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

[Petronski]

I think it was Mark Steyn who defined "neo-con" as word derived from the abbreviations "con," meaning "conservative," and "neo," meaning "Jewish."

LOL I wish I had a link.

[SJackson]

Concealing the second passport would certainly be an issue.

As to Perle, I can think of only four way’s he could have acquired Israeli citizenship.

1.-Born there to American parents. Unfortunately he was born in New York. That’s out.

2-Yes, New York, born to Israeli parents! Unfortunately in 1941 there was no Israel and thus no Israelis. Doesn’t work either.

3-His family moved to Israeli and became citizens, conferring citizenship on Richard. Could be, but if that was true I’ve a feeling we would have read about it. Every hate site on the net would be trumpeting it.

4-He moved there himself and became an Israeli citizen. See 3, I’m sure we’d know about that, and it would be a serious security issue.

Guess I’ll wait for the evidence to be posted to the thread, along with the info on the denied security clearance, but I suspect Perle’s “dual citizenship problem” is nothing more than the Jews are disloyal canard.

[SJackson]

The Steyn article thread. The quote, “-con” is short for conservative and “neo-” is short for Jewish, is actually from Donald Brooks in The Era of Distortion

NY Times ^ | January 6, 2004 | DAVID BROOKS

Posted on 01/05/2004 10:52:46 PM CST by neverdem

Do you ever get the sense the whole world is becoming unhinged from reality? I started feeling that way awhile ago, when I was still working for The Weekly Standard and all these articles began appearing about how Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Bill Kristol and a bunch of "neoconservatives" at the magazine had taken over U.S. foreign policy.

Theories about the tightly knit neocon cabal came in waves. One day you read that neocons were pushing plans to finish off Iraq and move into Syria. Web sites appeared detailing neocon conspiracies; my favorite described a neocon outing organized by Dick Cheney to hunt for humans. The Asian press had the most lurid stories; the European press the most thorough. Every day, it seemed, Le Monde or some deep-thinking German paper would have an exposé on the neocon cabal, complete with charts connecting all the conspirators.

The full-mooners fixated on a think tank called the Project for the New American Century, which has a staff of five and issues memos on foreign policy. To hear these people describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish Trilateral Commission, the nexus of the sprawling neocon tentacles.

We'd sit around the magazine guffawing at the ludicrous stories that kept sprouting, but belief in shadowy neocon influence has now hardened into common knowledge. Wesley Clark, among others, cannot go a week without bringing it up.

In truth, the people labeled neocons (con is short for "conservative" and neo is short for "Jewish") travel in widely different circles and don't actually have much contact with one another. The ones outside government have almost no contact with President Bush. There have been hundreds of references, for example, to Richard Perle's insidious power over administration policy, but I've been told by senior administration officials that he has had no significant meetings with Bush or Cheney since they assumed office. If he's shaping their decisions, he must be microwaving his ideas into their fillings.

It's true that both Bush and the people labeled neocons agree that Saddam Hussein represented a unique threat to world peace. But correlation does not mean causation. All evidence suggests that Bush formed his conclusions independently. Besides, if he wanted to follow the neocon line, Bush wouldn't know where to turn because while the neocons agree on Saddam, they disagree vituperatively on just about everything else. (If you ever read a sentence that starts with "Neocons believe," there is a 99.44 percent chance everything else in that sentence will be untrue.)

Still, there are apparently millions of people who cling to the notion that the world is controlled by well-organized and malevolent forces. And for a subset of these people, Jews are a handy explanation for everything.

There's something else going on, too. The proliferation of media outlets and the segmentation of society have meant that it's much easier for people to hive themselves off into like-minded cliques. Some people live in towns where nobody likes President Bush. Others listen to radio networks where nobody likes Bill Clinton.

In these communities, half-truths get circulated and exaggerated. Dark accusations are believed because it is delicious to believe them. Vince Foster was murdered. The Saudis warned the Bush administration before Sept. 11.

You get to choose your own reality. You get to believe what makes you feel good. You can ignore inconvenient facts so rigorously that your picture of the world is one big distortion.

And if you can give your foes a collective name — liberals, fundamentalists or neocons — you can rob them of their individual humanity. All inhibitions are removed. You can say anything about them. You get to feed off their villainy and luxuriate in your own contrasting virtue. You will find books, blowhards and candidates playing to your delusions, and you can emigrate to your own version of Planet Chomsky. You can live there unburdened by ambiguity.

Improvements in information technology have not made public debate more realistic. On the contrary, anti-Semitism is resurgent. Conspiracy theories are prevalent. Partisanship has left many people unhinged.

Welcome to election year, 2004.

[Slings and Arrows]

Thanks much - I'm impressed.

[Petronski]

Thank you much. It's a very pithy quote.

