Zinni: U.S. Viewed As "Modern Crusader"

In an exclusive interview with CBS’ "60 Minutes", Zinni heaped blame on the administration’s "neo-conservatives" for tarnishing the image of the U.S. in the eyes of the Middle Easterners.

"What we have become now in the United States , how we’re viewed in this region is not an entity that’s promising positive change. We are now being viewed as the modern crusaders, as the modern colonial power in this part of the world," he said.

Zinni slammed senior Pentagon and administration officials for clumsy strategies in Iraq , saying it is high time for heads to roll after they "have screwed up".

"The trouble is the way they saw to go about this is unilateral aggressive intervention by the United States – the take down of Iraq as a priority," added the four-star general, who broke ranks with the administration of George W. Bush over the Iraq war.

Zinni said he has been accused of being anti-Semitic for calling top Pentagon Jewish officials as "neo-conservatives" though "they describe themselves as neo-conservatives".

"I mean, you know, unbelievable that that’s the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it. I certainly didn’t criticize who they were. I certainly don’t know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are. And I’m not interested," he told CBS.

He continued: "I think it’s the worst kept secret in Washington . That everybody – everybody I talk to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do".

CBS said Zinni was hinting at Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; Former Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle; National Security Council member Eliot Abrams; and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby.

It said that they pressed for the war on Iraq to stabilize American interests in the region and strengthen the position of Israel .

"I know what strategy they promoted. And openly. And for a number of years. And what they have convinced the president and the secretary to do. And I don’t believe there is any serious political leader, military leader, diplomat in Washington that doesn’t know where it came from," said Zinni.

Heads Should Roll

Zinni also criticized top Pentagon officials for awkward strategies and dereliction of duty in war-torn Iraq , warning that the U.S. course in Iraq now is "headed over Niagara Falls ".

"If you charge me with the responsibility of taking this nation to war, if you charge me with implementing that policy with creating the strategy which convinces me to go to war, and I fail you, then I ought to go," he told CBS.

"As best I could see, I saw a pickup team, very small, insufficient in the Pentagon with no detailed plans that walked onto the battlefield after the major fighting stopped and tried to work it out in the huddle — in effect to create a seat-of-the-pants operation on reconstructing a country," added the general who commanded the Centcom from 1997 to 2000.

Though he did not mention names, Zinni jibed at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has been at the center of harsh criticism after the scandal of Iraq prisoner abuse broke into public view last month.

"Well, it starts with at the top. If you’re the secretary of defense and you’re responsible for that. If you’re responsible for that planning and that execution on the ground. If you’ve assumed responsibility for the other elements, non-military, non-security, political, economic, social and everything else, then you bear responsibility," said Zinni.

"Certainly those in your ranks that foisted this strategy on us that is flawed. Certainly they ought to be gone and replaced."

Senior U.S. military officials hit out on May 10 at the Pentagon’s strategic and tactical blunders, calling for sacking their boss Rumsfeld and his top aides.

Rumsfeld also faced mounting pressure from U.S. Senators, Representatives and the press to step down, though he offered his "deepest apology" for the abuse scandal and took responsibility for the misconduct of his soldiers.

The American New Yorker magazine dropped a bombshell May 16, saying the torture of Iraqi prisoners was okayed by Rumsfeld.

Wrong War

General Zinni further told CBS that Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time.

"I can’t speak for all generals, certainly. But I know we felt that this situation was contained. Saddam was effectively contained. The no-fly, no-drive zones. The sanctions that were imposed on him."

He also hit out at the faulty pre-war intelligence about Iraq ’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that led to the current anarchy.

He said Rumsfeld should not have been now surprised at the stiff Iraqi resistance.

"There were a number of people, before we even engaged in this conflict, that felt strongly we were underestimating the problems and the scope of the problems we would have in there," Zinni recalled.

"Not just generals, but others — diplomats, those in the international community that understood the situation. Friends of ours in the region that were cautioning us to be careful out there. I think he should have known that."

Zinni also said that some Pentagon officials had the guts to create "their own intelligence to match their needs".

He was not the only former military leader with doubts about the invasion of Iraq .

Former General and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Centcom Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, and former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki all voiced their reservations, CBS remarked.

Speak Up

Zinni, who now teaches international relations at the College of William and Mary, says he feels a responsibility to speak out voiced early concerns about the Vietnam war nearly 40 years ago.

"It is part of your duty. Look, there is one statement that bothers me more than anything else. And that’s the idea that when the troops are in combat, everybody has to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with a faulty rifle, and that rifle was malfunctioning, and troops were dying as a result," he went on.

"I can’t think anyone would allow that to happen, that would not speak up. Well, what’s the difference between a faulty plan and strategy that’s getting just as many troops killed? It’s leading down a path where we’re not succeeding and accomplishing the missions we’ve set out to do."

His diatribe on the Pentagon is outlined in a new book about his career, called "Battle Ready".

In the book, Zinni writes: "In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption."