High-ranking Pentagon adviser Richard Perle has admitted that Washington had made a key blunder in plans, prior to launching its military campaign against Iraq - the failure to forge close relations with the Iraqi opposition.
Perle, in an interview published in the French Le Figaro newspaper on Thursday, pointed to a key mistake in the planning for the campaign which has hindered efforts to establish a stable, Iraqi-led administration.
"Our biggest mistake, in my opinion, was the failure to work closely with Iraqis before the war so that an Iraqi opposition could have been able to immediately take the matter in hand," Perle admitted.
"Now the solution is to hand over power to the Iraqis as soon as possible."
However, Perle said that the answer did not lie in forming a UN-led administration in Iraq. "The United Nations system is not adapted to deal with the new threats, like international terrorism" he said.
"The administration of Iraq by the UN is a bad idea. Where has the UN succeeded in administering the territories where it has been placed in charge?"
On the issue of weapons of mass destruction, he said, "Rest assured we will discover the whole story of these arms and I am sure that we will soon physically find some." He added it was "undeniable" that Syria has chemical weapons and that Iran is working on a nuclear arms program. (Albawaba.com)
