Posted on 09/25/2002 7:27 AM EDT by RJCogburn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/756875/posts
IF GEORGE W. BUSH had employed the services of David H. Hackworth as speechwriter, the discomfort level might have been considerably higher at the United Nations on Sept. 12, when the President challenged and chided the world body over its inaction on Iraq.
?I would have taken his speech and laid it on the table,? said Hackworth, a retired Army colonel known for his outspoken and frequently controversial opinions. ?And every place it said Iraq, I would have crossed it out and I would have replaced it with Syria, China, Lebanon and we could just go down (the list).? Hackworth, a Connecticut resident, ventured up to New Hampshire last week and was interviewed on the WNDS-TV program ?Capitol Ideas? with Arnie Arnesen.
The former colonel gave the commander-in-chief something less than a four-star review for the case he presented against Iraq at the U.N. ?Can I give you about two dozen guys who are equally as bad as Saddam Hussein?? Hackworth asked. ?I?ll go to Pakistan. The guy that?s running that place got into power with a shotgun, blowing everybody out of the way. Anybody who wants to run against him, he blows out of the way. He supported and organized the Taliban, who provided haven to al-Qaida?s bunch. And he?s got ?nuke? weapons that are really far more sophisticated than the alleged ?nuke? weapons that Saddam Hussein has. So I just don?t think the President has made a case and I don?t think he?s articulated what the threat is. And I think if that was his best shot to the United Nations, he hit his foot.?
?Hack,? as he likes to be called, knows something about shooting oneself in the foot. The nation?s most decorated living solider, he won more than 100 awards, 78 of them combat related. Highly regarded for both his skill and courage, Hackworth became the youngest full colonel in Vietnam. But discretion was not the greater part of his valor. In 1971, he appeared on ABC?s ?Issues and Answers? and was remarkably candid in his criticisms of our military?s leaderships, strategy and tactics in Vietnam. The Army brass soon convinced him that a career change might be preferable to a court martial, and the 26-year veteran retired from active duty.
But not from speaking his mind. He has written or co-authored four books (one of them a novel), writes a column that appears in about 100 newspapers, and he remains active on the lecture circuit, making about 20 speeches a year. The Bush administration might wish he were still in the Army, so he could be court-martialed after all. Hackworth is openly scornful of the administration?s claim that Saddam Hussein?s nuclear weapons program poses an urgent threat to the United States.
Assuming he is on the verge of creating a ?crude? nuclear bomb, the Iraqi dictator is still a few thousand miles short of being able to deliver it to the United States. ?He?s got to put ?em in his canoe,? Hackworth cracked. He believes our government?s fixation on Iraq has less to do with ?weapons of mass destruction? than with barrels of ?black gold.? ?We want a new gas station and we?re going to get it,? said Hackworth. ?And we?ll use the military power to get it.?
The Vietnam veteran isn?t worried about a protracted war this time. He predicts it will be over in 90 days?60 days of bombing followed by 30 days of ground war. But we may still be in Iraq years ? even generations ? after Saddam Hussein is gone. ?Do we occupy a new oil well, a gas station for the next 60 years?? Hackworth asked.
The more immediate consequence, he fears, is that U.S. standing in the Arab world will further deteriorate and more young people will be inspired to join the radical, anti-American forces.
?We?re engaged in a hell of a fight with the main opponent,? he said. ?That is the al-Qaida, the terrorists that delivered such a grievous blow to our country on Sept. 11. If we distract ourselves on a sideshow such as Saddam Hussein, maybe to pay back what Daddy (Bush) didn?t do or whatever, we might lose the main event.?
Having lived long enough to be an old solider, Hackworth, 72, resents ?the suits? in the Washington power elite who appear quite eager to send another generation of young Americans into another needless war. ?The ones that are advocating war, all these super hawks, never went to war,? he said. ?Nor are any of the kids of the congressmen and women in the forward positions of a foxhole or a tank. They?re not going to be the ones that come back in a body bag.?
