74                                       U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 19901991

   Q.   General, you `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 farces 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.  And one of the reasons is the reason you cite:
that's because it's necessary to lay those people to rest for a lot of reasons, and
that happens.
   So I would probably say no, there will never be an exact count.   Probably
in the days to come, you're going to hear many, many stories, either overin-
flated or underinflated, depending upon whom you hear them from.   The people
who will know the 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 times, and the theories
about where these Kuwaiti hostages are--perhaps Basra, perhaps Baghdad--
where could they be? And was the timing for the stan of the ground campaign
a purely military choice, or was it a military choice with political influence on
the choice of date?
   A:  That's two questions. When I say the gate is closed, I don't want to give
you the impression that absolutely nothing is escaping.    Quite the contrary.
What isn't escaping is heavy tanks. What isn't escaping is artillery pieces. What
isn't escaping is that sort of thing.
   That doesn't mean that civilian vehicles aren't escaping. That doesn't mean
that innocent civilians aren't escaping.  That doesn't mean that unarmed Iraqis
aren't escaping.  And that's not the gate I'm talking about. I'm talking about
the gate that has closed on the war machine that is out there
   The timing for the beginning of the ground campaign, we made military
analyses of when that ground campaign should be conducted. I gave my recom-
mendation to the secretary of defense and General Colin Powell.  They passed
that recommendation on to the president, and the president acted upon that
recommendation.
   Why, do you think we did it at the wrong time?    (Laughter)

   Q.   I'm wondering zf your recommendation and analysis were accepted
without change.
   A:  I'm very thankful for the fact that the president of the United States has
allowed the United States military and the coalition military to fight this war
exactly as it should have been fought. And the president in every case has taken
our guidance and our recommendations to heart and has acted superbly as the
commander in chief of the United States.
Thank you very much. (Map 7)