[Dialogue] Ex-officials lash Bush policies

Tue Jun 22 11:05:51 EDT 2004

To all:

I got this from another list serve to which I belong.

Regards,

Ed Reames
Temporarily back in Maryland, USA
Resident of La Ribera de Belén, Costa Rica

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Former US diplomats and generals condemn a foreign policy they see as  
marked by ideology and indifference.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/americas/3810895.stm

A group of retired US diplomats and generals has condemned the foreign
policy of the Bush administration as ideological and callously indifferent.
Members of the 26-strong group of Diplomats and Military Commanders for
Change demanded a major rethink in an open letter published in Washington.

"I think we will in time come to be very ashamed of this period in 
history,"
said one, Chas Freeman.

Another, Gen Merrill McPeak, talked of the "terrible disaster" in Iraq.

"Never before have so many of us felt the need for a major change in the
direction of our foreign policy"
Phyllis Oakley former ambassador

"Because [of] the Pollyann-ish assumptions that were made by the
administration going in there, that bouquets would be thrown at us and  
so forth, we were totally unprepared for the post-combat occupation," the
former chief of staff of the US Air Force said.

Mr Freeman, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the prisoner  
abuses at Iraq's US-run Abu Ghraib prison amounted to a "catastrophic
disaster".

However, he suggested that blame for the abuses rested not with  
President George W Bush directly, but "some people in the administration".

'Callous indifference'

Another former ambassador, Phyllis Oakley, said the need for change was
unprecedented.

"Today we see that structure crumbling under an administration blinded  
by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of the world around
it," she said.

"Never before have so many of us felt the need for a major change in the
direction of our foreign policy."

The former officials have launched their call for change in a  
presidential election year, but the group is made up of both Democrats and 
members of Mr Bush's Republican Party.

Known critics of the administration were deliberately excluded from it.

Pressure for change

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the group includes some who worked
for the president's father, George Bush Senior, when he was in the White
House.

HAVE YOUR SAY
Bush's foreign policy has made us the object of hate world wide
Susan Taylor, Bronxville, NY

They include William Crowe, who as chairman of the joint chiefs of  
staff, was America's top military officer, and Admiral Stansfield Turner, a

former director of the CIA.

The statement follows criticism last month by former diplomats who  
accused the administration of undermining US credibility in the Arab world
by its strong support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The UK government has also come under fire, former officials attacking
Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for Washington over Iraq and the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Boost to Kerry

Several individual signatories to the open letter have said they will  
back Mr Bush's Democrat challenger, John Kerry, and others say that the  
document is in effect calling for the president's removal.

"It is clear that the statement calls for the defeat of the  
administration," said William C Harrop, former ambassador to Israel.

But supporters of the administration said the former officials who had
signed
the letter were simply trying to hide the inadequacy of their own policies.

Cliff May, president of the conservative Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies, told the BBC:

"Largely, they are people who were in senior official capacities before
9/11. They are people who are responsible for the policies prior to 9/11.

"Those policies I think, failed spectacularly on 9/11," he said.

THE SIGNATORIES

Avis T Bohlen , President Bush's former assistant secretary of state for
arms control

Adm William J Crowe , chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under President
Reagan
and ambassador to UK under President Clinton; has endorsed John Kerry

Jeffrey S Davidow , President Bush's former ambassador to Mexico

William A DePree , ex-ambassador to Bangladesh

Donald B Easum , ex-ambassador to Nigeria

Charles W Freeman , ex-ambassador to Saudi Arabia

William C Harrop , President Bush Senior's ambassador to Israel

Arthur A Hartman , ex-ambassador to Soviet Union and France

Gen Joseph P Hoar , commander in chief of US Central Command 
under Bush Sr; supports John Kerry

H Allen Holmes , ex-special operations chief

Robert V Keeley , ex-ambassador to Greece and Zimbabwe

Samuel W Lewis , ex-ambassador to Israel

Princeton N Lyman , ex-ambassador to South Africa

Jack F Matlock , ambassador to the USSR under President Reagan and  
President Bush Senior

Donald F McHenry , ex-ambassador to the UN

Gen Merrill A McPeak , former Air Force chief of staff; 
supports John Kerry

George E Moose , ex-African affairs chief

David D Newsom , former acting secretary of state

Phyllis E Oakley , ex-intelligence and research chief

James Daniel Phillips , ex-ambassador to Africa

John E Reinhardt , ex-ambassador to Nigeria

Gen William Y Smith , ex-deputy commander in chief, US European Command

Ronald I Spiers , ex-senior UN official and ambassador to Pakistan

Michael Sterner , ex-ambassador in Middle East

Adm Stansfield Turner , CIA director under Carter; has endorsed John Kerry

Alexander F Watson , ex-assistant secretary of state for Inter-American
affairs

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3810895.stm

Published: 2004/06/16 17:33:16 GMT

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