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Zinni: We Tried to Oust Saddam 'on the Cheap'
Democrats who are agitating for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq won't get any help from retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, former head of Central Command and longtime critic of the war. Zinni warns that leaving Iraq any time soon would be a disaster.
In a Monday appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room," host Wolf Blitzer asked Zinni what would happen if U.S. combat forces leave Iraq by the end of next March or early April, as a lot of Democrats are demanding. Zinni said it could become a base for extremists.
"We could have the sectarian violence spill over into the region," the general warned. "Iranian influence could grow, and their hegemonic designs could create a situation that's worse."
Moreover, Zinni said he sees positive signs in the present situation. Blitzer asked if the Iraq "surge" now underway, led by Gen. David Petraeus, is the most effective plan to follow.
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"Well, first of all, it's the right man," Zinni replied. "Dave Petraeus is exceptional, and I think our ambassador there, Ryan Crocker, is another exceptional individual. We have the right people on the ground.
"I think what we haven't done, though, is we haven't talked about the broader . . . strategy that we need for the region. We need to reconstruct a collective security arrangement that's been destroyed in the region. We need to think through how we would establish a containment strategy, setting the conditions for what our troops would do, what they wouldn't do in here. Even if this current strategy works, either way we're going to fall back into some containment, but it's foolish to believe we're going to leave."
Zinni's present views are a vast departure from his previous criticisms of the war effort in Iraq, which he viewed as seriously flawed. Zinni said the Bush administration tried to oust Saddam Hussein "on the cheap" without thinking through the aftermath of such an action.
"They made some bad decisions on the move," Zinni said. "Again, we all know that disbanding the army, debaathification, the lack of a real reconstruction plan, brought about all the problems we see now." Zinni added that he had envisioned a force of between 380,000 to 400,000 instead of the 150,000 or 175,000 sent to Iraq.
"We thought we needed that at a minimum to secure the borders, secure the population, ensure that we had control, and law and order was maintained."
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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