watto
24.05.04, 16:56
Może sie niektórym rozjasni...
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml
Retired General Anthony Zinni is one of the most respected and outspoken military leaders of the past two decades.
From 1997 to 2000, he was commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command, in charge of all American troops in the Middle East.
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Zinni writes: "In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption."
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In the months leading up to the war, while still Middle East envoy, Zinni carried the message to Congress: ?This is, in my view, the worst time to take this on. And I don?t feel it needs to be done now.?
But he wasn?t the only former military leader with doubts about the invasion of Iraq. Former General and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Centcom Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, and former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki all voiced their reservations.Zinni believes this was a war the generals didn?t want ? but it was a war the civilians wanted.
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Zinni is talking about a group of policymakers within the administration known as "the neo-conservatives" (...)
Zinni believes they are political ideologues who have hijacked American policy in Iraq.
?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.
?And one article, because I mentioned the neo-conservatives who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic."
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"Look, there is one statement that bothers me more than anything else. And that's the idea that when the troops are in combat, everybody has to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with a faulty rifle, and that rifle was malfunctioning, and troops were dying as a result,? says Zinni.