[Aaron Brown, Cnn Anchor:] We'll try and fill in some of the military blanks. We go back to Chicago, former General David Grange, who's background is in special operations. And our background is in audio problems. We hope we fixed them. General, thanks for sticking around. I had asked, I think earlier, if there needs to be conventional assault of some kind to pave the way for these special ops units, smaller units to come in on the ground. I think that's where we were. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY
[Brown:] Just a the viewers might not be familiar, the Northern Alliance is the opposition group in Afghanistan, in opposition to the Taliban. Who establishes the basis? Is that a special ops function, or is that something that proceeds? And are the bases hypothetically here in Afghanistan, or are they in Pakistan or somewhere else?
[Grange:] Well, you're going to see a series of bases, all the way from the United States and Europe to this region. They have what's known as intermediate staging bases, and then you have forward operating bases closer to the target area. So there will be a combination of these. They'll be set up by the Armed Forces, the different services within our Armed Forces, as well as you'll some work done by advance special operating forces. But it must be realized that we can launch from Europe or from the United States without the bases if need be. But what this gives us the capability for sustained operations over the long haul.
[Brown:] It's just much more logistically complicated if you're a thousand or 1500 or 2000 miles away to get these soldiers what they need.
[Grange:] Well, that and once, an operation starts, the resupply requirement, moving of wounded personnel, those that you capture, it's going to require bases closer to do this operation optimally.
[Brown:] And again, in these hypothetical battle plans, for lack of better word, who goes in first? Do the Rangers go in first who would be the first special ops group in?
[Grange:] Well, that all depends on targeting. I think you will see an information warfare campaign first, plus other bases set up.
[Brown:] And are these unit we talk about the Green Berets and we talk about the Rangers and the Navy Seals, are the all essentially trained the same, or are they all expected to perform different functions?
[Grange:] Well, the United States Armed Forces has these different type of special operating units to give us a broad range capability by air, land or sea. So, again, it's going to depend on a type of missions, whether they be raids, you may see Rangers; if it's setting up unconventional warfare you'll see Green Berets; if there's targets near water you may see Navy Seals. So and the Air Force supporting all of them. So it's really going to depend on where the targets are located and what the mission's going to be.
[Brown:] And do we know enough about that at this point to make even an intelligent guess about that, or is this whole mission question so vague right now it's hard to know?
[Grange:] Well, it's probably a need to know. I would imagine a lot is known, a lot of it's going to be covert or clandestine in nature, and we shouldn't know. So it will come out when we're the time is right.
[Brown:] General, I think we'll still be asking those questions. Nevertheless, thanks for joining us.
[Grange:] My pleasure. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com