Thanks to John De Matteo
11/20/01
Zinni, the son of an Italian immigrant who got
U.S. citizenship by serving in
the military, grew up in a working-class suburb
of Philadelphia, named by
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday as
his special adviser in the peace
process between Israel and the Palestinians.
===================================================
Zinni Has Strong Ties in Mideast
By Matt Kelly
WASHINGTON (AP) - With his burly frame and no-nonsense demeanor, Anthony
Zinni looks every bit the Marine Corps four-star general he once was.
But during negotiations between bitter rivals, Zinni is less inclined
to
knock heads than to craft thoughtful, realistic compromises, say those
who
know him.
``His physical appearance probably conveys a message that he uses to
his
advantage. He's a very forceful speaker,'' said Jay Farrar, a former
Pentagon
and National Security Council official now with the Center for Strategic
and
International Studies think tank. ``He's also very pragmatic and down
to
earth. At the end of the day, that's what helps him in the diplomatic
process.''
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday named Zinni as his special
adviser
in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Zinni has
strong
ties to the region, having served there for nearly a decade, including
four
years as the top U.S. military commander in the area.
To prepare for that job as head of the U.S. Central Command, Zinni studied
Arabic as well as Middle East history and politics, and traveled extensively
through the region meeting military and political leaders. Many of
the
lower-level people Zinni befriended in the 1990s have more senior posts
now.
Zinni also helped Ethiopia and Eritrea try to resolve a border dispute
that
led to a war and oversaw the U.S. military's 1995 withdrawal from Somalia
-
where fighters allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network
shot
down two U.S. helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers in 1993.
He also commanded the operation that fired Tomahawk cruise missiles
on
al-Qaida training camps and a factory in Sudan after the 1998 embassy
bombings in east Africa. Critics say the Sudanese facility may not
have been
a chemical weapons factory, as the United States claimed, and the missiles
did little more than harden bin Laden's anti-American views.
People trust Zinni because he's a straight shooter who keeps his word
and
expects everyone else to do so, Farrar said.
``He's also not naive. He understands that the American point of view
is not
the only point of view, that other perspectives have to be taken into
account,'' Farrar said.
Zinni grew up in a working-class suburb of Philadelphia, the son of
an
Italian immigrant who got U.S. citizenship by serving in the military.
He
enlisted in the Marines while in college at Villanova, and was commissioned
a
second lieutenant in 1965.
In 1967, he served a tour in Vietnam as a liaison with the South Vietnamese
Marines. He returned to Vietnam as a company commander in 1970, earned
two
Bronze Star medals and was wounded in a firefight.
Zinni has said his experience in Vietnam taught him that communicating
goals
clearly is vital. His commanders could never give a good answer when
he asked
what America's objective in Vietnam was, Zinni said in a 1998 interview.
``I promised myself after that I would always explain to the troops
why we
were doing what we were doing and I would never accept a mission or
a tasking
that I didn't feel was right or that I couldn't understand,'' Zinni
said.
Zinni aides did not respond to a request for an interview Monday.
While in the military, Zinni also earned master's degrees in management
and
international relations, and taught tactics and other courses to junior
officers.
Zinni oversaw several operations against Iraq in the wake of the Gulf
War,
further expanding his expertise in messy, unconventional modern warfare.
He also embraced his dual role as diplomat and military commander at
Central
Command in an era that saw the U.S. regional commanders gain nearly
unprecedented power as representatives of U.S. foreign policy.
``If you constrain yourself to military thinking and military learning,
you're going to be fairly narrow,'' Zinni said in 1998. ``More and
more,
senior officers have to be a blend of diplomat, statesman, humanitarian.''
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