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Desert Caution (washingtonpost.com) by Rattle at 1:17 am EST, Jan 30, 2003 |
] The general who commanded U.S. forces in the 1991 Gulf ] War says he hasn't seen enough evidence to convince him ] that his old comrades Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Paul ] Wolfowitz are correct in moving toward a new war now. He ] thinks U.N. inspections are still the proper course to ] follow. He's worried about the cockiness of the U.S. war ] plan, and even more by the potential human and financial ] costs of occupying Iraq. ] ] And don't get him started on Defense Secretary Donald ] Rumsfeld. ] ] In fact, the hero of the last Gulf War sounds ] surprisingly like the man on the street when he discusses ] his ambivalence about the Bush administration's hawkish ] stance on ousting Saddam Hussein. He worries about the ] Iraqi leader, but would like to see some persuasive ] evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs. ] ] "The thought of Saddam Hussein with a sophisticated ] nuclear capability is a frightening thought, okay?" he ] says. "Now, having said that, I don't know what ] intelligence the U.S. government has. And before I can ] just stand up and say, 'Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we ] need to invade Iraq,' I guess I would like to have better ] information." ] ] He hasn't seen that yet, and so -- in sharp contrast to ] the Bush administration -- he supports letting the U.N. ] weapons inspectors drive the timetable: "I think it is ] very important for us to wait and see what the inspectors ] come up with, and hopefully they come up with something ] conclusive." |
Desert Caution (washingtonpost.com) by Decius at 1:18 am EST, Jan 30, 2003 |
] "It's scary, okay?" he says. "Let's face it: There are ] guys at the Pentagon who have been involved in ] operational planning for their entire lives, okay? . . . ] And for this wisdom, acquired during many operations, ] wars, schools, for that just to be ignored, and in its ] place have somebody who doesn't have any of that ] training, is of concern." Schwarzkopf on the impending war. There is a lot of interesting content in this article, and there is a lot of journalistic fluff. Read the quotes from Schwarzkopf himself and the commentary at the end about heros. Skip all the stuff in the middle about Schwarzkopf's reputation. Its a labored attempt to find an unrelated reason to discount his opinion and it fails. |
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