best estimates at the outset as to how
quickly you will accomplish certain objectives, but of Course, a lot of that depends
on the enemy and how resilient the enemy is, how tough they are, how well dug in they
are. In the earlier phases we made great progress in the air war. In the latter
stages we didn't make a lot of progress because frankly, the enemy had.burrowed down
into the ground as result of the air war. That, of course, made the air war a little
bit tougher, but when you dig your tanks in and bury them, they're no longer tanks.
They're now pill boxes. That, then, makes a difference in the ground campaign When
you don't run them for a long time they have seal problems, they have a~lot of
maintenance problems and that type of thin9. So the air campaign was very, very
successful and contributed a great deal.
Ho,' effective as the air/ground campai9n? I think it was pretty effective
myself. I don't know what you all think.
Q: Can you tell us what you thin,:' as you look down the oad would be a
reasonable Size for the Iraqi Ariny, and can you tell us roughly what the Size is no~;
if the war were to stop this evening?
A: With regard to the size right flOw, at one time Saddam Hussein was claiming
that he had a seven million man amy. If he's got a seven ir':illion man army, they've
still got a Pretty big army out there. ~o,' effective that army is, is an entirely
different question.
With regard to the size of the army he should have, I don't think that's my job
to decide that. I think there are an awful lot of people that live in this part of
the world, and I would hope that is a decision that's arrived at mutually by all the
people in this part of the world to contribute to peace and stability in this part of
the world. I think that's the best answer I can give.
Q: you said the gate was closed. Have you got ground forces blocking the
roads to Basra?
A: No.
Q: Is there any way they can get Out that way?
A: No. (Laughter; That's ~hy the 9ate's closed.
Q: Is there a military or Political explanation as to why the Iraqis did not
use chemical weapons?
A: We had a lot of questions about why the Iraqis didn't use chemical weapons,
and I don't know the answer. I just thank Cod that they didn't.
I it possible they didn't use them because they didn't have time to react?
A: You want me to speculate, I'll be delighted to speculate. Nobody can ever
pin you down when you speculate. Number one: we destroyed their artillery. We went
after their artillery big time. They had major desertions in their artillery, and
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