Pessimism at White House This Morning
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's get a quick look at the latest developments in the crisis with Iraq. U-2 surveillance flights over Iraq were suspended Tuesday by the U.N. after Iraq scrambled jets to intercept them. Apparently there was a breakdown in communications. But the U.S. wants the spy planes back in the skies. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used the flight suspensions to further criticize Iraq. He says Baghdad is not cooperating with inspectors. Iraq destroys more of those Al Samoud 2 missiles, which the U.N. says fly too far. Since March 1st, Iraq has crushed about half of its arsenal of some 120 missiles. Well, despite the destruction of those missiles, there is pessimism at the White House this morning. That's because it still doesn't have the votes to pass a resolution that would give them the green light for an attack on Iraq. Our senior White House correspondent John King has more now.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's presence for a morning meeting on the war plans underscored the White House message.</s>ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, the president thinks that there is a little room for a little more diplomacy, but not much time. Any suggestion of 30 days, 45 days is a non-starter.</s>KING: The White House wants a Security Council vote this week and is willing to push its March 17th deadline for Iraq to fully disarm back only a few days, a week at the most. The president once again worked the phones looking for support, lobbying leaders with three Security Council swing votes -- Angola, Chile and Mexico. Mr. Bush also compared notes with two key European allies, Prime Ministers Asnar of Spain and Berlusconi of Italy. France has promised to veto any resolution clearing the way for war to a blunt White House response.</s>FLEISCHER: It is too risky to have a laissez-faire attitude about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. This is a real problem because the resolutions at the United Nations call for immediate and full disarmament.</s>KING: Congress gave its blessing to war in Iraq five months ago. But some leading Democrats now say Mr. Bush is in too much of a rush.</s>SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: In many corners of the world, the United States is seen as manufacturing a crisis in Iraq, not responding to one.</s>KING: The U.S. deployment now tops 225,000 troops and sources tell CNN that CIA Director George Tenet's daily briefing to the president now includes the assessment of the risk that U.S. forces and embassies in the region will come under terrorist attack in the event of war. (on camera): White House officials say the best hope now may be a moral victory of sorts, a Council majority in favor of the new resolution only then to have it die because of a French veto. And these officials say Mr. Bush has little patience left for the United Nations and is engaged in this intense last minute diplomacy mostly because it is so important to his chief ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. John King, CNN, the White House.</s>WHITFIELD: Well, let's see how this last minute diplomacy is playing out in Britain. Tony Blair is under intense political pressure from within his own Labor Party. Our senior European political correspondent Robin Oakley is in London with more -- and, Robin, just like John was saying, Blair has as much to lose as Bush, if not more.</s>ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, Fredricka. Tony Blair is under massively increasing pressure and that pressure has now been enormously increased by Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, by his suggestion that maybe it's going to come to the U.S. going for military action against Saddam Hussein on its own, without necessarily having British participation and with Pentagon officials apparently briefing that British troops could be given non-combat tasks. And the problem for that, for Tony Blair, is that people in his own party who don't want him engaged in military action against Saddam Hussein without the blessing of the U.N. Security Council are saying marvelous. Donald Rumsfeld has given you the exit strategy. There's no need for Britain to get involved. Come back with us and do what the party wants, do what British public opinion wants, don't get involved in military action. So Tony Blair has got enough problems already with Clair Short, one member of his cabinet threatening to resign if he goes for action without U.N. backing and others threatening, too, that they would join Claire Short in that protest. And now there's even talk of a leadership challenge to Tony Blair within his own party -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow, a lot on the line. So, Robin, if, say, you know, Blair steps back on support and Britain somehow removes itself from this entire process, what does that do possibly, potentially, to the relationship between Great Britain and the U.S. for the long haul?</s>OAKLEY: Well, yes, it would not be good news for that relationship. But I don't think it's really going to happen that way, Fredricka. People close to Tony Blair say that he is -- his mind is set on this, that he is totally convinced of the need for military action against Saddam Hussein, that even if he doesn't get that second U.N. Security Council resolution, which he'd like for political cover, that he will still commit British troops to this enterprise alongside George Bush. So I don't think we're going to have that problem. I think Tony Blair's enduring problems are going to be with his own party and he's probably going to have to rely on support from the conservative opposition in the British parliament to get votes through the House of Commons -- Frederick.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, a whole lot on the line on both sides. Thanks very much, Robin. Well, the U.S. Air Force has released video of the final test of a massive bomb. But the images are really meant for Iraq. Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more on the weapon known in military circles as the mother of all bombs.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The MOAB carries 18,000 pounds of high explosives and on impact creates a 10,000 foot high mushroom like cloud that looks and feels like a nuclear weapon. The new bomb is an upgrade of the Vietnam era daisy cutter, a 15,000 pound bomb originally designed to clear vegetarian and create an instant landing zone for helicopters. More recently, it was used to kill and demoralize al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Even if the MOAB is never used in Iraq, the Pentagon admits it could still pack a psychological wallop.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The goal is to have the capabilities of the coalition so clear and so obvious that there's an enormous disincentive for the Iraqi military to fight.</s>MCINTYRE: MOAB is short for massive ordinance air blast. But it's picked up the name mother of all bombs. At 21,000 pounds total weight, it's too big to be carried by most planes, so for now it can only be dropped by a modified C-130. And unlike its predecessor, which was dropped by parachute, the new bomb has a state-of-the-art satellite guidance system. It's technically not ready for combat, but like the Predators armed with Hellfire missiles, it could be pressed into service before it's fully tested.</s>GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Anything we have in the arsenal, anything that's in almost any stage of development could be used. We did that in Desert Storm. You may remember the joint stars. We could do that with capabilities here.</s>MCINTYRE (on camera): One practical limitation of the 10 ton air blast bomb is that it can't be used in highly populated areas because of the U.S. military's goal to minimize civilian casualties. But if, for instance, a Republican Guard division was caught isolated in the desert, it could be obliterated in a single blow, sending a demoralizing message to the rest of the Iraqi Army. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>WHITFIELD: And our Miles O'Brien has checked into the big bomb and much of the U.S. military's arsenal. We'll give him a wake up call next hour to talk more about all of it. u