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Post by bot on May 19, 2004 1:46:34 GMT -5
May 17, 2004
Gen. Anthony Zinni: 10 Mistakes History will Record about War in Iraq Transcript Now Available On-Line
For immediate release: Friday, May 14, 2004
Contact: Theresa Hitchens (202) 797-5269
On Wednesday, May 12, Gen. Anothony Zinni, former commander of the U.S. Central Command and a senior military advisor to the Center for Defense Information, outlined a 10-point critique of the vital mistakes the United States made leading up to and during the war in Iraq. Speaking at the annual CDI board meeting in Washington, D.C., Gen. Zinni argued that the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq was not justified by any growing or imminent threat to U.S. national security. The U.S. action in Iraq has failed to stabilize the country, and moreover, has severely damaged America's reputation in the region and around the world.
Gen. Zinni argued that the following series of decisions contributed to the current situation:
Abandoning the existing policy of containment Promoting a flawed regional strategy Creating a false rationale for war in order to get public support Failing to internationalize the effort Underestimating the task Propping up and trusting the Iraqi exiles Overall lack of planning Allocating insufficient military forces Installing an inadequate and ad hoc government Enacting a series of bad decisions on the ground Gen. Zinni's statements were followed by an open question and answer period with the audiene. The full transcript of Gen. Zinni's comments is now available on-line. (http://www.cdi.org/program/document.cfm?DocumentID=2208&from_page=../index.cfm)
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