Discussion on Iraq War and Middle East Strategy

Right after 9/11, about 10 days after 9/11,

I went through the

Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and,

and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to

some of the

people on the joint staff who had used, used to work for me, and one of the

generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you gotta come in.

You gotta come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well,

you're too busy." He

said, "No, no." He says, "You... We've made the decision

we're going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the 20th of

September.

I said, "We're going to war with Iraq?

Why?"

He said, "I don't know."

He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do."

So, uh, I said, "Well, did they find some information collect-

connecting Saddam

to Al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that

way. They've just made the decision to go to

war with Iraq."

So I came back to see him a few weeks later,

and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan.

I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?"

And he said, "Oh, it's worse than

that." He said... He reached over on his desk

and he picked up a piece of paper and

he said, "I just," he said, "I just got this down from upstairs,"

meaning the

Secretary of Defense's office, "today." And he said, "This is a memo

that describes

how we're gonna take out seven countries in five

years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon,

Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran."

I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir."

I said, I said, "Well, don't show it to me."

And I saw him a year or so ago and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I

didn't show you that memo. I didn't show it to you."

Uh, I'm sorry, what did you say his name was?

I'm not gonna give you his name.

So go through the countries again.

Well, starting with Iraq, then Syria and Lebanon, then Libya, then

Somalia and Sudan, and then back to Iran.

And we are supporting terrorist groups, apparently, who

are infiltrating and blowing up things inside

Iraq, Iran. And if we're not doing it,

let's put it this way, we're probably cognizant of it

and encouraging it.

So it's not surprising that we're moving to

a point of confrontation crisis with Iran.