Retired CIA analyst will speak on Iraq war at Osage Centre

~ Ray McGovern said it is time to bring American troops home from Iraq.

No good options are left for the United States as it gropes toward a solution to ongoing anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq, a retired CIA analyst said as he prepares to make an 11-day swing through Missouri and Arkansas.

Ray McGovern, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 27 years, said he hopes to bring information and perspective to a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau. McGovern worked for the CIA under seven presidents, retiring during the term of President George H.W. Bush, the father of the current president.

In addition to Cape Girardeau, McGovern will speak in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, Springfield and Fayetteville, Ark.

McGovern said it is time to bring American troops home from Iraq, questioned the justifications for the March 2003 invasion and criticized President George W. Bush for misusing American power.

"What bothers me greatly is that this president is treating our troops like toy soldiers that a rich kid gets for Christmas," McGovern said.

McGovern, at the time of his retirement, had reached the top echelons of the CIA. He chaired the National Intelligence Estimates Group and oversaw preparation of the President's Daily Brief for presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. The first Bush awarded McGovern the Intelligence Commendation Medallion.

McGovern's visit to Cape Girardeau is sponsored by Concerned Citizens of Southeast Missouri, a recently formed group seeking to bring information about the war to the public, spokeswoman Dana Kluesner said.

The war "has gone on too long and it is time to bring the troops back home," Kluesner said. "And I have noticed that there are more and more people who are willing to listen, and I feel like their views are changing."

Seating at the event is limited to 300 on a first-come, first-served basis.

Debate over Iraq and the future of the American effort there has split the country between those who want a timetable for withdawal and those who argue that withdrawal will make the nation appear weak.

That is a false argument, McGovern said.

"I would say that we appear weak and vulnerable now because we cannot exert our influence in that country," McGovern said. "We are involved in a counterinsurgency operation in which we have a small fraction of the troops required."

Since retiring, McGovern has worked with the the Ecumenical Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C., working with its publishing arm, Tell the Word, and, for a time, leading the Servant Leadership School.

He, and the church, are at odds with conservative Christians, he said. "I am very distraught at the way the word Christian has been hijacked by folks who have an interpretation that Jesus of Nazareth would find bizarre."

But the point of his visit, McGovern said, is to bring information and perspective to the war issue. "First and foremost I am a professional intelligence officer," he said. "Our whole cachet is to be nonpolitical, to tell the truth without fear or favor."

As he discussed the war, McGovern said he's become convinced that Bush and others supporting the war decided on invading Iraq, then developed the arguments needed to convince the nation that Saddam Hussein was too dangerous to leave in power.

"We know from official documents that the president and his high officials told the British that they were going to attack Iraq and the attack would be justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," McGovern said.

Remaining in Iraq, McGovern said. will lead America to the same result as Vietnam.

"I take my cue from my favorite philosopher, Yogi Berra, who said that predictions are very difficult, especially if you are dealing with the future," he said. "But if we stay the course, Yogi Berra is dead wrong, predictions are very easy. We have been there, we know it. It is called Vietnam. The violence gets worse and the remains of the U.S.presence gets taken up from Green Zone and taken home."

Withdrawing, however, leads to a less predictable outcome. The Iraqi government, which has already been building strong ties to Iran, could move closer to that Islamic state.

But a planned, orderly withdrawal could moderate the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and produce a stable, friendly nation.

"If we do those things, then the Europeans and the Pakistanis could help us exit as gracefully as they can at that point," he said. "It is not because they want to help us but because they have more interest in a stable Middle East."

McGovern said his friends in the intelligence community tell him there is little to be gained from staying indefinitely in Iraq. "They tell me that there is no reason to believe violence would be worse if we leave than if we stay."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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