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Henry Kissinger: Military victory no
longer possible in Iraq
19.11.2006
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LONDON, November
19, -- Military victory is no longer possible in
Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said
in a television interview broadcast Sunday.
In a wide ranging interview on British Broadcasting
Corp. television, Kissinger presented a bleak vision
of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into
dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors — including
Iran — if any progress is to be made in the region.
"If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi
Government that can be established and whose writ
runs across the whole country, that gets the civil
war under control and sectarian violence under
control in a time period that the political
processes of the democracies will support, I don't
believe that is possible," he said on the BBC's
Sunday AM breakfast show. |
Henry Kissinger, Former U.S. Secretary of State
Photo:AFP |
But Kissinger warned against a rapid withdrawal of
troops, saying it could lead to "disastrous
consequences," destabilizing Iraq's neighbors and
causing a long-lasting conflict.
"If you withdraw all the forces without any
international understanding and without any even
partial solution of some of the problems, civil war
in Iraq will take on even more violent forms and
achieve dimensions that are probably exceeding those
that brought us into Yugoslavia with military
force," he said.
Iraq's neighbors, especially those with large Shia
populations, would be destabilized should their be a
quick withdrawal from Iraq, Kissinger said.
"So I think a dramatic collapse of Iraq — whatever
we think about how the situation was created — would
have disastrous consequences for which we would pay
for many years and which would bring us back, one
way or another, into the region," he said.
Kissinger, whose views have been sought by the Iraqi
Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James
Baker III, called for an international conference
bringing together the permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council, Iraq's neighbors
and regional powers like India and Pakistan to work
out a way forward for the region.
He also said that the process would have to include
Iran and that the U.S. must enter into dialogue with
the country.
Asked if it was time for President Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair to change course, he
responded: "I think we have to redefine the course,
but I don't think that the alternative is between
military victory, as defined previously, or total
withdrawal.
AP
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