REGNER: Well, right now there's no artillery going off, so I believe that you should be able to hear me fairly clearly. I'll just give you -- I'll give you an open one line or two here.
<br> As the Marine Expeditionary Force operations officer, it is my responsibility to the commander, as well it is my responsibility to the commanders that are actually engaged in the fight, to prepare them for all the necessities that they may face: to equip them, to make sure they've got the training, to make sure that they have what they need to in fact prosecute any type of enemy forces that places themselves in the way of freedom.
<br> I think that in the Marine Expeditionary Force we're very fortunate that we have the ground combat element that is fighting a daily fight; a Marine aviation wing that has delivered precise munitions for about the last four months, especially in the last two weeks; and throughout all this, you really can't make it come together, again in a Marine Expeditionary Force, if you don't have the logisticians.
<br> I'll just tell you that having been a MEU commander recently, it's a great step up to be in the MEF. But to be able to see all the hard-chargers that are putting this fight together, sustaining the fight, and trying to protect as many lives of young Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen, as well as the very, very few civilians that we have seen to date, just makes me feel really good that we've had as much success as we've had, even though, unfortunate, a few Marines and soldiers and Iraqis have paid the ultimate price for the freedom of what we're trying to do in Fallujah.
<br> ....
I'll just tell you that a regimental commander got a call from a tank commander. He had a fire team, which is normally about four Marines, up against a wall, and they were -- not machine gun, but sporadic fire all around them. They were talking about who was going to be the actor -- John Wayne was no longer with us, and who could play the role. And just then the Iraqis that were the -- not necessarily Iraqis, but the terrorists that were on the other side of the wall were screaming at these Marines. And while these guys were so focused, the guys that were putting the fire inside the building, and the Marines -- their morale was so high, they were talking about the battle of Fallujah and who would do the movie.
<br> In goes the weapons system that we used, a SMAW, which is a bunker-blaster -- goes into the building and blasts them. And within two or three seconds the Marines turn from the wall, run into the building, and the one or two that are after left in there, they take out everybody in the room. This is no kidding. This is street fighting. And these guys that are in these small pockets of resistance, some of them up to maybe squad size -- 10, 11, 12 of them -- very few are giving up. They're in there. They're fighting for the death. And they're making it difficult on Marines, but -- and soldiers.
<br> But I can tell you that based on today's activities, it seems like as the Marines now progress back up from the south to the north -- and they've broken out of battalion formations and are now in platoon and squad and company formation, which is always a good sign to see, because now you're getting the clearing phase of a military operation. And that's -- so -- sum it up: This is -- they've done everything we've expected them to do. They've done it in record time. You just don't clear cities the way these hard charges are clearing cities, remembering now the day is D plus eight, with d-day being on the 7th of November at 1900.
<br> ....
Colonel, Jamie McIntyre from CNN. Some critics back here have invoked the old Vietnam-era phrase, "We had to destroy the city to save it." I assume that you reject that comparison. But can I just get your thought about somebody who thinks that that's what's going on in Fallujah?
<br> REGNER: Yes. I'm responsible to the commanding general as the precision targeter for this entire Marine Expeditionary Force. Not a piece of ordnance goes into that city that I don't watch electronically, kinetically, or in one form or another.
<br> Today, for example, we had three artillery fire missions go into that city. We had nine go outside of that city. The point of origin was from outside of the city. Now, that's just artillery. Artillery, as you know, is either point-detonating or it has a variable time fuse. Predominantly, the fusing that we use sprays little small pieces of shrapnel, which limits your amount of destruction.
<br> I could tell you over the last -- since I've been here, for almost seven months I've been actively engaged with every piece of aviation ordnance and the precision nature of that, such that it takes three-star approval before it goes to four-star; or if the estimated casualties go above a certain number, it goes to the secretary of Defense for precision targeting. I sat down with Prime Minister Allwai, showed him three tapes on precision targeting which has taken place on d-day and d-plus-one, and he was pleased with that level of precision targeting. Now, that was on d-day and d-plus-one.
<br> There has been buildings that are damaged because, unfortunately, terrorists have taken up refuge in minarets or near mosques. And the news will tell you, whether it's armed forces combat camera or embeds, that many of these terrorists have no respect for hospitals or sensitive religious and cultural sites. And those areas are, again, precision-targeted with laser devices which put the bomb in an area.
<br> One picture, for example, that I showed to Prime Minister Allawi was a minaret that had three or four snipers in it. That minaret was dropped almost like it was an engineering feat of excellence. It was dropped, and a mosque was within 20 feet of it; not a single brick fell on that mosque because of the way the targeters engaged that minaret.
<br> So I would say to you, I am responsible to the commander on precision targeting. Is this like Vietnam? Absolutely not. Vietnam had Hue City, and that was leveled and there wasn't precision targeting, and they didn't secure it in the amount of time that we've secured.
<br> But again, yes, there will be and there has been buildings damaged. And it now becomes our responsibility to help the country of Iraq clear up this with the reconstruction efforts, which have already gotten under way, really, a couple of days ago. I'd mentioned Mortuary Affairs. Yesterday and today we started working on the meals program. We've worked electricity yesterday. We've put guys in to see where and when they can turn on the electricity. We've got many, many forces in line just to go into that city and set up a CMOC, a civil/military operations center, in the government building right next to the incoming provincial mayor of the city. He's pleased with it. In fact, tomorrow he and I will participate in a brief to General Casey to explain some of the phase four, which is reconstruction of this city and how we're aligned to start doing that in the near -- not too distant future.
www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041115-1602.html
