Joining the parade is former head of CENTCOM under Bill Clinton, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni.
CBS 60 Minutes – Accusing top Pentagon officials of “dereliction of duty,” retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni says staying the course in Iraq isn’t a reasonable option.
“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,” he tells CBS News Correspondent Steve Kroft in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, May 23, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
The current situation in Iraq was destined to happen, says Zinni, because planning for the war and its aftermath has been flawed all along.
“There has been poor strategic thinking in this…poor operational planning and execution on the ground,” says Zinni, who served as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command from 1997 to 2000.
Zinni blames the poor planning on the civilian policymakers in the administration, known as neo-conservatives, who saw the invasion as a way to stabilize the region and support Israel. He believes these people, who include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense, have hijacked U.S. foreign policy. [emphasis mine]
This is the same Zinni who masterminded the Clinton reprisals to terrorist attacks on the WTC and targets overseas. Among his achievements:
the strategy that destroyed a drug factory in Sudan in reprisal for the 1998 bombings in Africa that killed over 80. the single day missile attack on a nearly abandoned al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, killing 20 wanna-be terrorists. He himself has since called it a “million to one shot”, in contradiction to Clinton’s claim that they missed Bin Laden by hours.
“In weighing that out, without great intelligence, it’s a million-to- one shot,” he says. “Should you take it? Yes. You might get something, but in the absence of that, you can send [bin Laden] a message, maybe cause him to go off balance and set him back a little bit.”
Zinni is flogging a new book – “Chicken Soup For The Terrorist Soul – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Unbalance Bin Laden”.
Zinni has had a long career in the ME; it seems he may have developed an identification with the host nations that superceeds his loyalty to the US.
Bashing the President while promoting a new book? Well color me surprised! Something you expect from the Al Frankens and Michael Moores of the world, not from a retired Marine.
It pains me to say it, but a lot of senior officers have been quite critical of the post invasion handling of the this war.
Thought: They may not all be wrong or biased.
Worry: I don’t see much corrective action being reported.
Datapoint to support worry: It took an *appallingly* long time (Months & months) for the US Army to respond effectively to red cross criticisms, criticism which was not idle.
Other minor problems seem to be festering too.
You know, generally speaking – if organizations like the Red Cross and Amnesty Int., etc. didn’t cry wolf so often, and have such a reputation of mixing their politics with their mission, they might be taken more seriously.