“Before I can just stand up and say, we need to invade Iraq, I guess I would like to have better information," Schwarzkopf

WASHINGTON, January 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Norman Schwarzkopf, the general who commanded the U.S.-led forces in the 1991 Gulf War, said a new war with Iraq has not yet been justified.

Schwarzkopf, who became a military hero for his role in the last war, has added his weight to calls for UN inspectors to be given more time to uncover any evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"The thought of Saddam Hussein with a sophisticated nuclear capability is a frightening thought, OK?" he said in an interview published in the Washington Post Tuesday, January 28.

"Now, having said that, I don't know what intelligence the U.S. government has. And before I can just stand up and say, 'Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we need to invade Iraq,' I guess I would like to have better information."

Interviewed at his Tampa, Florida, home, the 68-year-old retired general who became affectionately known as "Stormin' Norman", said he would like to give UN weapons inspectors more time to complete their task.

"I think it is very important for us to wait and see what the inspectors come up with, and hopefully they come up with something conclusive," he said.

Rumsfeld's authoritarian style

Schwarzkopf was also critical of what he portrayed as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's authoritarian style.

"Candidly, I have gotten somewhat nervous at some of the pronouncements Rumsfeld has made," he said.

"When he makes his comments, it appears that he disregards the army. He gives the perception when he's on TV that he is the guy driving the train and everybody else better fall in line behind him or else."

The general also had concerns about the role of the U.S. army after any conflict to overthrow Saddam.

"What is post-war Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiite? That's a huge question to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan," he was quoted as saying.

"I would hope that we have in place the adequate resources to become an army of occupation, because you are going to walk into chaos."

Serving under President George W. Bush's father, Schwarzkopf led the UN-sanctioned allied military operation that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Vice President Dick Cheney was defense secretary at the time and Secretary of State Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Several other former top U.S. generals have expressed doubts about the wisdom of a military campaign, including Anthony Zinni, former head of the central command that covers the Gulf and Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander during the 1999 Kosovo war.