Last August, Mr. Scowcroft declared that the proposed war against Iraq was an unwarranted and divisive distraction from the struggle against global terrorism, a sentiment he reiterated today.

Scowcroft Urges Wide Role for the U.N. in Postwar Iraq
Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to the first President Bush during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, urged the United States today to let the United Nations organize the postwar administration of Iraq and warned that a quick push for democratic transformation could explode into sectarian violence or civil war.

Mr. Scowcroft made his remarks as President Bush, meeting in Northern Ireland with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, indicated that the United States and Britain should play the dominant role in establishing an interim governing authority.

Mr. Scowcroft suggested that this approach could provoke the "wrath and enmity" of the Muslim world.

"The security burden ought to stay with the British and the Americans, but the complete process of trying to put together a government ought to be a broader attempt," Mr. Scowcroft said, specifying the United Nations.

"I'm a skeptic about the ability to transform Iraq into a democracy in any realistic period of time," Mr. Scowcroft said, noting the lack of functioning institutions and a surplus of ill will among different religious and tribal groups.

"What's going to happen the first time we hold an election in Iraq and it turns out the radicals win?" Mr. Scowcroft asked. "What do you do? We're surely not going to let them take over."

Addressing an audience at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Mr. Scowcroft said it would be difficult to find moderate Iraqi nationals able to maintain order.

"What's likely to happen is that the meanest, toughest ones will rise to the top, at least for a couple of generations," he said.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/international/worldspecial/09OSLO.html