Pretexts for War
March 30, 2008
Gareth Porter speaks on Antiwar Radio about ‘Fox’ Fallon’s resignation and an earlier attempt by the Clinton administration to establish a pretext for war with Iraq, thwarted by the then Centcom commander Anthony Zinni.
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the “retirement” of Adm. Fox Fallon from his position as the head of Centcom, his repeated clashes with the White House over Iran policy, Robert Gates role, his belief that war is still unlikely, the U.S. government propaganda again blaming Iran for all the problems in Iraq, Obama and his advisers, Bill Clinton’s 1997 attempt to have former Centcom commander Gen. Anthony Zinni to create a pretext for war with Iraq and Zinni’s play to shut it down and attempt to pin bin Laden’s Khobar Towers attack on “Iranian-backed Saudi Hezbollah” as a pretext for war against Iran.
MP3 here. (27:32)
Some relevant Porter articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Dr. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005.
Dr. Porter was both a Vietnam specialist and an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War and was Co-Director of Indochina Resource Center in Washington. Dr. Porter taught international studies at City College of New York and American University. He was the first Academic Director for Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Washington Semester program at American University.
