Posted on 10/19/2005 7:56:15 PM PDT by Rokurota
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ft.com ...
So says Mr. Wilkerson.
Glad to know the country is in good hands.
Remind me again, who was Powell ?
Poor State Department!
They should be out of the loop. Just a bunch of Ivy leagers who think they run Foreign Policy.
This Wilkerson guy seems to be unaware that the Vice President of the United States holds a Constitutional office.
problem? what problem?
Just remember this-if it wasn't for Colin Powell putting the skids on taking out Sadam in the first Gulf War-Iraq wouldn't be an issue right now.
"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."
What's the secret? Bush decided to go with the multi-lateral six party way with NK, and backed "Europe's" efforts...which failed.
Imagine. The president and his staff setting policy.
Outrage!
16 years spent in the Pentagon and the State Department.......This guy left reality a long time ago.
The former Powell aide [Larry Wilkerson] said Bolton was too aggressive in pushing sanctions against Chinese companies for spreading weapons technology and "overstepped the bounds" in the way he tried to block a third term for Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.------- "Bolton Criticized by Former Intel Official," by BARRY SCHWEID, AP, 5/6/5
IMHO, Wilkerson does Biden's bidding.
It's so cute how no one ever thinks President Bush is actually making the decisions on foreign policy and SCOTUS nominations. Too funny!
Note to author: if you want to be taken seriously, don't include emotional rhetoric that gives you away as an agenda-driven lefty in the very first line of your article.
His smarmy attack on Condi deserves the "Death Stare".
¡ Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was gpart of the problemh. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, gshe would side with the president to build her intimacy with the presidenth.
A real warrior. LOL
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.”
That kind of thinking speaks for itself. The Col is an idjit.
Well, if Wilkerson's spewing now, I guess we'll hear from his fellow travelers Robert L. Hutchings and Harlan Ullman soon.
Attacks on the Neocon Presidency!
Thank Goodness!!!!!
That's better than having Powell setting foreign policy!
And as for "carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world"
That's a dubious assessment by a clear loser.
Excuse me, but unless I'm wrong, this WAS the policy of the Bush White House.
I guess the administration's policy desires didn't bother those eggheads over at State, huh?
Mr Wilkerson is one of the architects of failure, and so is embittered. Nothing was hijacked, no one stole anything. We have had two national elections, and Bush's foreign policy was clearly the big issue in the second one... and he won. I'll take the "Cabal" over the failed apologists for the failures of 9-11 any day. This man is sour grapes personified.
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