Dissing General Zinni
EmailOver at Foreign Policy, a fascinating look at how the Obama White House has treated Gen. Anthony Zinni (Ret.), according to Gen. Zinni.
According to Zinni, he was offered the job of U.S. ambassador to Iraq before diplomat Christopher Hill was announced for the post. He says that his friend of three decades, National Security Advisor James Jones "called me before the inauguration and asked if I would be willing to serve as ambassador to Iraq or in one of the envoy jobs, on the Middle East peace process. I said yes. Then two weeks ago, Jones called, and said, ‘We talked to the secretary of state, and everybody would like to offer you the Iraq job.’ I said yes. The vice president called and congratulated me."
Zinni, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is a retired four-star Marine Corps General and former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command.
Zinni met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Williams Burns.
"She thanks me, asked me my views on Iraq," Zinni told the magazine’s Laura Rozen. "She said to Burns and Steinberg, ‘We’ve got to move quickly, Crocker is leaving, we’ve got to get someone in there and get the paperwork done and hearings… Lots to do to get ready to go."
Zinni rushed to put his personal things in order to get ready to go, though suddenly everyone stopped returned his calls.
"Finally, nobody was telling me anything.I called Jones Monday several times. I finally got through late in evening. I asked Jones, ‘What’s going on?’ And Jones said, ‘We decided on Chris Hill.’ I said, ‘Really.’ That was news to me."
Jones inquired as to whether Zinni would want to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
"I said, ‘You can stick that with whatever other offers,’" Zinni said.
A senior administration official’s response to the grim tale: "We have spoken to a number of extraordinarily talented individuals about serving in this important role, and have made no announcement about who will be the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. Obviously, the President has enormous respect for General Zinni and believes he would be on anybody’s short list for a number of critical national security roles."
– jpt
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Zinni has now been mistreated by 2 presidents.
Posted by: joseyj | February 6, 2009, 9:45 am 9:45 am
It sounds as if the Obama administration offered General Zinni “hope” and then “changed”. Seems like a pattern.
Posted by: Sorry | February 6, 2009, 9:48 am 9:48 am
I said, ‘You can stick that with whatever other offers,’” Zinni said.
****************************************
Well for someone who believes he should be the diplomate this is not a very diplomatic approach to promoting himself.
Who knows what happened, where, when and how. Frankly who cares?
Posted by: Thinking | February 6, 2009, 9:54 am 9:54 am
Hillary please get off of Obama’s ship of fools.
Hillary 2012
Posted by: riley | February 6, 2009, 9:56 am 9:56 am
While I have some misgivings about making a retired general the top diplomat in Iraq, Zinni does know the language, the players, the local customs and what has gone on over there.
Chris Hill is a great diplomat, but his area of expertise is Asia. He doesn’t speak the language in Iraq, nor is he familiar with the local customs, etc. etc.
Posted by: Keith | February 6, 2009, 10:09 am 10:09 am
Uncool
Posted by: Huh | February 6, 2009, 10:13 am 10:13 am
The General isn’t used to this , but I think it is how things are done. I don’t think he is being dissed he just didn’t make the cut. Not easy for a guy like him. And yes by the way he should not say what he did he was being considered for a job that requires a lot of cool and a lot of compromise. Maybe that is why he was passed over.More to this than we will ever know I for one don’t like military people in these positions as they are not always peace makers are they?
Posted by: Bonnie Kimberly | February 6, 2009, 10:30 am 10:30 am
JTP: Why did you omit the Obama administration’s likely problems with Zinni’s conflict of interest which the Foreign Policy article mentioned?
There seems to be a pattern in your work of choosing not to report the Obama administration’s rationale.
Posted by: Danny | February 6, 2009, 10:56 am 10:56 am
Boo hoo, cry me a river. The real story is how Stienberg got his job
Posted by: BS | February 6, 2009, 11:02 am 11:02 am
“She thanks me, asked me my views on Iraq,”
maybe that’s what cost you the job, Zinni, did you ever think of that?
