26 Former U.S. Officials Oppose Bush

[mddem2004]

MDDem,

And I'm sure if we did go after some of those "bigger fish" you would voice your opposition just as loudly as going after Iraq.

Lets be quite clear...I may be Liberal but I am no pacifist. I supported Gulf War I, and Afghanistan. I'm not even saying that at some point we may have had to go after Sadaam. But I do believe that the way this president went about it was inept, the timing was wrong, and an all out invasion was his first and only real scenario the administration was willing to allow to unfold. A scenario that happens to have been the most costly and most risky in terms of having an outcome you don't predict (what we've seen for months now) I believe thats why these 26 Military/Diplomats (what this thead is about) came together against a 2nd Bush term.

Now we are in a situation that, with 135,000 troops in Iraq - 40% are reservists, and no real international support (Guns and $'s) we will be really hard pressed to react to a Korean flare up let alone the Chinese/Taiwan situation. Many Conservatives also think that Syria, Iran and North Korea are shaking in their boots now after our Iraq example. I think quite the opposite. When they see how enept our occupation has been and how bogged down we are it may even enbolden them.

We still have to insure that Afghanistan remains stable and will have to be committed there for years to come. Now if you want to reinstate the draft and increase defense spending to the point it will become a real drag on our economy (because it will all be deficit spending of course with the Rich getting their nice Bush tax cuts and all) then fine......just say thats what you want and let the electorate decide.

[The Duke]

I didn'treference just one article, Hayes has several articles and a book.  And it isn't old, the book was just published this month.

[mddem2004]

I didn'treference just one article, Hayes has several articles and a book.  And it isn't old, the book was just published this month.

I gotta ask you.....If these were verifiable, don't you think the media, Fox included, would be all over it. Come on.....

Why is a Republican controlled Congress conducting 2 investigations into the pre war intelligence if they got it so right....

Again I quote Bush's head of the Iraq survey group to Congress......."We got it nearly all wrong".....

[ATFFL]

MODU, a quick review of michnews.com leaves me with a feeling that they are a conservative biased news source.  Note the Bush-Cheney '04 banner on their front page (no Kerry banner).  They also contain links to the Drudge Report and Limbaugh but none to any liberal commentators.

I'm not saying this news story is true or false, just pointing out that your source may be a bit biased.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html

http://www.reuters.ch/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5387821

[mddem2004]

MODU, a quick review of michnews.com leaves me with a feeling that they are a conservative biased news source.  Note the Bush-Cheney '04 banner on their front page (no Kerry banner).  They also contain links to the Drudge Report and Limbaugh but none to any liberal commentators.

I'm not saying this news story is true or false, just pointing out that your source may be a bit biased.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html

http://www.reuters.ch/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5387821

These are the same engines the Blix and his boys knew that Sadaam had and were in the process of destoying before Bush invaded. The Al Samoud was not a banned weapon, only the modified engines for longer range, which (if my memory serves)  was still under 150Km.

[MODU]

What matters is that they were able to identify facilities that were totally dismantled and moved.  Even though the few items which they have currently tracked in Europe are not necessarily part of the banned weapons programs, it shows that he had the ability to move and/or hide material with relative ease.

[??????????]

We had another thread about becoming a diplomat. Seems you can basically buy your way into the office. Doesn't sound like it takes much of a rocket scientist to get the spot.

[Wakie]

We had another thread about becoming a diplomat. Seems you can basically buy your way into the office. Doesn't sound like it takes much of a rocket scientist to get the spot.

That's what was suggested by a person posting on here.  And while the position of Ambassador to Liechtenstein is a relatively unimportant position which can be given to a campaign donor, Ambassador to Israel or the Soviet Union should always be a senior state department official.

[??????????]

We had another thread about becoming a diplomat. Seems you can basically buy your way into the office. Doesn't sound like it takes much of a rocket scientist to get the spot.

That's what was suggested by a person posting on here.  And while the position of Ambassador to Liechtenstein is a relatively unimportant position which can be given to a campaign donor, Ambassador to Israel or the Soviet Union should always be a senior state department official.

I heave read that even G.H.W. Bush hasn't supported all the policies of his son. But does that mean he doesn't want to see him re-elected? Absolutely not. I'm just pointing something else out.

[Wakie]

We had another thread about becoming a diplomat. Seems you can basically buy your way into the office. Doesn't sound like it takes much of a rocket scientist to get the spot.

That's what was suggested by a person posting on here.  And while the position of Ambassador to Liechtenstein is a relatively unimportant position which can be given to a campaign donor, Ambassador to Israel or the Soviet Union should always be a senior state department official.

I heave read that even G.H.W. Bush hasn't supported all the policies of his son. But does that mean he doesn't want to see him re-elected? Absolutely not. I'm just pointing something else out.

A fair and valid point.

[mddem2004]

Excerpts from todays Wash.  Post:

The Bush administration does not understand the world it faces and is unable to handle "in either style or substance" the responsibilities of global leadership, an eminent group of 27 retired diplomats and military commanders charged today.

"Our security has been weakened, "Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted." The statement fit onto a single page, but the sharp public criticism of President Bush was striking, coming from a bipartisan group of respected former officials united in anger about U.S. policy.

Also today, the panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks said it found "no credible evidence" that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had worked with al Qaeda on the Sept. 11 attacks or any other missions in the United States.

Significant players in the Bush administration have worked to connect Hussein in the public's mind with Sept. 11 and anti-American terrorism, an effort that largely succeeded. As recently as this week, Vice President Cheney said Hussein had "long-established ties" with al Qaeda.

"Why the vice president continues to make that claim beats me. I have no idea," said Phyllis Oakley, a signatory of the anti-Bush statement and a former director of the State Department's intelligence office.

Oakley and the other 26 signatories described Bush administration "manipulation of uncertain intelligence about weapons of mass destruction" and "a cynical campaign to persuade the public that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda and the attacks of Sept. 11."

Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak, former U.S. Air Force chief of staff, said he was the Oregon chairman of Republican Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign in 1996 and joined Veterans for Bush in 2000. Now he is advising Kerry. "This administration has gone away from me, not vice versa," McPeak told reporters.

.......the Bush administration has taken steps that have alienated allies and undermined U.S. interests -- ultimately making the world a more dangerous place for Americans.

Noting the arrests without trial of Muslims since Sept. 11 and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman criticized a "post 9/11 atmosphere of hysteria."

"I think we will in time come to be very ashamed of this period in history," Freeman said, "and of the role some people in the administration played in setting the tone and setting the rules."

"You can embark on all the public diplomacy you wish, but if there is no substance to the policy, it's very difficult to sell," McHenry said. '

"You can't sell product no matter how extensive your P.R. efforts are if the product is lousy," McHenry continued. "I think that, unfortunately, is the situation in which the United States finds itself in many parts of the world."

Among those who signed the statement are Adm. William J. Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Ronald Reagan, and Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, appointed by George H.W. Bush to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The participants include a pair of former ambassadors to the Soviet Union, two former ambassadors to Israel, two former ambassadors to Pakistan and Adm. Stansfield Turner, onetime director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Bush from the outset "adopted an overbearing approach to America's role in the world, relying on military might and righteousness, insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations," the statement says. "Motivated more by ideology than by reasoned analysis, it struck out on its own."