US diplomats launch Bush attack

The BBC ^ | 4 May 2004 | Staff

[fdsa2]

Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.

The former US diplomats complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends".

They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza.

'Great danger'

They were planning a press conference on Tuesday to go public with their opposition, according to the American Educational Trust (AET), a foundation where some of the former diplomats are based.

"Early responses are staggering," the AET said on Monday, adding "signatories are united by their belief that the US government is heading toward great danger."

"Our hope is that both political parties will take heed and listen to the voices of experienced diplomats," it said.

"Your unabashed support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin-Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plans are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends," the letter warned.

We're not the good guys any more... We are viewed as hypocritical.

Former diplomat William Rogers

Israel says it has no choice but to kill militants planning to carry out suicide attacks, and that its West Bank barrier is for security only.

The signatories praised their British counterparts who went public over their concerns last month.

"We former diplomats applaud our 52 British colleagues who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States," the US letter begins.

The organiser of the American missive, Andrew Killgore, who served as US ambassador to Qatar from 1977 to 1980, told the BBC: "We thought American diplomats were as unhappy as British diplomats were over what the president did."

He called for President Bush to withdraw his support for the disengagement plan, which Mr Sharon may have to modify after failing to gain the support of his Likud party.

He said Mr Bush should not "take away the right of the Palestinians to return, or give Sharon the right to take settlement blocks in the West Bank which will hardly leave the Palestinians any contiguous territory".

'Torpedo'

"It seems to torpedo the idea of a separate Palestinian state," he added.

Mr Killgore said the letter was mainly about policy towards Israel and the Palestinians, but it touched on Iraq too.

"If anything Iraq is worse," he said.

William Rogers, who was under-secretary of state for economic affairs in the mid-1970s, has not decided whether to sign the letter yet, but said: "We're not the good guys any more and our foreign relations have been and are being damaged. We are viewed as hypocritical."

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington said those in the Bush administration who do support Mr Sharon might well point out that the state department has always been a sceptical supporter of Israel.

Mr Sharon himself has always made a point of dealing directly with the White House.

There has been no response yet from the White House, our correspondent says, though in the past, the administration has been quick to savage its critics.

[John Jorsett]

I think this article needs more keywords added.

[AFPhys]

... Israel's Berlin-Wall-like barrier ...

There is so much we could critique about this letter and "typical-bureaucrat" move that all day could be spent dissecting it. I'll confine myself to a single comment about the above quote...

For these maroons to compare any wall that might be built by Israel in an attempt to keep from being murdered, to the Berlin Wall, which was designed to keep people from fleeing into freedom, demonstrates just how far away they are from a view of reality that corresponds to the world.

[Cultural Jihad]

BUSH TO MORONS : YOU ALL ARE FIRED !!

These are retired diplomats, which I believe really means they are the major campaign contributors to past Democratic administrations who had bought themselves cushy posts.

[AFPhys]

thanks for supplying background on AET.

[AFPhys]

these "former diplomats" are about as useful to public discourse as most "Nobel Prize winner"s.

[fdsa2]

Hey it was not me, originally I inserted Iraq, then somehow it just exploded...

But there are some really interesting info in this thread.

[AFPhys]

These are the architects of the world of 9/11.

PRECISELY!

This is exactly the one liner to respond to this type of criticism of President Bush and his foreign policy efforts.

[txrangerette]

A William Rogers was Nixon's first
Sec of St prior to Kissinger. He
was a Nixon friend from CA. I do
remember THAT William Rogers.

Could it be the same man? If so,
he'd be way up in years. But I
doubt it, if he was an undersec
during Carter. Wouldn't add up.

Anybody else remember Nixon's
William Rogers???

[txrangerette]

Hire them back, THEN FIRE THEM!

:o)

[philosofy123]

Cheese and wine! Rush calls them art and croisent crowd!

[holden]

Oh, yes, he does. If you've ever seen him primping himself before he goes on camera, you know (just as they teach all the schoolkids these days): he believes in himself!

HF

[ought-six]

"Does anyone have any information on these AET group?"

They champion the leftist agenda.

[CaptRon]

So, the same people who created the cesspool that is the Middle East and kept it that way are upset with the President. Seems to me he should be the one upset for having to clean up their mess.

[calcowgirl]

Nixon's William Rogers was a carryover...
he had been Eisenhower's Atty General.

[calcowgirl]

If this is correct, that William Rogers died in 2001. The following from Bartleby.com

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Rogers, William Pierce

1913–2001, U.S. government official, b. Norfolk, N.Y. Admitted to the bar in 1937, he served (1947–50) as chief counsel to two Senate investigating committees before becoming (1953) deputy attorney general under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He lobbied vigorously for passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act and later, as attorney general (1957–61), set up the civil-rights division of the Justice Department. As secretary of state (1969–73) under President Richard M. Nixon, Rogers argued for restraint in the use of U.S. military power. In 1970 he arranged a cease-fire in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt. He returned to public service one last time in 1986 when he headed the special presidential commission set up to investigate the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

[fdsa2]

Link to letter:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3681999.stm

Andrew I Killgore, Ambassador to Qatar, 1977-1980
Richard H Curtiss, former chief inspector, US Information Agency
Colbert C Held, Retired FSO and author
Thomas J Carolan, Counsel General Istanbul, '88-'92
C Edward Bernier, Counselor of Embassy, Information and Culture, Islamabad, Pakistan
Donald A Kruse, American Consul in Jerusalem
Ambassador Edward L Peck, former Chief of Mission in Iraq and Mauritania
John Powell, Admin Counselor in Beirut, '75-'76
John Gunther Dean, last position held US Ambassador to India
Greg Thielmann, Director, Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
James Akins, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Talcott Seeyle, Ambassador to Syria
Eugene Bird, Counselor of Embassy in Saudi Arabia
Richard H Nolte, Ambassador to Egypt
Ray Close, Chief of Station Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 1971-1979
Shirl McArthur, Commercial Attache, Bangkok

Only 16 names here who are the other 34?

[txrangerette]

Nixon made him his Sec. of State,
& everyone said they were friends.
The Nixon Admin. wasn't elected
until '68 - two terms after the
Eisenhower years. Kennedy & LBJ
came in-between.

Your key info is that Rogers is
deceased. So, the William Rogers
in this article is not Nixon's
guy, but a Jimmy Carter type who
happens to carry the same name.

I am very glad to know this!

[philosofy123]

Al-Arian, and his fanatic family should have been stripped from the US citizenship, and deported to some Arab country, where they can be considered heros.

We have this guy Demianjuk (spel?) who has been in the US as a citizen for fifty years, and has never done anything against the US, and has been proven to be falsely accused (at least that is the allegations by his defenders); yet our government is willing to stip him from his citizenchip, and deport him to Poland? The alegation against Demianjukwas is essentially that he lied on his citizenship application fifty years ago! Perhaps he stated his eyes color were brown istead of green! His case is not a treason against the US as these low life Moslem murderers.

[Alamo-Girl]

Hmmm ... Thanks for the ping!