Posted on 01/03/2006 11:21:59 PM PST by RWR8189
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - It will be an unusual sight on Thursday in the Roosevelt Room of White House, and deliberately so: President Bush will engage in a consultation of sorts with a bipartisan collection of former secretaries of state and defense.
Among them will be several who have left little doubt that they think Mr. Bush has dangerously mishandled Iraq, ignored other looming crises, and put critical alliances at risk.
The meeting was called by the White House, which sent out invitations just before Christmas to everyone who once held those jobs.
The invitees were told that they were being asked to attend a briefing on Iraq and other issues. It was unclear, one recipient said, "how interested they are in what we are thinking."
Among those planning to attend are Colin L. Powell, Mr. Bush's first secretary of state and the administration's best-known and most careful dissident voice, and Madeleine K. Albright, Mr. Powell's predecessor.
William Perry, who was secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, is flying in from California; he helped formulate foreign policy positions for Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the race for president in 2004.
"This should be interesting," said another former secretary who received an invitation, but asked not to be identified until he had heard Mr. Bush's arguments.
"It's not exactly as if these guys have reached out to hear a lot of outside opinions."
In fact, no one inside the White House could recall a meeting quite like this during Mr. Bush's first five years in office.
At moments he has called upon past presidents - notably his father and Bill Clinton - for aid missions to countries hit by the 2004 tsunami, and then to cities and towns hit by Hurricane Katrina. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
GWB is holding all the cards and they know it, This should be very interesting :-)
This does sound very interesting.
I have gathered all of you here because it has been suggested that I should should call for a formal war. How does "War on Islam" sound?
While not explicitly singled out, Iran is more than likely in the "other issues' category.
One thing I'm sure of is that the President isn't calling them for a photo op, nor to let them dictate policy. Would love to be an attendee at this meeting.
Yes. I think Iraq is a cover story. Iraq is a done deal. This summit is about Iran and Syria and Bush is looking for bi-partisan support from non-politico types for an invasion of these countries. Bush knows the war on terror will not be over by the time he leaves office and he is paving the way for continued progress no matter who occupies the White House.
I like your assessment. And I hope you are correct.
Now, the resultant agreement/outcome will be a difficult task... as always.
Cheers!
Is Ramsay Clark gonna be there?? That would be amusing. He's kinda busy defending Saddam and all, so I doubt he'll be there. If Sandy Berger shows up, hide the silverwear.
Or at least check his underwear before that clown leaves the White House..... :0 )
Inevitably one of the liberal members will need to show off how important he is to the press and will attack Bush or reveal secrets of the meeting. Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy and Reid will scream bloody murder, all the while looking like ungrateful children.
They have an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. They have tried for 5 years to bring Bush down only to continue to dig their own grave. How marvelous.
Henry Kissinger
Zbigniew Brzynski (sp)
George Schultz
William Cohen
William Perry
Madeline Albright
James Baker
Colin Powell
Cap Weinberg
Who else am I missing?
This seems pointless. It seems the President, still acting in his own mind very presidential, is "reaching out" to his enemies. How nice. Who suggested this one, Brent Scowcroft? The feckless Colin Powell who deep-sixed the Operation Scorpion plan originally suggested by Cheney, Henry Rowan and Wolfowitz in 1990 that would have ended Saddam's rule?
Hope the Prez has the meeting in a big room. It is going to be hard to fit all those egos in there at one time. I also hope he is successful in explaining to them all the facts he can so they act a bit more responsibly when they all appear on the Sunday talk shows. Too much to ask for I am sure.
The bombing of Iran will begin in 5 min.
this is good stuff.
I agree. Boy, I wish I could see the look on Madeline Albright's face when the truth about what's going on dawns on her, and she realizes she was wrong, wrong wrong!
The goal: Get these people to say the same thing GWB has been saying about the WOT.
The President is going to feed these guys a bunch of bogus info and wait to see how much comes out in the media. Their loose lips........
......Yes. I think Iraq is a cover story. Iraq is a done deal. This summit is about Iran and Syria and Bush is looking for bi-partisan support from non-politico types for an invasion of these countries. Bush knows the war on terror will not be over by the time he leaves office and he is paving the way for continued progress no matter who occupies the White House....
Great assessment.
The choice is "are you with us or or you against us" Do we attack and see it through or go on defense for the rest of history.
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