[Petronski]

This is perhaps even funnier:

To hear these people describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish Trilateral Commission, the nexus of the sprawling neocon tentacles.

LOL!

[Slings and Arrows]

:-D

To paraphrase the old joke, maybe I should start reading LP and DU - I love to hear about how powerful I am.

[Petronski]

Mention PNAC on DU and their mouths get all foamy.

[Ann Archy]

Neo-cons are past communists, now of the right, but they are ALL Jewish. There is NOTHING racist about it! It's like saying that calling me part of the Christian Right would be racist....that's ridiculous.

I actually RESENT when someone is called a RACIST just mentioning "Jewish"...it's not a RACE...it's a religion....why do people use the term "racist"????

[sarasmom]

You know, you and the rest of the ultra-religious Pro-Israel, religion-baiting crowd are getting a bit tiresome.

Israel is a sovereign nation, with a definite intent to remain a Jewish Sovereign nation.I don't have a single problem with that.

What I do have a problem with is every time the words "Jew(ish)" and "Israel" are mentioned in any way that indicates less than full support and obeisance to the them, the cries of antisemitic are used ad nauseum as an attack.

I am done with cheap liberal thought control tactics. Call me racist. Call me whatever, I no longer care.

I disagree with Zinni on several points, but only a complete idiot thinks he is totally wrong about everything, especially the analysis that the USA was maneuvered into conducting war in the middle east by factions that, yes, include the poor, innocent" never to be criticized Israelis.

What color is the sky in your world?

[Edmund Burke]

Most of the neo-cons, lead by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz were Jewish Communists.

[AlbionGirl]

Intersting read. Around Christmas time I bought a copy of Cigar Afficionado strictly because it contained an interview w/General Franks, it also was a fascinating read.

He was asked what he thought history would say of President Bush, and he said that he thought he would be credited for getting America through a certain historical crease. He also went on to say that if we were ever struck by WMD we could kiss the Constitution goodbye, and get ready for Martial Law. The interview left me more than a little anxious.

I know nothing of this Feith guy, so it's not possible for me to offer an educated opinion, but I'd bet everything I don't own that this guy is as powder-free as they come, and that can never be a good thing.

[Light Speed]

United States Central Command Combatant Commander General Tommy Franks meets and shakes hands with Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in the Iraq city of Numaniya on Monday April 7, 2003.

Talking Proud Magazine
Article:

Here's our general, in Iraq for everyone to see

April 8, 2003
The Iraqi leadership is making a fool of itself and all those who support it in any fashion. Iraq's leadership is not out leading. That's one reason those Iraqi forces are losing the war.

Conversely, our general is out leading, and he is being followed. That is a big reason we are winning. We are proud of him. He has not sought the limelight of the news cameras and daily briefings. He has stayed behind the scenes to stay informed, think, talk, debate and decide. Once all was in hand, he then quietly slipped out the back door to go to his troops in Iraq, be with them, shake their hands, award them medals, and beam them with his friendly, confident smile.

United States Central Command Commander Tommy Franks and Lt. General David D. McKiernan sit along the runway to talk over events of operation Iraqi Freedom at a forward operating airbase in Kuwait April 7, 2003.

[AlbionGirl]

Thanks for the post and pictures!

[monkeyshine]

Yes, some people have short memories. Not only the attacks on 9/11, but the attack in NY in '93, and all the hijackings, bombings and assassinations between 1968 and 1993 that took place in Europe and Africa. And that's just against the 'western' targets. Let us not forget the attacks in Kenya, in Bali, in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Turkey. The Arab extremist terrorists must not be placated and must not be appeased. We must kill them, arrest them, and destroy them and their ideology.

One thing I will say is that I think we have not done enough on the latter front. We must embark on a full scale propaganda war. Bush's speech on Monday is a start, but we must make certain to explain our motives and to explain how the extremists are to blame. Just like they issue their silly 'demands' that the USA must do XYZ to end terrorism, we must issue our call that the extremists must end their activities in order that the world be a better, more productive place.

[af_vet_1981]

That is a ridiculous comment. Was Goldwater an anti-Semite?

That is a ridiculous comment. Is Goldwater alive ?

[af_vet_1981]

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.

Ah, the lines are being drawn. Israel is almost completely isolated and vilified by genuinely good natured people ...

[af_vet_1981]

The fact is, we are all neocons now: Reagan, Gingrich, W can be put, ideologically, in what is viewed as the neocon camp.

Yep, the good guys are NeoCons now.

[rmlew]

That is a ridiculous comment. Was Goldwater an anti-Semite?
My point was that Shermy's claim was silly. Goldwater was certainly not an anti-Semite. If you'll remember, there was an Episcopal priest and a rabbi at his funeral.

[af_vet_1981]

I know nothing of this Feith guy, so it's not possible for me to offer an educated opinion,

I do. He is a human being of the first order. We are fortunate to have him at our service.