Neocons would have us think that all individuals critical of war with Iraq are extreme left neomarxists. Of course, the uncomfortable truth is that several General Officers, including a man I admire, General Anthony Zinni, have come out expressing caution with regard to going to war. The following is excerpted from an Alternet.org reprint of a Salon.com article:
Like those generals who were far greater than I am, I don't think that violence and war is the solution. There are times when you reluctantly, as a last resort, have to go to war. I will tell you that in my time, I never saw anything come out of fighting that was worth the fight. I'm sure my brother who served in Korea, my cousins who served in the Pacific and in Europe in World War II, and my father who fought for this country in World War I with the other 12 percent of Italian immigrants who served in the infantry may all have different views of their wars.
Link courtesy of Veterans for Common Sense founder Charles Sheehan-Miles.
This entry also posted at Stand Down.
Thanks for posting this link, James. There’s also online a speech by Zinni to the Middle East Institute; someone may have posted a link [url=http://nowarblog.org]in here already[/url], but if not I’ll look it up and add it here tonight.
For a pithy excerpt of Zinni’s antiwar remarks last month at Virginia Military Institute, see the link to the Baltimore Sun article below in the ‘Help Nell a little’ post.
(And then suggest some slogans!)
11/5/2002 9:06:00 AM
I have heard Gen Zinni at the Navy War College, though he looks like a gentle Italian teddy bear, he is as tough of a Marine as I have seen. Generals do not want to go to war. That is an old misconception dating from Dr Strangelove. Generals are the first ones to want diplomacy to work. The politicians are the ones who start wars, the generals are just the tools.
11/5/2002 9:14:00