Ex- commander: Fixing Middle East will take years

Gen. John Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, told a Carson City Lion's Club dinner Thursday it will be years before the situation in that part of the world is stable.

Abizaid, who retired as a four star general to live in Gardnerville, said for the U.S. to get its troops out of the area, the nation must deal with four major issues.

The first is what he termed the "Sunni Islamist extremist movement," which he described as robust and committed to forcing America out of the region and to destabilizing governments that don't agree with its view of the Muslim faith.

Second, he said, is the Shia extremism centered in Iran and that country's "desire to dominate the Persian Gulf."

He said both are violently anti-American.

"Fortunately they are not compatible with one another," said Abizaid.

He said it's a mistake to view these movements as anything but deeply committed and serious opponents.

"People want to believe they're just a bunch of crazy terrorists, that they have no plan and just got lucky on 9/11," he said. "That's not true."

He said those elements of extremist Islam "believe over the long run they can drive American power out of the region and move toward domination of that region."

The third issue, he said, is the continue Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

"The problem for us is this festering conflict could propel us into another big conflict," he said.

"We need to find a respectable peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians," Abizaid told the audience at the Carson Nugget.

But the fourth and final issue, he said, is a huge problem for the U.S.

"Our continuing dependence on Middle Eastern oil."

He said the U.S. must move away from that dependence at all costs "so that American kids don't need to go to the Middle East."

"We should have done it 20 years ago," he said.

Abizaid told the audience there are some hopeful signs including discontent among Iranians tired of the iron-handed rule of the mullahs. And he said Iraqi elections set for January could help create a stable government there.

But he said legitimacy and stability in Afghanistan "won't happen overnight but over years." Pakistan, he said, must also deal with the extremists in its territory if it is to become more stable.

He said pulling out of the region isn't the answer.

"While we may walk away from them, they have no intent of walking away from us," he said.