Zinni slams Jewish Pentagon officials

Jerusalem Post ^ | 5-24-04

[SJackson]

Senior Jewish Pentagon officials have come under attack from former special US envoy to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni, in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be broadcasted Monday night.

Although Israelis remember Zinni as Secretary of State Colin Powell's would-be broker of an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, he served before that as commander-in-chief of the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000 and was in charge of all US troops in the Middle East.

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Zinni has recently become a major critic of the Bush administration's Iraqi war, specifically the Pentagon's failure to advise the President properly.

"There has been poor strategic thinking in this," Zinni said. "There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course'; the course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit, or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course. Because it's been a failure."

Zinni specifically aimed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Former Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, National Security Council member Eliot Abrams, and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby - a group of policymakers within the administration known as "the neo-conservatives" whom he claims saw the invasion of Iraq as a way to stabilize American interests in the region and strengthen the position of Israel.

"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington - has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do," says Zinni.

"Because I mentioned the neo-conservatives, who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, it's unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it. I certainly didn't criticize who they were. I certainly don't know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are. And I'm not interested."

Zinni said he believed their strategy was to change the Middle East and bring it into the 21st century.

"All sounds very good, all very noble. The trouble is the way they saw to go about this is unilateral aggressive intervention by the United States - the take down of Iraq as a priority," Zinni added. "And what we have become now in the United States, how we're viewed in this region is not an entity that's promising positive change. We are now being viewed as the modern crusaders, as the modern colonial power in that part of the world."

Zinni said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz should accept responsibility for the Iraqi impasse and resign. "60 Minutes" said Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz had declined a request to respond to Zinni's remarks.

Several days ago, Senator Ernest Hollins accused President Bush of embarking on the Iraqi war to buy the Jewish vote. In a speech to the sentae last week, Hollins refused to retract his words and attacked the Jewish lobby AIPAC.

With Agencies

[jnarcus]

HOw can that be since he has NEVER worked for the Department of Defense? He has been on several advisory coucils but he has never worked for defense....Get your facts straight before your brains spill out your head

[Poodlebrain]

I'd be willing to bet Zinni isn't too popular with the current leaders in the Marine Corps. He was the first Marine to be given a theater command, and based on his performance and post-command actions he'll be the last for a long time.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Uh. This is a transcript of a TV piece.

"Uh," youself. You just now finished hopping up and down like a spider monkey, shrilling that we take the 60 Minutes story YOU cited as stone gospel... and NOW, not even half an hour later, you're waving away the damning parts as just being "a transcript of a TV piuece."

Weak, weak, weak. Give me a real fight, or quit wasting my time.

That was a voice over. He probably didn't hear it until it was aired.

You have no basis whatsoever for advanicing that claim. We know, from past accountings of the Clintons and other reliably conservative-bashing guests on said show, that 60 Minues DOES, in fact, occasionally offer their willing interview subjects a chance to "vet" their filmed interviews, prior to broadcast. That attempt at supporting argument is flimsier than a soap bubble, and as substantive as a Big Mac.

Did you even watch this on Sunday?

As it so happens, I did. What of it? Again: I'm responding solely to the text YOU cited in (failed) support of your splay-legged argument. ALL of it is fair game, kiddo; like it or not.

And I rather suspect it's "not."

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

The word -- as clearly, crushingly demonstrated (to your evident distress) -- has a widely-recognized meaning, on both the left AND the right.

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

.... and...?

That's it, then? That's all you've got left in your holster, finally?

*... snicker...*

[PA Engineer]

When people understand that the Torah is not all that different from the Koran.

Take your meds.

[wardaddy]

The Torah (or Old Covenant sans Macabees for me) is a helluva lot different than that moon rock screed the Koran.

Shame on you dear for not knowing the difference.

[ChicagoHebrew]

It would be a huge mistake to hang a halo on the head of a nation that not only hates halos, but also has a large minority of voting aged people who hate themselves.

And where do you get this, besides your own supposition??

You are aware that Israel is an avowed socialist country, are you not?

More like WAS an avowed socialist country, back in the 1950s, when the United Kingdom, India, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Canada were too. Today, Israel has a strong market economy, albeit with a gigantic state sector -- similar to most of Europe.

The always anti-socialist Likud has ruled Israel for 17 of the past 25 years. The opposition Labor Party, although still "officially" socialist, pushed massive economic reforms in the early-1980s, and has been capitalist in practice ever since.

[ChicagoHebrew]

A neoCon is a conservative who is not antiSemitic.

That's a bit too narrow. I actually am a "neo-con" -- and a Jew. But I'd hardly castigate non-neo-con conservatives as antisemites. A few I think are (i.e. Buchanan), but the overwhelming majority I think are genuinely good natured people who just don't buy neo-con teachings.

[ChicagoHebrew]

Actually the Jewish vote is about 4% of the electorate, because Jews vote in far higher percentages than non-Jews. It's also highly concentrated -- making it a big force in battleground states like Florida (600,000 Jews) and Pennsylvania (300,000 Jews). The difference between 20% of the Jewish vote and 40% of the Jewish vote in Florida is 120,000 votes -- a whopping number in a close race.