Posted by: JR | February 6, 2009, 11:32 am 11:32 am
Hope and CHANGE
Posted by: 8mile | February 6, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
The ship of fools in DC are making George Bush look better every day
Posted by: 8mile | February 6, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
I looked through the Foreign Policy website. One of the blogs, Madams Secretary, throws around rhetoric typical of Hillary Clinton bashing. There’s a lot of interjection of right leaning opinion throughout the site. It’s definitely not a balanced news source.
Posted by: kathy | February 6, 2009, 11:57 am 11:57 am
An annoymous source at the State Department confided that General Zinni was turned down because the vetting process showed he has always paid his taxes, on time, every penny. Secretary Clinton was afraid his behavior would continue, thereby making other Administration appointees “uncomfortable.”
Posted by: Parrotheadnh | February 6, 2009, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
The Foreign Policy website is in no way “right leaning”. Disagree with various individual articles and blogs but do not mislabel the entire website. Attacking the source is getting old.
Posted by: Journalism101 | February 6, 2009, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
By all means, the readers should peruse the link. I highly recommend the Madame Secretary blog. Journalism 101, or whoever you might be, I fail to see how attacking the source is getting old. The vast majority of the readers probably don’t look at the links, especially the low information respondents.
Posted by: kathy | February 6, 2009, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
Does anyone really believe that someone could be told they are ambassador by Jones, had that confirmed by Clinton, and congratulated by Biden and never given the courtesy of informing there had been a change …. or, at the least, an apology that he wasn’t informed in a timely fashion? I don’t buy it. Not when formal apologies are made to C.J. Roberts, Nancy Reagan, etc. for a very mild quips that they might (or might now). Dislike Obama if you want but find any similar examples of when he or his campaign/administration didn’t exhibit basic good manners! Also, since when do retired Generals go blabbing to the Washington Times when their feelings are hurt? —- There’s more to this story than is being told. The real question is whether we’ll ever hear it.
Posted by: Elizabeth | February 6, 2009, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
The left needed Zinni when the campaign was going on, but since the US won the war in Iraq and the election is over, the Democrats no longer need a military man in the Diplomat side of the house.
Posted by: Sally J. | February 6, 2009, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
oops!! “for very mild quips that they might (or might not) resent.”
Posted by: Elizabeth | February 6, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
Zinni has now been mistreated by 2 presidents.
Posted by: joseyj | Feb 6, 2009 9:45:12 AM
——
It’s all because Zinni supported HRC during the primaries.
Pity.
Posted by: fact | February 6, 2009, 2:22 pm 2:22 pm
Folks:
Gen Zinni was the best person for the job without a doubt. Gen Zinni fully understands the environment. More importantly, he could have been the one that brought the military, political, and economic forces together to forge a longlasting government. Hill is a nice guy and he is competent, but Zinni was the entire package. Let’s be clear, Iraq is important, but Zinni understands and knows the players in ALL of the surrounding countries (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, and UAE like no other single individual.
I suspect that Iraq will unravel in 2009 as US troop levels are reduced. Gen Zinni would have been the perfect person to mitigate.
Unfortunately, an opportunity missed and a man like Zinni is not likely to take another position and quite frankly I don’t blame him.
Cheers,
Nick
Posted by: Nick | February 8, 2009, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
Anyone with any knowledge of General Zinni realizes that he, more than any other American, is the most qualified person to help us exit Iraq with honor and work toward a establishing a stable government. What MacArthur helped to accomplish in Japan after WW II, Tony Zinni could likewise have acomplished in Iraq. Hill worked as a career diplomat in Europe and Korea and has no Middle East experience. The way this appointment was mishandled makes one question the qualifications of both those being appointed as well as those deciding who will be appointed. I doubt that this would have happened when Powell was Secretary of State.
Posted by: etg92118 | February 9, 2009, 7:36 pm 7:36 pm
Anone that would think Gen Zinni would lie about what happened is a stupid Jerk, and doesn’t need to make ignorant suggestions. He is one of the best this country has to offer. He deserves to be President of the USA!!!
Posted by: Jim T | January 30, 2010, 9:41 am 9:41 am