Still '5 to 7 Years of Hell' in Iraq, Zinni Predicts for US
(CNSNews.com) - Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni claimed Thursday that the Bush administration's reliance on "old conventions and old rules" continues to undermine its military mission in Iraq. And instead of preparing for the sight of U.S. servicemen and women returning home from Iraq, Zinni said Americans should anticipate another "five to seven years of hell."Zinni led the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) from 1997 to 2000, and President George W. Bush appointed him special envoy to the Middle East in 2002. But Zinni is now a leading critic of the administration and its efforts in Iraq.
"We face a different kind of enemy today," Zinni said. "Traditionally we've always seen enemies as being sovereign states or alliances of sovereign states that had an alien ideology that we would confront. That all has changed."
Americans "don't seem to understand this new world," Zinni added. "We're trying to deal with it according to the old system." The rest of the world "reordered at the end of the last century," following the Cold War, he said, "and we missed it."
The United States is "plagued by an archaic system of government," according to the retired general, bogged down by a lack of communication and a "bloated bureaucracy." Among the "outdated ideas" to which Americans still cling is that the military can go into a country, complete a job and come home. "We don't come home anymore," Zinni said.
Zinni also faulted the Washington, D.C., think tanks for presuming to know how to resolve the problems in Iraq. "Every wonk in [Washington] and every alphabet soup organization [have] crapped out a solution," Zinni said. "But the truth is there is going to be five to seven years of hell."
Zinni lays out his criticism of the Bush administration in his book "Battle Ready," which was published in 2004 and includes the following passage: "In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility; at worst, lying, incompetence and corruption," Zinni wrote.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the retired general's statements.
More recently, Zinni and a handful of other retired generals have called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation for his handling of the war in Iraq. But President Bush has stood by Rumsfeld.
Recently departed White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, during a media briefing last month, said that "the president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history."
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