The complexities of the conflicts in the Middle East and global war on terror came to breakfast on Friday when retired Gen. John Abizaid spoke to Carson Valley Sertoma at Sharkey's.
The former commander of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan told a packed house that Americans need to take a broader view of the conflict.
Thursday is the seventh anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by Islamic fundamentalists. Abizaid is speaking at the Sierra Nevada Republican Women's 9/11 anniversary dinner in Genoa.
"A narrow focus on what happens in Iraq or Afghanistan or downtown Baghdad misses the point," he said.
"Our vital interests are tied up in this interesting, dangerous and dynamic part of the world. This is the first battle for the globalization of the world. We are one side and the other side is fighting so their ideas will be ascendant. Their ideas and ours are not compatible."
Abizaid served as commander of U.S. Central Command, which stretches from the Arabic nations of the Middle East to Kazakhstan and south to the horn of Africa.
The Coleville High School graduate retired to a home in Gardnerville.
He told Sertomans that he would never have though there would be a quarter-million American troops in the Middle East.
"Whatever your feelings about the war, that our young men and women are willing to go in harm's way is a tremendous tribute to our nation," he said. "Thank the veterans who come back, but also thank those who are serving. And when they come home, give them a job. They are disciplined, tough and know what to do."
Abizaid said there are four issues in central Asia that must be dealt with.
The first is the rise of Sunni Islam extremism in the Middle East in the form of Al Qaeda as led by Osama bin Laden.
"They aren't fighting because they hate Americans," he said, "but because they want to be ascendant in the region. They want to be dominant in the region so they can be dominant in the world. They are well-organized and the bad news is that they've learned to exploit our technology, especially the Internet."
Abizaid said Sunni extremists don't just operate in the dark corners, but have cells throughout the world.
"The good news is that they are not in the mainstream," he said. "Most people in the Middle East don't want Bin Laden in charge. They saw what happened with the Taliban and Afghanistan where they were using soccer stadiums for public executions and women weren't part of life."
Abizaid said the key is to shift the fight to those good people who live in the region.
"We need to help the people in the region help themselves," he said. "I've fought in the Middle East for half of my career. I hope my grandkids don't have to fight there."
He said the second issue is the rise of Shia revolutionary ideology in the form of Iran, which is very different from the Sunni threat.
"They are separate and distinct from each other," he said. "They are opposed to each other, but they are both opposed to American involvement in the region."
Abizaid said that Iran will be easier to deal with than Al Qaeda because it is a nation.
"I believe we can contain Iran, much as we did with the Soviet Union and other nation states," he said. "I believe Iran is not a suicide state, and eventually people will change that government."
The third major issue is the Arab-Israeli conflict. Abizaid said that the sense of hopelessness has caused people who might not otherwise be extremists to take up their cause in the hope of changing things.
"Presidents focus on the conflict in the last year of their terms," he said. "I hope the next president will grab hold of the issue in the first year."
He said the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region play a critical part of the issue.
"Nuclear proliferation is bad for the people in the region and it's bad for us."
The fourth issue " the one closest to home " is the price of gasoline.
"Our geo-political maneuvering space is limited by the need for oil," Abizaid said. "I hope the next president will have a project to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I think we can do it. Oil will keep us in the Middle East for a long time."
The complexity of the issues in Central Asia makes it difficult for Americans to understand what's going on.
"An awful lot of the conflict isn't clearly understood by Americans in general," he said. "Bin Laden has a 500-year view of the world. He doesn't expect to see success in his lifetime. We tend to think tactically, when we have to think in strategic terms."
Abizaid said that victory in the area won't be like the capture of Berlin in World War II.
"This is a global issue with a very complex battle space," he said.
But he held out hope that the United States will prevail.
"There is no problem that is insurmountable for the United States of America," he said. "I don't believe that we will have 250,000 people in the Middle East forever. We need to not try and control the Middle East, we need to shape it. There are more Iraqis fighting with us than against us, the same is true in Afghanistan."
