Excerpts. "Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against Bush Admin

[RedEarth]

Here are some excerpts from the article appearing in tomorrow's New Yorker .... sounds like it could be interesting....

From "Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against the Bush Administration?", Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, 31 October 2005

Scowcroft on Iraq and Neocon Idealism

A principal reason that the Bush Administration gave no thought to unseating Saddam was that Brent Scowcroft gave no thought to it. An American occupation of Iraq would be politically and militarily untenable, Scowcroft told Bush. And though the President had employed the rhetoric of moral necessity to make the case for war, Scowcroft said, he would not let his feelings about good and evil dictate the advice he gave the President.

......

Scowcroft on Cheney: "The Real Anomaly"

"The real anomaly in the Administration is Cheney," Scowcroft said. "I consider Cheney a good friend -- I've known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore." He went on, "I don't think Dick Cheney is a neocon, but allied to the core of neocons is that bunch who thought we made a mistake in the first Gulf War, that we should have finished the job. There was another bunch who were traumatized by 9/11, and who thought, 'The world's going to hell and we've got to show we're not going to take this, and we've got to respond, and Afghanistan is O.K., but it's not sufficient.'" Scowcroft supported the invasion of Afghanistan as a "direct response" to terrorism.

On George W. Bush Not Hearing Dissent or Considering Alternative Views -- With A Nudge from Bush 41

A common criticism of the Administration of George W. Bush is that it ignores ideas that conflict with its aims. "We always made sure the President was hearing all the possibilities," John Sununu, who served as chief of staff to George H. W. Bush, said. "That's one of the differences between the first Bush Administration and this Bush Administration."


Bush 41 Unable to Mend Fences Between Bush 43 and Scowcroft

According to friends of the elder Bush, the estrangement of his son and his best friend has been an abiding source of unhappiness, not only for Bush but for Barbara Bush as well. George Bush, the forty-first President, has tried several times to arrange meetings between his son, "Forty-three," and his former national-security adviser to no avail, according to people with knowledge of these intertwined relationships. "There have been occasions when Forty-one has engineered meetings in which Forty-three and Scowcroft are in the same place at the same time, but they were social settings that weren't conducive to talking about substantive issues," a Scowcroft confidant said.

Few Areas of Foreign Policy Agreement Between Scowcroft and George W. Bush

When I asked Scowcroft if the son was different from the father, he said, "I don't want to go there," but his dissatisfaction with the son's agenda could not have been clearer. When I asked him to name issues on which he agrees with the younger Bush, he said, "Afghanistan." He paused for twelve seconds. Finally, he said, "I think we're doing well on Europe," and left it at that.

more at....

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001024.html

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. Do you know

how an article like this comes into being?

It's not like Scowcroft decides to write something. Not hardly.

There are channels through which he went before the piece found its way to the New Yorker, and, believe me, one of those paths went right through George H. W. Bush.

The old man signed off on this piece. Otherwise, it would never have made it to publication.

Fuckface is now officially toast in the eyes of the Carlyle Group and the whole neocon cabal.

Interesting.

[jaysunb]

3. Hammer meet nail !

your analysis is dead on .... :toast:

[NewJeffCT]

2. Doing well on Europe?

how so? Does the bar for doing well on Europe mean they haven't declared war on us yet?

[Disturbed]

4. Not a new development.

Scowcroft has been saying these things for a few years.

Poppy Bush prolly tried to persuade the Silverspoon Sociopath from invading Iraq but his dim son decided to consult his other father.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I remember that

Skowcroft had an op-ed in the NY Times, if I recall. However, why is he saying that JR is doing well with Europe?

[nolabels]

6. The whole thing sounds like a worked up pile

Really doesn't sound all that plausible to me at any rate. Now that so many things are turning sour it's really sounding like * is going to be set up as the sacrificial lamb .

This paragraph is particularly telling:

"The real anomaly in the Administration is Cheney," Scowcroft said. "I consider Cheney a good friend -- I've known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore." He went on, "I don't think Dick Cheney is a neocon, but allied to the core of neocons is that bunch who thought we made a mistake in the first Gulf War, that we should have finished the job. There was another bunch who were traumatized by 9/11, and who thought, 'The world's going to hell and we've got to show we're not going to take this, and we've got to respond, and Afghanistan is O.K., but it's not sufficient.'" Scowcroft supported the invasion of Afghanistan as a "direct response" to terrorism.


The "traumatized by 9/11" is so effing stupid that it's funny. Yea unca` Dick we sure gotem goin on that one :spray:

We are all going to find out eventually, one way or another, so treason is just too nice of word x(

[pretzel4gore]

7. what about the theft of the 2k election?

scowcraft assumes that '43' is legit, but the fact is, he isn't....and when all the tang, robin lowman, james hatfield, harken oil etc stuff from before bozo went bigtime, not to mention the crap since then, including the plame case, suggests that brent scowcraoft is just a 2 bit huckster who's trying to huckster the public...this idea that these goofs are serious men of substance who move according to mighty winds of political forces pressuring them in earnest accords that history will someday recognise (though bush has vetoed the release of presidential records from reagan through to clinton, 'under the radar' of course) is preposterous...the good thing about the bush extravaganza is that it reveals the fact these stupid old men are cranks and boors as nasty as druken ku kluxers trying to burn a cross during a rainstorm.....just his being part of the reagan admin says scowcraft should now be in jail, and not buying the rich kid's rich kid's rich kid time to wiggle out of the plame rove libby spotlight via the fukking pigmedia.....
gooday to you too

[cliss]

8. Very interesting ...

I can't understand how he can make a statement like that: "I don't think Cheney is a neo-con". If there was a description of a Neo-Con, Cheney is it. There is NO one more Neo-Conish than him. He signed off on the PNAC documents.

"...and Afghanistan is OK". Where do they get that impression? Afghanistan is NOT OK. It's a mess. Are they comparing it to Iraq?

Bush Junior is estranged from his mom and dad. It's causing them quite a bit of grief. Ask me if I care.