Iraq war fueled Islamic radicals: retired U.S. general
Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:13 PM EDT167
ca.today.reuters.com
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conduct of the Iraq war fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe and created more enemies for the United States, a retired U.S. Army general who served in the conflict said on Monday.
The views of retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste appeared to buttress a grim assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, which concluded the war had inspired Islamist extremists and made the growing militant movement more dangerous.
The Iraq conflict, which began in March 2003, made "America arguably less safe now than it was on September 11, 2001," Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-5, said in excerpts of remarks released ahead of his appearance at a hearing called by U.S. Senate Democrats.
"If we had seriously laid out and considered the full range of requirements for the war in Iraq, we would likely have taken a different course of action that would have maintained a clear focus on our main effort in Afghanistan, not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents," Batiste said.
Batiste, who was among retired generals who called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this year, said the Pentagon chief had refused to acknowledge the potential for insurgency, and forbidden military planners to develop a blueprint for securing Iraq after the war.
"At one point, he threatened to fire the next person who talked about the need for a post-war plan," Batiste said.
With less than a month until the November elections in which control of Congress is at stake, Democrats seized upon the National Intelligence Estimate to undermine the image fostered by President George W. Bush and Republicans as the party best able to handle terrorism.
The classified intelligence document said Iraq had become the main recruiting tool for the Islamic militant movement as well as a training ground for guerrillas, according to current and former intelligence officials familiar with the assessment.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the document.
The White House contends that the parts of the NIE assessment that have been reported are not representative of the complete document.
"This NIE examines global terrorism and its totality, the morphing of al Qaeda and its affiliates and other jihadist movements," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "It assesses that a variety of factors, in addition to Iraq, fuels a spread of jihadism, including longstanding social grievances, slowness of the pace of reform and the use of the Internet."
"One thing that the reports do not say is that the war in Iraq has made terrorism worse," Snow added.
Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, another of Rumsfeld's critics who testified on Monday, said the defense secretary was trying to fight the war "on the cheap." Eaton was responsible for training the Iraqi military from May 2003 to March 2004 and for rebuilding the Iraqi police force from March to June 2004.
A third witness, retired Marine Col. Thomas Hammes, said the administration had failed to buy the best equipment necessary for troops to get the job done. He served in Iraq in 2004, establishing bases for Iraqi armed forces.
(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Matt Spetalnick)
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. |
