Iran 'reaps benefit of Iraq war' (Wilkerson)

[cal04]

US President George W. Bush's administration had created a volatile situation in Iraq that had benefited Iran and could degenerate into a civil war, an ex-top aide to former secretary of state Colin Powell said overnight. Lawrence Wilkerson, Mr Powell's former chief of staff, said Iran's Shiite theocracy had exploited the chaos and political vacuum in neighbouring Iraq and had become the "principal winner" after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

"The Persians are the ones who are winning from this whole thing," Mr Wilkerson said in a speech at the Centre for National Policy, a Washington think tank. "For most purposes, Iranians own the south (part of Iraq)," he said, referring to the region where Shiites form an overwhelming majority. There was a genuine threat of civil war in Iraq, and possibly not along sectarian lines, he said. Time and lives were lost in Iraq due to what Mr Wilkerson called ineptitude and recklessness by the White House.

Mr Wilkerson, a Vietnam veteran and retired US army colonel, has become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration since resigning last year. "We're looking at a strategic situation that may be more dangerous than the situation we faced before we went in (to Iraq)," he said. He said the Bush administration was courting disaster by refusing to engage Iran and North Korean in direct diplomacy.

"If no one is going to talk to the people in Tehran who really matter, just as no one is going to talk to the people in Pyongyang who really matter, then we've got two very dangerous situations on our hands," he said. Asked why Mr Powell did not resign when his advice was often ignored by the president, Mr Wilkerson said stepping down would have served no useful purpose and remaining on allowed Mr Powell to exert some influence. If Mr Powell had quit, Mr Wilkerson said he thought the president's reaction would have been, "'Thank you Colin, don't let the door hit you on the way out."'

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17800345%255E1702,00.html

[pinerow]

1. And yet...he did not resign and go public...

nt