Question: And you do you blame? I mean, who's responsible?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: 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.
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.
Zinni is (plainly) content to accept CBS' bald and unequivocal recounting of what was stated to them, in whatever footage didn't make final cut.
Bottom line: Zinni doesn't contest it...? Zinni either SAID it... or ENDORSES it.
And it's increasingly desperate attempts to wriggle away from this simple, real world assessment which most readily qualify, plainly, as "idiotic."