4.16.2004

General mayhem: Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, a 39-year Marine veteran and former commander of the U.S. Central Command, wonders why Donald Rumsfeld, who just announced that 20,000 additional troops will be deployed, was caught off guard by the high American death toll in Iraq in April. Zinni says he warned US officials for years about the religious clashes that would result from deposing Saddam:
I'm surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus. Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not? ...I think that some heads should roll over Iraq. I think the president got some bad advice... We're betting on the U.N., who we blew off and ridiculed during the run-up to the war. Now we're back with hat in hand. It would be funny if not for the lives lost.
While Zinni has been called a traitor for voicing this opinion, he's likely not alone. Writing that "the iconic image of the 'war president' has tattered," Sidney Blumenthal says, "A revolt within the military against Bush is brewing" among many in the military's strategic echelon who "share the same feelings of being ignored and ill-treated by the administration."

No comments: