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~now about,  L~at WL" went t,) ~XtL,1.orUifla~y len~ths to tty ad .~L~v~iit t~t ty1e of
thin9 from happenin9    It'j ~ terrible tragedy, and I'm sorry t1-.t it happ~n~1       .

       Q:   (Inau~ible)
       ~:  I don't know, I'm sorry.  I don't believe so because I believe the info~a
tion X ha~e that a forward air controller was involved in directirg that,       and that
would indicate that it was probably during the afternoon.     But it was ~hen there wa
very,  very Close combat going on out there in that area.

       0:  The United Nations General Assembly was talkin9 about peace.       As a ~~litary
ma n
      you look at your challenge,  and you can get some satisfaction out of havin9
achieved it.   Is there some fear on your part that there will be a cease fire that
will keep you from fulfilling the assignment that you have?     Is yoUr assigajn~~~ as a
military man separate from the political goals of the..
       A:  Do I fear a cease f~re?

       Q:  Do you fear that you will not be able to acconiplish your end,     that there
will be some political pressure brought on the campai9n?
       A:  I thin~ I've made it very clear to everybody that I'd just as soo~ the war
had never started, and I'd just as soon never have lost a single life out there.
That was not our choica.   We've accomplished our mission,   and ~hen the decision~mak~
ers come to the decision that there should be a cease fire,    nobody will be happier
than me.

       Q:  We were told today that an A-lO returning from a mi5SioŁ~ discovered and
destroyed 16 SCUDs.   Is that a fact, and where were they located?
       A:  ?~`ost of those SCUDs were located in western Iraq.  ~e -~en~ into this with -
some intelli~ence estimates that I thin): I have since Come to believe were either
grossly inaccurate, or our piloLs are lying throu~h their teeth,    and I choose to
thin): the former rather than the latter, particularly since rulany of the pilots have
backed up what they've been saying by film and that sort of thin~.        But we went in
with a ~ery,  very low number of these mobile erector launchers that we thought the
enemy had.   ~owever, at one point we had a report that they n~y have had ten tir~e& as
many.   1 would tell you, thou9h,  that last night the pilots had a very, very
Successful afternoon and night as far as the mobile erector launchers.        Yost of them
in ~estern Iraq were reportedly used against Israel.

       Q:  You've said rany times in the past that you do not like body counts.
You've also told us tonight that enemy casualties~were very,    very large.     I'm
wondering with the coalition forces already burying the dead on the battlefield, will
there ever be any sort of accountin9 or bead Counts made or anythin9 like that?
       A:  I don't think there's ever been, ever in the history of warfare, been a
Successful count of the dead.   One of the reasons for...    That's because It's
necessary to lay those people to rest,  for a lot of reasons,   and that happens.    So I
would say that no, there will never be an exact count.   Probably in the days to come
you're probably going to hear many, many stories -- either over-inflated or under-in-
flated, depending upon who you hear them from.   The people who will know best,
unfortunately,  are the families that won't see their loved ones come home.

       Q:  If the gate is indeed closed, as you said several tines,   and the theories
about where these Kuwaiti hostages are -- perhaps Basra,  perhaps Baghdad, where could
th~y be?    A quick second question, was the timin9 for the start ot the 9round
campaign a pure~y military choice,  or was it a military choice with political
influence on the fina~ choicc of dates?

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