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Retired general: U.S. faces four challenges in Mideast Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:14 AM By Jeb Phillips THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Retired Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, speaking at Ohio State, cited issues the next president will face. The conflicts in the Middle East are not a fight among civilizations, said the man who once commanded all U.S. troops in that area. Not yet. "But if we walk away and give the extremists heart, it could happen," said retired Army Gen. John P. Abizaid. With that in mind, Abizaid laid out four crucial issues that the next president will have to deal with in the Middle East. Abizaid, 56, led the U.S. Central Command from July 2003 until March 2007, with military authority over the American forces in 27 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. He spoke at Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts yesterday, he said, not as someone representing any political position, but as a soldier who spent much of his career in the Middle East. "He's a straight shooter ... that's why we wanted to bring him here," said Richard Herrman, director of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, which sponsored the speech. "He's also an internationalist. He believes that the United States should be in that region. That's a view that isn't completely shared by everyone." From that perspective, Abizaid spoke about the importance of four issues: • The rise of Sunni Islamic extremism, represented by al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. That branch of extremism is well-organized, well-funded and conversant with technology, which makes it a dangerous enemy, he said. The extremism should be confronted with a combination of force and diplomacy, he said. • Shiite theocratic religious extremism, represented by Iran. That branch of extremism is compatible with Sunnis only in that both want the United States out of the region. Iran should be contained -- "notice I didn't say attacked," he said -- and then that extremism probably would die out. In his experience, he said, most Iranians don't want that extremism in their country. • The Arab-Israeli conflict. That's less his area of expertise, he said, but it drives people to think and act in extremes, the way the other two issues do. • The world economy's dependence on the flow of oil. Al-Qaida is trying to disrupt it; the U.S. military is trying to protect it. Figuring how to decrease that dependence, with technology and conservation, is critical. "It's something we should have done 50 years ago," he said. Those four issues aren't all there is to worry about in the Central Command area, which includes central Asia and part of Africa. There are natural disasters caused by global warming, genocide in Sudan's Darfur region, Pakistani politics and the drug trade, he said. The military can't do it all, Abizaid said. The Army and the Marine Corps are tired. He said he would like to see an evolution in the way U.S. forces are deployed in that region. Instead of 80 percent military and 20 percent diplomatic efforts (such as economic aid, intelligence gathering, and help in developing infrastructure), he hopes those percentages will flip. "There are going to be enough challenges to last us a lifetime," he said.
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