I was very impressed with General Tony Zinni’s (Ret.) interview on “Meet the Press” April 2, 2006. He spoke so clearly and compellingly about the poor judgments that were made by the Bush Administration before sending the country into war with Iraq. I have posted the transcript of his interview with Tim Russert below and encourage those that visit my site to read his book “The Battle for Peace.”

General Zinni, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

GEN. ZINNI: Thank you, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: And we’re going to talk about your book, “Battle For Peace.”

Let me bring you back to 1998, and this is what General Tony Zinni had to say:

“I think a weakened, fragmented, chaotic Iraq – which could happen if this isn’t done carefully – is more dangerous in the long run than a contained Saddam is now. … I don’t think these questions have been thought through or answered.” Is that what we have now?

GEN. ZINNI: I think so. I think we are paying the price for the lack of credible planning, or the lack of a plan. We’re throwing away 10 years worth of planning, in effect, for underestimating the situation we were going to get into, for not adhering to the advice that was being given to us by others, and, I think, getting distracted from Afghanistan and the war on terrorism that we were committed to when we took on this adventure.

MR. RUSSERT: If you were the president of the United States right now, what would you do about Iraq?

GEN. ZINNI: Well, unfortunately, Iraq is