| TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2003 THE TIMES OF INDIA |
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US becoming a colonial power: Wesley
Clark
PTI |
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WASHINGTON: The United States is well on its way to becoming a colonial power if President George W Bush does go ahead with plans to attack Iraq, a former Nato supreme commander said on Sunday. General Wesley Clark, a former Nato supreme commander and a potential Democratic candidate for president, told a Meet the Press programme on NBC that Saddam Hussein was "finished" and having gone so far, the US could not change its plans to remove him. "We are at a turning point in America's history. We are about to embark on an operation that is going to put us in a colonial position in the Middle East following Britain." It is a huge change for the American people and what this country stands for, he said. The Bush administration, he said, has not respected its allies and that is why it finds itself without the support of many Nato allies and even in those countries prepared to support the US, public opinion is against the war. Iraq, could have been contained without war, he said. Clark also warned against a civil war in Iraq after the present regime is removed because of the ethnic and religious divisions in the country--Kurds in the north, Shiites who constitute the majority in the country, and Sunnis who now wield power. |
