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16

~now about, that we went to extraordinary lengths to try and prevent that type of
thing from happening.  It's a terrible tragedy, and I'm sorry that it happened.

      Q:   (Inaudible)
      A:   I don't know, I'm sorry. I don't believe so because I believe the informa-
tion I have that a forward air controller was involved in directing that, and that
w~uld indicate that it was probably during the afternoon.  But it was when there was
very, very close con~t going on out there in that area

      Q:   The United Nations General Assembly was talking about peace. As a military
man, you look at your challenge,  and you can get some satisfaction out of having
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 assignment as a
military man separate from the political goals of the.
      A:   Do I fear a cease fire?

      Q:   Do you fear that you will not be able to accomplish your end, that there
will be some political pressure brought on the catnpaign?
      A:   I think I've made it very clear to everybody that I'd ~ust as soon the war
had never started, and I'd ~ust as soon never have lost a single life Out there.
That was not our choice.  We've accomplished our mission, and when 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-l0 returning from a mission discovered and
     destroyed 16 SCUDs.  15 that a fa~t, and where were they located?
)          A: Nost of those SCUDs were located in western Iraq.  We went into this with
     some intelligence estimates that I think I have since come to believe were either
     grossly inaccurate1 or our piloLs are lying through their teeth, and I choose to
     thinic the former rather than the latter, particularly since many of the pilots have
     backed up what they've been saying by film and tflat sort of thing. But we went in
     with a ~ery, very low number of these mobile erector launchers that we thought the
     enemy had. However, at one point we had a report that they may have had ten times as
     ~ny.   I would tell you, though, that last night the pilots had a very, very
     successful afternoon and night as far as the mobile erector launchers.  Most of them
     in western Iraq were reportealy used against Israel.

      Q:   Tou've said many 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 accounting or head counts made or anything 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, raany stories -- either over-inflated or under-in-
flated, depending upon who you hear them from.  The people who will know best,
unfortunately, are the fartdlies that won't see their loved ones come home~

           0.  If the gate is indeed closed, as you said several times, and the theories
     about where these Kuwaiti hostages are -- perhaps ~asra, perhaps Baghdad, where could
)         bt'.  ~ quick second question, was the timing for the start of the ground
     carnpaign a purely military choice, or was it a military choice with political
     influence on the final choice of dates?

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