This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts 9-16-01

A transcription excerpt from ABC-TV's This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts — September 16, 2001

Cokie Roberts:

Well now for some more analysis, we turn to ABC's John McWethy at the Pentagon: Uh, the Secretary (Rumsfeld) of course did not give us details about what the military is planning, but he threw out the possibility of the use of ground troops. What are you hearing?

John McWethy: Cokie, I am hearing that they are prepared to pull out all the stops. You heard the Secretary doing a number of important things: he's communicating to the American public; he's communicating to the news media. But this is going to be a different kind of fight. The nation must prepare themselves for a different reality. One of those realities is probably going to be casualties among American forces. The American public has had in the past few years little tolerance for casualties. He is saying we're going to have to probably put some kinds of troops on the ground in other countries, to go after people who are believed to be responsible for these attacks.

And the American people must understand that there are risks in that kind of operation. In the past the United States have not been willing to risk those casualties, and that is the reason that we have not sent troops in, uh, Afghanistan, for example, when it was believed that Osama bin Laden was responsible for other terrorist attacks. He's talking about fifty to sixty other countries, in which the U.S. believes there are terrorist cells, including the United States, I might add. All of those countries are being put on notice, by the U.S., uh, that the U.S. needs a different level of cooperation.

There is going to be an "Us" verses "Them" kind of situation for the United States. Uh, a lot of this is going to be law enforcement and diplomacy, but there is definitely going to be military action. There are going to be bombs dropping, uh, and there are probably going to be troops on the ground, Cokie.

Cokie Roberts: Thanks very much. John McWethy at the Pentagon.

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A transcription excerpt from ABC-TV's This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts — September 16, 2001
Cokie Roberts:	Well now for some more analysis, we turn to ABC's John McWethy at the Pentagon: Uh, the Secretary (Rumsfeld) of course did not give us details about what the military is planning, but he threw out the possibility of the use of ground troops. What are you hearing?

John McWethy:	Cokie, I am hearing that they are prepared to pull out all the stops. You heard the Secretary doing a number of important things: he's communicating to the American public; he's communicating to the news media. But this is going to be a different kind of fight. The nation must prepare themselves for a different reality. One of those realities is probably going to be casualties among American forces. The American public has had in the past few years little tolerance for casualties. He is saying we're going to have to probably put some kinds of troops on the ground in other countries, to go after people who are believed to be responsible for these attacks.