Haig Irate at Not Going After Saddam

Haig Irate at Not Going After Saddam

John L. Perry
Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001

Gen. Alexander Haig said Tuesday that George W. Bush's father made a "grievous" error by not finishing off Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf War.

"We didn't have to go into Baghdad" to get the Iraqi dictator, said President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, who had earlier served as supreme allied commander in Europe of the North American Treaty Organization.

"Saddam was sitting on the runway with his cabinet, ready to go to Africa" if United States forces had advanced farther into Iraq in pursuit of the routed Iraqi army.

"All we had to do was let him go.

"We should be in a war to win, not give the war away."

Not Sparing Anyone

Haig's remarks were a stern criticism of "my old friend," George Herbert Walker Bush, who as president approved the recommendation of Colin Powell – then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now secretary of state – to end the Gulf War short of removing Saddam from power.

Had Saddam and his closest cohorts been forced to flee Iraq, as Haig stated they were poised to do, it would have left that country Saddam-free and open to a new government.

Haig was the keynote speaker at a "Celebrate Freedom!" salute to veterans, held in a convention center at Pigeon Forge, Tenn., a popular tourist destination in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Covering Several Fronts

In his speech, delivered without benefit of a text, and in an interview with the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the blunt-spoken retired Army general touched in rapid-fire fashion on a variety of other issues:

"Now we have a multi-player world," where once there were two superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union with satellite states in their orbits.

That changed reality is still little understood by many of the world's leaders, who have failed to comprehend what the end of the half-century of Cold War really means, Haig said.

Former President Bush "said we were in a New World Order. It's not a New World Order.

Same Old Same Old

"It is the same old dirty world, where some believe in the rule of law and some believe in the rule of the bayonet. He should have said it was a world of change."

"Europe is uniting and China is emerging."

"There is not a lot we Americans can do about it."

"We don't need to be picking a fight with China just because we don't have anyone to fight anymore."

Noting that the second President Bush has been in office only half a year, Haig denounced critics who contend the president is not doing enough to bring about peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.

After Two Terms of Clinton

"We just got through eight years of mismanagement in the Middle East," which is today "in worse shape than when Clinton became president" after defeating the first President Bush for re-election.

Haig had high praise for George W. Bush's making revitalized defense a top priority.

"This means not only in armaments but also the veterans who have been deprived, who have kept the flame of freedom and patriotism alive in this country."

Speaking in Tennessee, which Al Gore considers his home state and which he failed to carry in his unsuccessful presidential contest with Bush last year, Haig didn't give the former vice president much chance for a second run for the presidency three years from now.

Yet Another Reinvented Al?

"I don't think Gore can resurrect himself, but if he can then all the better for Bush."

"I think Bush will be the Republican candidate, and he should be. I'll support him, as all Republicans should."

A member since June of the international advisory board of NewsMax.com, Haig served as White House chief of staff for President Richard M. Nixon, having earlier been Nixon's deputy national security adviser and vice chief of staff of the Army.

A graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, Haig served in Japan as an aide to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and saw combat during the Korean and the Vietnam wars.

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is senior editor for NewsMax.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
A product that might interest you:
FREE - 4 Months to NewsMax.com`s Magazine. Check It Out - Get four FREE