US needed 'Iraqi De Gaulle' for invasion: Perle

BERLIN (AFP) - Top US neoconservative Richard Perle, a key former architect of US President George W. Bush's foreign policy, has admitted there were mistakes in the execution of the Iraq war, saying the invasion had needed "an Iraqi De Gaulle."

Perle, who was an advisor to former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, told German weekly broadsheet Die Zeit in an issue to be published Thursday that a string of tactical errors had resulted in the chaos reigning in Iraq today.

"The idea was good, the execution was bad," he was quoted as saying in an advance German transcript of the interview.

"We should have agreed on a post-war Iraqi leadership" but were thwarted by opposition at the US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, Perle said. "We should have marched into Baghdad with an Iraqi De Gaulle," he said.

Perle blasted the findings released last week by the bipartisan Iraq Survey Group mapping a way forward in the strife-raged country.

"I have never seen such a foolish report," he said.

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