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Saturday Morning News

Should the U.S. Send Strong Military Messages to Iraq?

Aired February 17, 2001 - 7:10 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Here now with his perspective on the allied air strikes against Iraq is retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, who served in the Air Force for 35 years.

Good morning, general, thanks for being with us.

LT. GEN. THOMAS MCINERNEY (RETIRED), U.S. AIR FORCE: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Just based on what you've seen about the strikes, the amount of force used, was it an appropriate use of force and a judicious use of force from your perspective?

MCINERNEY: Yes, I think it was, particularly at this stage. I think they're going to have to up the ante, though, because Mr. Hussein just is not going to change. They had probably 60 aircraft in this total package, 24 were actually strike airplanes. But in the future, we're going to have to do something different.

O'BRIEN: All right, you say in the future. How soon? Is this something that is going to lead to further attacks sooner rather than later, or is this going to be, as it has been for the past few years, periodically seeing these sorts of strikes?

MCINERNEY: No, I don't think this administration's going to take this gradualism approach. Saddam escalated it with the firing of 60- plus missiles in a month period or so, and, in other words, he wants to take an American airplane down for a reason.

Now, the administration's going to have to decide, they've done it for 10 years, do they want to continue doing this? I suggest they go, and I'm sure they will, because this is the inventor of the disproportionate response, rather than take out air defense systems and the like, like they have doing, they should let Mr. Hussein know that if he continues this process, then we're going to escalate it very decisively.

We have the most potent weapons system ever developed, the B-2C, or the B-2, that in fact can drop 16 2,000-pound bombs. And what you do, you go after his palaces, you go after the Republican Guards, you go after oil-producing sites.

In other words, you take his personal wealth and his personal control, and you let him know it. You let him know it diplomatically. The secretary of state's going to be in the Middle East very shortly. He'll talk to our allies over there and he'll say, Look, we're no longer going to tolerate this. Ten years is long enough.

O'BRIEN: So you're predicting, then, somewhat, at least, from the U.S. perspective, an escalation here in the Middle East and Iraq.

MCINERNEY: No, I'm predicting that if Mr. Hussein continues to escalate, that we will respond disproportionately, and we should. America and the world is tired of 10 years, and taking out radar sites and command and control sends a signal, but you've got to do more than that.

You've got to go at him like we did Milosevic. We went after his personal wealth, his residence, his television stations, his police stations, these type things that actually harbor his control or challenge his control.

O'BRIEN: Of course, the senior Bush 10 years ago was able to cobble together a fairly cohesive coalition, a tremendous accomplishment. This time around, if in fact the U.S. tries to strike at other targets, as you suggest, won't it be difficult to get the world on the U.S. side here?

MCINERNEY: No, I think they'll do it diplomatically. That was the most extraordinary coalition maybe ever assembled, but certainly since World War II. And President Bush, Senior, gets great credit for it. The team that he's brought -- that George W. Bush has brought back in will again start to try to reassemble it. You can't do it, because you don't have that overt aggression like you had before. But they will quietly and diplomatically reassemble parts of that coalition, the key parts that they'll need.

O'BRIEN: Thomas McInerney, retired general with the U.S. Air Force, looking at the military aspects of this for us. We appreciate your time, sir, and we'll check in with you later.

MCINERNEY: Thanks, Miles.

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