Stormin’ Norman ‘epitomised duty, service, country creed’
Retired general H Norman Schwarzkopf, who topped an illustrious military career by commanding the US-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in 1991 but kept a low public profile in controversies over the second Gulf War against Iraq, died yesterday. He was 78.
Schwarzkopf died in Tampa, Florida, where he had lived in retirement, according to a US official, who was not authorised to publicise the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as ‘‘Stormin’ Norman’’ for a notoriously explo- sive temper. He served in his last military assignment in Tampa as commander-in-chief of US Central Command, the headquarters responsible for American military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.
Schwarzkopf became ‘‘CINCCentcom’’ in 1988 and when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait three years later to punish it for allegedly stealing Iraqi oil reserves, he commanded Operation Desert Storm, the coalition of 30 countries organised by US president George HWBush that succeeded in driving the Iraqis out.
‘‘General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomised the ‘duty, service, country’ creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises,’’ Bush said.
‘‘More than that, he was a good and decent man – and a dear friend.’’
At the peak of his post-war national celebrity, Schwarzkopf – a self-proclaimed political independent – rejected suggestions that he run for office, and remained far more private than other generals, although he did serve briefly as a military commentator for NBC.
While focused primarily in his later years on charitable enterprises, he campaigned for president George WBush in 2000 but was ambivalent about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, saying he doubted victory would be as easy as the White House and Pentagon predicted.
In early 2003 he told the Washington Post the outcome was an unknown: ‘‘What is post-war Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shi-ites? That’s a huge question, to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan.’’
Initially Schwarzkopf had endorsed the invasion, saying he was convinced that former secretary of state Colin Powell had given the United Nations powerful evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. After that proved false, he said decisions to go to war should depend on what UN weapons inspectors found.
He seldom spoke up during the conflict, but in late 2004, he sharply criticised defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for mistakes that included inadequate training for army reservists sent to Iraq and for erroneous judg- ments about Iraq. ‘‘In the final analysis I think we are behind schedule ... I don’t think we counted on it turning into jihad,’’ he said.
Schwarzkopf was a national spokesman for prostate cancer awareness and for recovery of the grizzly bear, served on the Nature Conservancy board of governors, and was active in various charities for chronically ill children.
‘‘I may have made my reputation as a general in the army and I’m very proud of that,’’ he told the AP, ‘‘but I’ve always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. I’d like to think I’m a caring human being . . . It’s nice to feel that you have a purpose.’’