- NEW YORK (AP) -- Former
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said on Tuesday he believes U.S. President
George W. Bush had a "hidden agenda" in invading Iraq and had
been less than forthright in explaining his reasons for the attack.
-
- "I do believe there is some other agenda, other
than weapons and Saddam Hussein," Gorbachev told a news conference
at an environmental meeting held at the City University of New York. "What
kind of hidden agenda, well that needs to be understood."
-
- Gorbachev said he never had any doubt that the United
States would prevail in the war in Iraq.
-
- "But the question is what do you do with that victory,"
he said. "We are seeing the results of that."
-
- The current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, also opposed
the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He has warned that the United States faces the
possibility of a prolonged and futile war there similar to the one that
the Soviets fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
-
- Since the fall of Baghdad in April, the United States
has faced strong resistance to its efforts to bring order and stability
to the country.
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- U.S. military officials have estimated that between three
and six American soldiers are killed and another 40 wounded every week
in Iraq by an enemy that is becoming more lethal and sophisticated. Soldiers
face between 15 and 20 attacks a day, including roadside bombs.
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- Gorbachev, who heads Green Cross International, an environmental
group dedicated to preserving fresh water and eliminating weapons of mass
destruction, criticized the U.S. action as based on a "new national
strategy" that calls for acting unilaterally against perceived threats.
-
- "The right way to go was what we did against Iraq's
aggression against Kuwait," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
"We all united and worked together."
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- Gorbachev said that it is "most important"
to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, adding that 90 percent of them
are in Russia and the United States.
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- As for the U.S. failure to find weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq, he said, "We have to get to the bottom of it -- whether they
actually existed in Iraq and also the question of the quality of intelligence.
... Whether it (the failure to find the weapons) was the result of faulty
intelligence."
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