Even more important than Jewish votes is Jewish money (this is a Jew speaking, btw). Jews are very politically active, generally upper-income, and traditionally big Democratic donors. Even if you don't win Jewish votes, if you dissuade enough Jews from giving to the Dhimmicrats, you've accomplished a lot.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Jews vote in far higher percentages than non-Jews. It's also highly concentrated -- making it a big force in battleground states like Florida (600,000 Jews) and Pennsylvania (300,000 Jews). The difference between 20% of the Jewish vote and 40% of the Jewish vote in Florida is 120,000 votes -- a whopping number in a close race.

Bingo. :)

[Sandy]

Thank you for the link. Obviously Zinni was criticizing Rumsfeld first and foremost.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Zinni is talking about a group of policymakers within the administration known as "the neo-conservatives"

Wow! Amazing! Donald Rumsfeld is actually an entire group of shadowy, feral-eyed beings, holding black, wretched sway over an innocent nation's foreign policy!

I imagine he does it all with mirrors.

Or maybe he simply uses super-secret super powers, granted him by those darned Jews "the neo-conservatives."

[Slings and Arrows]

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

ROTFLMAO!!! :)

[Slings and Arrows]

Thanks! More info here.

[kosta50]

Thanks for clarifying that. Finances do play a role but that goes for any group that is organized (and I think that is the key term). For instance, economic boycott of Georgia by black Americans "helped" change the state flag which some Americans of African ancestry found offensive.

In close races, any vote counts. GW won with about 500 votes total. That could have come from the Wiccans for all you know.

What I am saying is this: I agree that money and organized special interest groups play a role, but singling out the "Jewish vote" as something that will make or break an election is plain ridiculous. That only feeds into those right-wing claims that the Jews exert some magical control in the invisible background.

Another misconception is that all Jews think alike or have the same "agenda." Sen. Kerry is Catholic but he is also pro-abortion and there are many voices in the Catholic community calling on the Church to ban him from taking the Communion. Being Catholic doesn't mean he is pursuing a Catholic "agenda."

Besides, "Jewish vote" cannot possibly mean just that. Among Jewish Americans, just as anywhere else in the world, Jews vote liberal and conservative, some are radical, Orthodox, Ultraorthodox, you name it. To imply that there is some "monolithic" Jewish voting block is not supported by the political distribution of Jewish Americans in both major parties, who cannot agree any more than other members of those parties can, except when it comes to support of Israel -- and most American administrations and public are right there with them.

Four percent may help carry a state of great importance for the electoral college (such as New York) but that doesn't win elections unless the race is really close (actually within the margin of statistical error, and that's +/- 5%). I just think that the so-called "Jewish vote" has become another cliche phrase that the media and politicians use that gives a wrong impression and is not based in reality.

[kosta50]

See #136

[lainde]

bttt

[judicial meanz]

I guess this proves even esteemed former US Army Generals like Zinni can be anti-semitic morons.


It figures.

[Sandy]

Watch the clip.

Question: And you do you blame? I mean, who's responsible?

Zinni: Well, I blame the Pentagon. I blame the civilian leadership of the Pentagon directly. Because if they were given the responsibility, and if this was their war, and by everything that I understand, they promoted it and pushed it - certain elements in there certainly - even to the point of creating their own intelligence to match their needs, then they should bear the responsibility. But regardless of whose responsibility I think it is, somebody has screwed up. And at this level and at this stage, it should be evident to everybody that they've screwed up. And whose heads are rolling on this? That's what bothers me most.

Question: There are no heads rolling.

Zinni: That's my problem. If you charge me with the responsibility of taking this nation to war, if you charge me with implementing that policy with creating the strategy which convinces me to go to war, and I fail you, then I ought to go.

Question: Who specifically are you talking about?

Zinni: Well, it starts with at the top. If you're the secretary of defense and you're responsible for that. If you're responsible for that planning and that execution on the ground. If you've assumed responsibility for the other elements, non-military, non-security, political, economic, social and everything else, then you bear responsibility.

See, Zinni's talking about Rumsfeld there--first and foremost--as I said earlier. Only after that does he reference those in Rumfeld's "ranks":

Zinni: Certainly those in your ranks that foisted this strategy on us that is flawed. Certainly they ought to be gone and replaced.

But Zinni doesn't actually name any names. CBS at that point takes it upon itself to then tell us whom Zinni is supposedly talking about. That's right, CBS edited out any namedropping that Zinni may have done, so right now all we have to go on is CBS's spin.

Regardless, the fact that Rumsfeld was clearly being targeted--unless Rumsfeld is Jewish--should put the brakes on this thread's idiotic "Zinni's targeting Jews" spin. Please let's not all act like leftists, throwing the Bigot word around and hoping it sticks to anyone who says things that we don't like. It makes us look stupid and unable to refute the substance of Zinni's remarks. Watch the clip. It's short and not too difficult to follow, really. You'll see what I'm talking about.