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| ASSESSING THE DAMAGE | |
 December 17, 1998 
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JIM LEHRER: The At the Pentagon Defense Secretary Cohen and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Henry Shelton gave a joint briefing later. Cohen said there have been no U.S. casualties. He did not give estimates for Iraq. General Shelton said more than 50 targets were hit in yesterday's raid. Both men used the term "WMD factories," meaning facilities capable of producing weapons of mass destruction. |
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Only the second day. |
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JIM LEHRER:Here's an excerpt: SECRETARY COHEN: Our early assessment of the military action against Iraq shows that our forces are performing well. There have been no American casualties, and we are achieving good coverage of our targets, and, as a result, we are advancing our goal of containing Saddam Hussein. We're diminishing his ability to attack his neighbors, either conventionally or with weapons of mass destruction.
Our targets include Iraq's air defense system; its command and control system; air fields; and other military infrastructure, and facilities. One thing should be absolutely clear; we are concentrating on military targets. We are not attacking the people the people of Iraq. And we have no desire to increase the suffering that Saddam Hussein has imposed on his people. GENERAL SHELTON: I should warn you up front that there will not be the level of detail on either targets or the initial damage assessment that I know all of you would like to have. That kind of detail assessment either simply isn't available or, in some cases, would reveal too much about the ongoing operations. That said, I can tell you that last night our operations were executed very well, very professionally, and we're thankful that all our pilots and air crews returned safely. As I said last night, we can all be extremely proud of the men and women of our armed forces on duty around the world and particularly those in harm's way in the Persian Gulf. Last night's actions principally involved our naval forces in the Gulf, with more than 70 Navy and Marine Corps strike and strike support aircraft from the USS Enterprise, and well over 200 Tomahawk Cruise missiles launched from Navy ships. While I will not discuss any specific targets at this time, I can say that last night U.S. forces struck more than 50 separate targets, including attacks against targets outlined by Secretary Cohen, which included weapons of mass destruction sites and WMD security sites and security forces, Saddam's integrated air defense and airfields and the command and control infrastructure that supports Saddam's military and his regime. I have a couple of examples of damage that I can share with you at this time. The first example is of the Baghdad director of military intelligence headquarters in Iraq. The way this is broken down, we have an area one, which shows the - photo - this happens to be "the" building right here, along with one of the ancillary buildings show over in this area that was also targeted. Down in this photo, where you - or in this photo up here, where you don't see anything but rubble, is what formerly was this building. And where you see in this case this building right here, you'll notice down here there's nothing left but rubble. Also, we'll take a look at Baghdad's barracks, brigade, and the Abu Gharab facilities, which are part of the special guards, special security guards. Here are their barracks shown in this area, area one, before the strike, along with the headquarters area up in this area. You see over here that this headquarters is now rubble. If you go from these barracks, the pre-strike to the post strike, you'll see out of the five barracks, four of the five were destroyed. We have a considerable amount of data coming back in. Much of it is as successful or more successful than this was; some of it - not quite as successful. But as you know, additional strike operations are underway even as we speak. REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, the Iraqi foreign minister said today that Saddam's sister's home had been hit by a missile, and I was wondering if - if U.S. forces are targeting Saddam's palaces, personal palaces, and was the strike on his sister's home intentional? SECRETARY COHEN: Well, the last time I checked Saddam had something like 80 palaces. I don't know that any one is his residence, and frankly, I wouldn't get into a discussion of targets at this point. We are targeting military - or militarily related targets, period. REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, after you have destroyed many of these facilities and after you have gone after different military targets in Iraq, if Saddam Hussein does not yield in some way, what is the bottom line for the United States? SECRETARY COHEN: The bottom line is, as I indicated, we're going to continue to contain him. Containment has worked to this point. He has been unable to seriously reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction program, to rebuild his military. He's been contained from going North, and the South as well. He has been in a box. He's had two objectives for sometime now. One objective is to get rid of the inspectors. The second objective is to get rid of the sanctions. He has felt all along that he could frustrate, deny, obstruct -- in any way deprive the inspectors from carrying out their obligations, and also seeks support in changing their effectiveness, either their professionalism or their leadership. And secondly, he is looking for, "a comprehensive review that will lead to a lifting of the sanctions," so that he will have relief from both of the burdens that he currently is faced with. We intend to keep the sanctions in place. We intend to keep our forces ready. In the event he seeks to reconstitute again or threaten his neighbors, we will take military - be prepared to take military action once again. So we intend to continue the containment policy. REPORTER: Upon hitting his Republican guards, General, you are, in fact, reducing his power base. And I would ask if there's any other - any type of plans you can tell us about that will continue to reduce the power base, de-stabilize Saddam Hussein, and isn't it a policy to get rid of Saddam Hussein, isn't that at least a long range goal? GENERAL SHELTON: Well, I will not discuss in any further detail the specific targets that we've got. It's an ongoing operation. We're only in day two right now, but what I would say is that we have a - we have a plan that we are pursuing right now. It is designed to accomplish the objectives that were outlined by Secretary Cohen, to reduce his ability to threaten his neighbors, to degrade his WMD capability. Anything else that would influence the - weaken his regime would be value added. REPORTER: In this first round of strikes did you hit the last known whereabouts of Saddam Hussein? GENERAL SHELTON: We have not been tracking Saddam Hussein by day and Saddam Hussein was not the - an objective established for this operation. JIM LEHRER: Iraq's health minister said 25 people died and 75 were injured in Baghdad alone last night. Television crews there surveyed some of the damage today. World reaction was predictably mixed. |
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| Damage in the Bagdad. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: We have more from Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News.
LINDSEY HILSUM: Iraqi TV showed a still picture of Saddam Hussein and broadcast his radio address to the nation. "God will make you victorious," he said, "while they will gain nothing but shame." Those against the bombing made strong statements.
He said what had happened was unacceptable, while the Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, said the attacks were unprovoked. France has blamed Saddam Hussein for provoking the attack, but is a reluctant U.S. ally. The French foreign ministers said they deplored the strikes and their serious human consequences. While many European parliamentarians objected, most of their governments have expressed support for the American and British action. Iranian Television reported the stray missile, which missed its target in Southern Iraq and hit Iranian territory. The government there hates Saddam Hussein but has condemned the bombing. In Egypt, students protested. In the West Bank Palestinians reacted angrily. "Clinton, you coward, go look for women," they shouted. One demonstrator was killed by Israeli troops, and the Israelis, remembering the Iraqi Scud attacks during the Gulf War, today wield their Patriot missiles back out into the desert.
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And
since Iraq has now prevented the United Nations inspectors from doing
their job, we have to resort to military action to continue to contain
him. 
LINDSEY
HILSUM: Daylight revealed to Baghdad residents the damage to their city.
As yet, it's not extensive. The Iraqi authorities took journalists to
see the wounded in hospital. A Baghdad doctor has said two people were
killed and thirty injured so far, mostly, it seems, burned in the blast.
SPOKESMAN:
They want to dissolve the Iraqi mass destruction weapons in order to
lie to the world, to the whole world that Iraq still possessing mass
destruction weapons. Just like that - cheap lies in order to deceive
the world, in order to have the pretext to commit aggression against
Iraq. 
The
Chinese foreign minister urged the U.S. to stop bombing now. President
Yeltsin rose from his sickbed to follow events.