Click here to read Eric Haney's recent interview with an L.A. TV critic.
Harsh criticism of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq is nothing new, but this critic has the counter-terrorism credentials and military connections to bolster his assertions.
Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major and founding member of the elite Delta Force commando unit, charged Monday that the president’s policy is based on cultural arrogance and corporate greed rather than sound military strategy.
“I understand the people who are doing this and where they’re coming from,” the veteran said. “Delusional ideology is a big factor, and there’s a huge amount of venal corporate activity. Halliburton and other companies are making so much money that they don’t want to see it changed.”
National Security Council spokesman Fred Jones disputed Haney’s contentions on the war.
“I think the president has made increasingly clear why we are in Iraq and the value he places on the military,” Jones said Monday. “He has said decisions on troop levels will be made by commanders on the ground.”
A 1970 graduate of Pepperell High School, Haney is now executive producer and technical adviser for the new CBS hit drama “The Unit,” based on his 2002 memoir titled “Inside Delta Force.”
His comments follow a round of speeches by President Bush last week, marking the third anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bush called Iraq “the central front in the war on terror” in an appearance at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio and said the security of the United States is directly linked to the liberty of the Iraqi people.
“By standing with them in their hour of need, we’re going to help the Iraqis build a strong democracy that will be an inspiration throughout the Middle East,” Bush said. “A democracy that will be a partner in the global war on terror.”
But Haney said Bush “may well have started the third world war” by his focus on Iraq instead of on Saudi Arabia’s role in funding and encouraging the centuries-old culture clash between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East.
“Saudi Arabia is the root source of Islamic extremism and terrorism,” he said. “But this administration keeps the public blinded to the fact because it makes so much money from the monarchy.”
Haney said his concerns are military, not political, and he is surprised more “dyed-in-the-wool” Republicans are not speaking out.
“I don’t care if it was the pope in charge; wrongdoing does not recognize partisanship,” he said. “I had the same problem with (former President) Clinton and the Democrats — you should clean up your own mess.”
The few experienced soldiers who have challenged the Bush strategy — such as U.S. Army joint chief Gen. Eric Shinseki — have been marginalized and forced out, Haney said.
Shinseki retired in August 2003, after testifying before Congress that postwar Iraq would need an occupying force of hundreds of thousands of troops.
“At every turn, in the upper levels of our administration, they refused to listen to what they did not want to hear,” Haney said.
He said Shinseki’s fate served as a warning to other career soldiers considering public contradictions of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“Rumsfeld said the generals are getting all the troops they ask for, but they’ve gotten the word not to ask,” he said. “If you don’t play ball, you don’t get that other star or that book deal or the chance to sit on corporate boards when you retire.”
Still, Haney said he is hearing of a few commanders ready to buck the pressure and reject the blame for failed Iraq policies. Despite what supporters claim, he said, criticizing Bush’s decisions is not unpatriotic.
“The henchmen of Hitler said it. The henchmen of Pol Pot said it. Every low-life tyrant has said it, but it is the duty of every American citizen to stand up and say it when something is wrong,” he said. “This administration has wrapped itself in the troops. They’ve learned from Vietnam to say, ‘If you don’t support me, you don’t support the troops,’ but they’re hiding behind those kids.”
