The National Security Debate Since 1947: Have We Learned Anything?

Thursday, April 20, 2006

A CNP Conversation With Lawrence Wilkerson

January 11, 2006

Summary

Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The following are quotes excerpted from his remarks before an audience at the Center for National Policy.

Event Excerpts

Ineptitude In Iraq

“The only reason I finally decided I couldn’t hold my words any longer was a combination of two issues that just burned in my guts. One was the contamination of my Army and to a certain extent the Marine Corps and others who were involved including CIA contractors and the many abuses which followed. The other would be the utter ineptitude of post invasion goings on in Iraq.”

“Most of my military friends in Iraq tell me that they fear that certain significant portions of the Iraqi population are so disenchanted that we’ll never get them back and that is a recipe for a dangerous situation.”

“The Persians are the ones winning this whole thing.”

“The strategic situation that I see staring us in the face is that the principle winner in this entire business of invading Iraq and nation building in Iraq is Iran. The Persians are the ones who are winning this whole thing.”

"In the south [of Iraq], for example, I think it’s fair to say the British made a decision to avoid large casualties, and so as a consequence there is Iranian influence in the south of Iraq.”

“Our intelligence community is broken...”

"Our Intelligence Community is broken, utterly broken. It is probably one of the things we need to attend to in the most immediate term. And what we have done is a stopgap measure."

“I’m very concerned about where my country’s going...”

“I’m very concerned about where my country’s going. I’m very concerned about where the military is going. Nothing was done on 9/12 when there was an opportunity to do all manner of things and now we have less than 1% of the country mobilized, and the rest of us? What sacrifices have we made?"

"If your national security adviser is not ready to discipline that process...you're going to make really bad decisions."

“If you are not prepared to allow the bureaucracy to fight and allow dissent from any of your opinion leaders, to allow all the experts that you have and trust and if your national security adviser is not ready to discipline that process so the crap stays out and the good stays in but the dissent is in there with the good, you’re going to make really bad decisions.”

“And the national security adviser had her eye on the prize, and the prize was intimacy with the President, the power that brought. And not disciplining the national security decision making process, and so it didn’t get disciplined by anyone except guess who? The vice president of the United States."

###