ABC 13 (NC) : Former Middle East commander sees long road ahead

Former Middle East commander sees long road ahead

November 1, 2007

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The former commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East says conflicts could have American troops tied down there for the next 50 years.

Retired Army General John Abizaid spoke to an audience yesterday at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

He says Americans are going to be locked into the region for a long time because of the rise of Sunni and Shiite extremism, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the world economy's dependency on Mideast oil. Abizaid does not think the Iraq war is a war for oil, but he says oil is behind a lot of what he describes as the "geopolitical moves" in the region. And he says it's "absolutely essential" for the U.S. to figure out how to lessen its dependency on foreign energy.

In the meantime, Abizaid says, the military is not going to be able to "come home, relax and take it easy."