Ex-U.S. general against Iraq war
Thomas E. Ricks - The Washington Post
Saturday, October 12, 2002
WASHINGTON The former U.S. military commander for the Middle East has come out against a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying that he
believes the policy of containing President Saddam Hussein has been working.
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The retired Marine general, Anthony Zinni, who preceded General Tommy Franks of the Army as head of Central Command, told a
meeting Thursday at a Washington research group that the United States has other priorities in the Middle East. "I'm not convinced we need
to do this now," Zinni said at a meeting of the Middle East Institute. He said he believed Saddam was "containable at this moment."
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Zinni, who served in northern Iraq in 1991 as chief of staff for the Kurdish relief operation that came after the Gulf War, said he thought that
war and violence were "a very last resort," adding, "We have to be very careful how we apply it."
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Zinni has served over the last two years as an unpaid consultant to the State Department on Israeli-Palestinian issues. He said he believed
that re-energizing Middle East peace talks was a higher priority than dealing with Iraq. He added that several other issues also should take
precedence, such as encouraging reform in Iran and improving U.S. relations with Arab states.
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