Mr Wilkerson said former president George H.W. Bush "one of
the finest presidents we have ever had" understood how to make
foreign policy work. In contrast, he said, his son was "not
versed in international relations and not too much interested
in them either".
Interesting timing, this kind of attack from conservative
circles, while we are waiting in suspense for high-level
indictments, and the White House is demoralized.
It looks more and more like Bush & the neocons are being
targeted as scapegoats, just as Nixon was. It makes sense:
flush the sins, keep most of the conquests (Iraq oil, Patriot
Act), and switch to 'good cop' rhetoric.
we should know more soon,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/afdb7b0c-40f3-11da-b3f9-00000e2511c8.html
'Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy'
The Financial Times of London
By Edward Alden in Washington
Published: October 20 2005 00:00 | Last updated: October 20 2005 00:19
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had
hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding
in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker
and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former
Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W.
Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell
until last January, said: "What I saw was a cabal between the
vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the
secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that
made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being
made.
"Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions
in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the
consequences."
Transcript: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c925a686-40f4-11da-b3f9-00000e2511c8.html
Mr Wilkerson said such secret decision-making was responsible
for mistakes such as the long refusal to engage with North
Korea or to back European efforts on Iran.
It also resulted in bitter battles in the administration among
those excluded from the decisions.
"If you're not prepared to stop the feuding elements in the
bureaucracy as they carry out your decisions, you are courting
disaster. And I would say that we have courted disaster in
Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran."
The comments, made at the New America Foundation [description
below], a Washington think-tank, were the harshest attack on
the administration by a former senior official since
criticisms by Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism
czar, and Paul O'Neill, former Treasury secretary, early last
year.
Mr Wilkerson said his decision to go public had led to a
personal falling out with Mr Powell, whom he served for 16
years at the Pentagon and the State Department.
"He's not happy with my speaking out because, and I admire
this in him, he is the world's most loyal soldier."
Among his other charges:
* The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was "a
concrete example" of the decision-making problem, with the
president and other top officials in effect giving the green
light to soldiers to abuse detainees. "You don't have this
kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned
it."
* Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and
now secretary of state, was "part of the problem". Instead of
ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, "she
would side with the president to build her intimacy with the
president".
* The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is
overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed,
"start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam. . . and
all of a sudden your military begins to unravel".
Mr Wilkerson said former president George H.W. Bush "one of
the finest presidents we have ever had" understood how to make
foreign policy work. In contrast, he said, his son was "not
versed in international relations and not too much interested
in them either".
"There's a vast difference between the way George H.W. Bush
dealt with major challenges, some of the greatest challenges
at the end of the 20th century, and effected positive results
in my view, and the way we conduct diplomacy today."
* * *
The New America Foundation:
http://www.newamerica.net
"American Grand Strategy":
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=sec_home&secID=10&SubID=9
Board of Directors:
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=boardof&DeptID=12
Mission:
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=overview
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