U.S. ambassador says Middle East turmoil could cause world war!

August 27, 2007 - According to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, turmoil in the Middle East could lead to another world war.

"Zalmay Khalilzad told the Die Presse that the Middle East was now so disordered that it had the potential to inflame the world as Europe did during the first half of the 20th century."

The Middle East "is going through a very difficult transformation phase. That has strengthened extremism and creates a breeding ground for terrorism," said Khalilzad in remarks translated by Reuters into English from the published German. "Europe was just as dysfunctional for a while. And some of its wars became world wars. Now the problems of the Middle East and Islamic civilization have the same potential to engulf."

Khalilzad, who has served on Bush's foreign policy team since 2000, also "was a charter signatory of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) founding statement of principles, and he signed two subsequent PNAC letters."

“We may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War,” Khalilzad wrote Clinton along with fellow PNAC members and future Bush regime members/Iraq war architects Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz in January of 1998. “Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater.”

Khalilzad was also quoted as saying Iraq would need foreign forces for security for a long time to come. "Iraq will not be in a position to stand on its own feet for a longer period," he said in the interview.

Asked whether that could be 10-20 years, he said: "Yes, indeed, it could last that long. What form the help takes will depend a lot on the Iraqis. Up to now there is no accord between Iraq and the United States about a longer military presence."