Americans `conned' into backing war, ex-general asserts

Chicago Tribune ^ | Dec. 31, 2003 | Thomas Ricks

[Rennes Templar]

Former Central Command chief Anthony Zinni denounces `ideologues' in Bush administration

Anthony Zinni's opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq began on the monsoon-ridden afternoon of Nov. 3, 1970. He was lying on a Vietnamese mountainside west of Da Nang, three rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle in his side and back. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into the ground as he slipped in and out of consciousness.

He had plenty of time to think in the following months while recuperating in a military hospital in Hawaii. Among other things, he promised himself that, "If I'm ever in a position to say what I think is right, I will. . . . I don't care what happens to my career."

[af_vet_1981]

Fine. We are not going to "launch a first strike" against North Korea, who has an active nuclear weapons program.

No, we are not going to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein either. Go to sleep and rest knowing that adults are in charge of your security.

[af_vet_1981]

Is that why we are at the Orange level?

You don't think they have workable WMDs. Go to sleep.

[faithincowboys]

I really haven't been reading all the posts on this thread.

It never ceases to amaze me how many Freepers fall for a man in uniform. If Clinton put on some cammo we'd have idiots on here defending him, even if he was in the process of once again shooting the country in the back.

Amazing!

[faithincowboys]

I assure you that the terrorists want to attak us, but if I were a terrorist I would view the ouster of Saddam as a disincentive.

Notice that the Terrorists never hit Iran or Syria?

There are countries that they don't want attacked. If I were them, I wouldn't risk it. If we are attacked, there will be a huge clamor for action against those terror sponsoring countries.

There seems to be no upside to attacking America. Post 9-11, our econmy has recovered, the nation is back and we are moving on, so much so that people like you have your brain hibernating in your ass.

[CWOJackson]

Only when it suits their agenda...otherwise they could care less.

[Cold Heat]

A stable Middle East is not going to happen in my lifetime

Yes, that is correct. It took many generations of British and other countries who thought that "out of sight and out of mind" was the best policy.(sorta like what you are suggesting)

This president and I know better and are beginning the process to bring these people into the 20th and then the 21st century.

It is a lack of intuition in a man who finally realizes when he is up to his neck in alligators that the initial opjective should have been to drain the swamp!.

[Qatar-6]

OK, I'll jump in here, What the hell, I'm an insomniac

Zinni is one of the finest General Officers I have ever served under and a credit to the USMC

He is responsible for setting us up for success in OEF and OIF. All the basing upgrades and new prepositioned equipment sites, all the agreements with the gulf arab nations so many of you seem to despise, our relations with the Pakistan military that allowed us to quickly set up shop on their soil and control overflight. All of that came on Zinni's watch.

I have participated in both OEF and OIF. I have previously worked for Gen Zinni in CENTCOM. He was universally liked and respected by everyone I knew who worked for him.

Zinni questioned the strategic timing of the war. His arguements were reasoned. I believe they were wrong but I'm sure it was a case of him being 40/60 against the warand me being 60/40 for it.

Having spent a lot of time in Iraq this past year I can tell you it was worth doing.

We will win

Micromanagement and inept meddling by OSD has cost us a lot of yardage though. To use a football analogy we're first in ten on the badguy's 40 yard line. If Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz hadn't been doing their MacNamara imitation we'd be deep in the red zone first and goal

I think this is what has Zinni so pissed off.

He's just saying what a lot of active duty guys are thinking in that respect

I disagree with him on some things but it's an honest difference of opinion. I have tremendous respect for the man and his abilities

I'll agree with Gatorbait though - talking to Ricks wasn't the smartest thing he ever did. He probably got misquoted a lot.

I'd still follow him on a movement to contact a lot quicker than I'd follow most of his critics on this thread

All the best

Qatar-6

[Cold Heat]

This is not a game.

So true. Without intervention it will snowball and we or our allies would be targeted with anything and everthing that they could or can lay there hands on.

Saddam may very well have already made the deliveries before we got to him.

If he did, it will become apparent sooner or later in some part of the planet.

[kabar]

The fact that Iraq expansionism stopped with the beginning of the containment policy

There was no Iraq expansionism--only failed aggression against its neighbors. It was Gulf War I that stopped Saddam and then it was sustained by a military enforced regime of no fly zones, inspections, and economic sanctions. The latter two did not work very well.

There are plenty of countries with equally bad human rights violations.

Agree, but US national security and economic interests are also involved in Iraq. Human rights violations are not the sole criterion for US military action. Different problems will require different solutions, .i e., differention in our foreign policy.

Hundreds of Americans have lost their lives in Iraq during the invasion and occupation. Only a handful died from 1991 to 2003

9/11 changed the calculus in terms of our objectives in Iraq. Regime change became the objective. Saddam violated 17 UN resolutions and failed to observe the agreement he signed ending Gulf War I. Rightly, Bush (with Congressional approval) and Blair agreed that our national security interests were at stake by permitting Saddam to remain in power. Over 3000 lives were lost to terrorism on 9/11 and hundreds more around the globe since then. We have liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, Iraq from Saddam, and forced Libya to reconsider its pursuit of a WMD program. As painful as the loss of life may be in terms of our military and other USG personnel, it is the price we must pay to further our national interests and protect ourselves.

[faithincowboys]

Are you aware that the timing and the pressure exerted by Team Bush caused the North Korean Coms to abort a transfer of ballistic missiles and God knows what else.

On Zinni's timeline,we would have never acted. While he was putzing around in the Balkans (advancing the Global Jihad) where there was no F'ing national security interest, the Mideast was boiling up.

Zinni should shut up (no matter what he thinks) because America is all in in Iraq and morale sucking actions by Generals with egos the size of Saddam's mass graves are really not helpful right now.

[faithincowboys]

Well, they need to calculate which harbor they want to lose. Iran and Syria won't be nearly as hospitable if American bombs go after the rouge regimes that run those terror states.

By the way, you sound like a guy who cares about human rights. I find it odd that you found the Baathist regime fit to govern. And your lack of concern for the Christians in Lebanon and the Syrian and Iranian people is troubling.

Weren't we told that it was the lack of representation and our support for autocratic regimes in the Mideast that brought us 9-11. Funny, how so many want the oppression and the militancy to go undisrupted.

[faithincowboys]

Well, that's an awfully fatalistic statement. Where in the Hell is the idealism and belief in our way of life.

Many thought the Berlin Wall would never come down to. I am sure glad you are not in high office. We would all be in chadors waiting for the bullets to hit us.

[Qatar-6]

Er.... I hate to tell you, but the Balkans belongs to EUCOM

Zinni was the commander of CENTCOM

Zinni had no responsibility for any operation in the Balkans

Sorry

[okie01]

And you ignored my counter-arguments.

In your mind, is a terrorist a terrorist only if he is an anti-American terrorist?

Killing innocent Jewish civilians isn't terrorism?

Killing innocent Iraqi civilians isn't terrorism?

Your "counter-arguments" are well worth ignoring.

[Cold Heat]

I appreciate you defense of you commander and I am sure he has a great deal of merit.

But, some of the older officers do not like what they are doing to the military. They do not like the changes in mission and equipment. They are stung by the cancellation of the new arty stuff and they believe in the older concepts.

This I can understand, because as a man in my 50s, I have have about all the changes I can stomach.

But, on the flip side he should not be out there working against the administration publicly in this time. he could work behind the scenes as the general public is largely not at all knowledgeable about these things.

His "plan", good or bad is totally of no relevance now and is history.

He should fade away of teach. He should not be writing op-eds and stirring the election pot.