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Blunt Talk from a Former U.S. Middle East Commander
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem May 23, 2004 09:01pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Sunday, May 23, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | General Anthony Zinni says the Iraq war was "a big mistake" and there was no plan for the reconstruction.
Leslie Evans
The U.S. should not have invaded Iraq without UN backing, there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein, and the invasion was done without any real plan for rebuilding and stabilizing Iraq after the war. If the speaker was a liberal columnist the assessment would not be surprising, but these were the views of recently retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, a decorated Vietnam veteran who served with U.S. forces in Somalia and preceded Tommy Franks and John Abizaid as commander of Central Command, the nerve center of the U.S. military in the Middle East. He also served briefly as a Special Envoy to the Middle East for the current Bush administration at the request of his friend Colin Powell, until he became too critical of administration policy. General Zinni spoke at UCLA's Ackerman Union May 11 as the guest of the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations.
Zinni called the invasion of Iraq "a big mistake on our part," describing it as "an unneeded bag of worms. It was elective surgery that didn't need to be done." He predicted that it was "going to be trouble for many years to come."
In the formal part of his talk, Zinni outlined his view of the roots of instability in the Middle East, citing joblessness as a major source of the angry young men being recruited into extremist Islamic organizations. In the question period, however, he took up more directly mistakes and failures of the Bush administration in the region. Following are some of General Zinni's responses to specific questions. |
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