[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Zinni Criticizes Bush War Plans

[manni at snafu.de]

Forwarded Message:
> To: ps <portside at yahoogroups.com>
> From: portsideMod <portsidemod at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Zinni Criticizes Bush War Plans
> Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 19:48:15 -0700 (PDT)
> -----
> Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly 
> miscalculations on Iraq, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, 
> Bush's Middle East envoy.
> --------------------------
> from Salon.com
> Oct. 17, 2002
> 
> President Bush continues to encounter war critics in
> the unlikeliest of places -- the United States
> military, for example. Last summer, retired Gen. Brent
> Scowcroft, who served as national security advisor to
> Bush's father during the Gulf War, bluntly expressed
> his doubt about a unilateral war against Iraq. A few
> weeks later, a trio of four-star generals appeared
> before Congress to echo that concern.
> 
> One of them was Gen. Wesley Clark, a former NATO
> military commander. "If we go in unilaterally, or
> without the full weight of international organizations
> behind us, if we go in with a very sparse number of
> allies, if we go in without an effective information
> operation ... we're liable to supercharge recruiting
> for al-Qaida," Clark said.
> 
> Now comes retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former
> head of Central Command for U.S. forces in the Middle
> East, who has worked recently as the State Department's
> envoy to the region with a mission to encourage talks
> between Palestinians and Israelis. Zinni, a Purple
> Heart recipient who served in Vietnam and helped
> command forces in the Gulf War and in Somalia, spoke
> last Thursday in Washington at the Middle East
> Institute's annual conference and laid out his own
> reservations about a potential war with Iraq.
> 
> In a keynote address striking for its critical
> assessment of the Bush administration, Zinni stressed
> the need to get the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
> back on track, build a broad coalition against Iraq,
> create trust among allies in the region -- and put
> Saddam Hussein's threat in perspective.
> 
> He also took issue with hawks in and around the
> administration who downplay the importance of Arab
> sentiment in the region. "I'm not sure which planet
> they live on," Zinni said, "because it isn't the one
> that I travel." And he challenged their suggestion that
> installing a new Iraqi government will not be
> especially difficult. "God help us," he said, "if we
> think this transition will occur easily."
> 
> Following his speech, in an exchange moderated by
> former U.S. ambassador to Israel Edward Walker, Zinni
> answered questions from the audience. In that session
> he was even more pointed as he discussed the possible
> consequences of an attack on Iraq and why war should
> always be used only as a last resort.
> 
> for the rest of this story, go to
> http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/17/zinni/index.html
> 
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