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File: DOC_81_CENTCOM_NEW_BRIEF_008.txt
Page: 008
Total Pages: 16

6

      0:   You said the Iraqis have got th~se divisions alon~ the border which were
seriously attritted.   It figures to be about 200,000 troops, maybe, that were there.
You've got 50,000 prisoners.  where are the rest of them?
      A:   Therc were a very, very large n~ber of dead in these units -- a very, very
large number of dead.  We even found them, when we went into the units ourselves, we
found them in the trench lines.  There were very heavy desertions.   At one point we
had reports of desertion rates of rnore than 30 percent of the units that were along
the front here.  As you know' we had quite a large number of POW'S that caine across,
so I think it's a conbination of desertions, of people that were killed, of the
people that we've captured, and of some other people who are just flat still running.

      0:   It seems you? ve done so much, that the job is effectively done.   Can I ask
you, what do you think really needs inore to be done?  His forces are1   if not
destroyed,  certainly no longer capable of posing a threat to the region.    They seein
to want to go horne.  What more has to be done?
      A:   If I'm to accornp).ish the mission that I was given, and that's to ina~e sure
that the ~epublican Guard is rendered incapable of conducting the type of heinous
acts that they've conducted so often in the past, what has to be done is these forces
continue to attack across here, and put the ~epublican Guard out of business.     We're
not in the business of killing them.   We h~ve psy op~ aircraft up.    ~e're telling
them over and over again,  all you've got to do is get out of your tanks and move off,
and you will not be killed.   But they're continuing to fight,   and as long as they
continue to fight, we're going to continue to fight with them.

      0:   That move on the ~~tre~~ left which got within 150 miles of ~aghdaa., was it
al~o a part of the plan that the Iraqis might have thought it was going to Baghdad,
and would that have contributed to the deception?
      A:   I wouldn't have minded at all if they'd 9otten a little bit nervous about
it.   ~ ~ean that, very sincerely. I would have been delighted if they had gotten
very, very nervous about it.  Frankly, I don't think they ever knew it was there.
think they never knew it was there until the door had already been closed on them

      Q:   I'm wondering how much resistance there still is in Kuwait, and I'm
wondering what you would say to people who would say the purpose of this war was to
9et the Iraqis out of Kuwait, and they're now out.  What would you say to that public
that is thinking that right now?
      A:   ~ would say there was a lot more purpose to this war than )ust get the
Iraqis out of Kuwait.  The purpose of this war was to enforce the resolutions of the
United Nations.  There are some 12 different resolutions of the United Nations,  not
all of which have been accepted by Iraq to date, as I understand it.   ~ut I've got to
tell you, that in the business of the military, of a military commander, my job is
not to go ahead and at some point say that's great, they've just now pulled Out of
Kuwait -- even though they're still shooting at us, they're nioving backward, and
therefore,  I've accomplished my mission. That's not the way you fight it,  and that's
not th~ way I wOuld ever fight it.

     Q:  You talked about heavy press coverage of Irr~tnnent Thunder early on, and how
it helped fool the Iraqis into thinking that it was a serious operation.  I wondereA
if you could talk about other ways in which the pres~ contributed to the campaign.
(Laughter)
     A:  ~irst of all, I don't want to characterize Imminent. Thunder as being only a
~~~?t~~, ~rause it wasn't.     ~e had every intention of conducting amphibious
opcration5 if they were nece~sary, and that was a very, very real rehear~a~ - - a5
were the other rehearsals    I guess the one thing I would say to the press that I was
deli9hted with is in the very, very early stages of this Operation when we were over


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