So will Poppy call Brent Scowcroft a scumbag too now?

[fishface]

Scowcroft Is Critical of Bush
Ex-National Security Adviser Calls Iraq a 'Failing Venture'
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 16, 2004; Page A02


Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week, saying that the current President Bush is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a "failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach has harmed relations between Europe and the United States.

Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial Times, are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly contested election. In the first Bush administration, Scowcroft was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current national security adviser, and he is regarded as a close associate of the president's father.

Scowcroft declined a request for an interview yesterday. When asked if he had been quoted correctly, his office responded with a statement: "He has been and is a supporter of President Bush and thinks he is the best qualified to lead our country."

Scowcroft's remarks to the Financial Times reflect a sense of unease among some GOP foreign policy experts about the White House's handling of foreign policy -- especially those who, such as Scowcroft, are considered part of what is called the realist wing. Realists, in contrast to those who are called neoconservatives, prefer to deal with other nations on their own terms, whether they are democracies or not, and were skeptical that a war in Iraq would help make democracy blossom throughout the Middle East.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36644-2004Oct15.html

[LynnTheDem]

1. Brent WARNED bush before the invasion

Brent Scowcroft, one of the Republican Party’s most respected foreign policy advisors, and national security adviser under President Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush:

Don't Attack Saddam It would undermine our antiterror efforts. "Our pre-eminent security priority--underscored repeatedly by the president--is the war on terrorism. An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counterterrorist campaign we have undertaken."

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/iraq_yang020815.html

[Julien Sorel]

2. Condi really is stupid.

"When I first heard Sharon was getting out of Gaza I was having dinner with Condi and she said: 'At least that's good news,' " Scowcroft recounted. "And I said: 'That's terrible news. . . . Sharon will say: 'I want to get out of Gaza, finish the wall and say I'm done.'"


I thought people were simply translating their hatred of Bush to her. But no, she doesn't have a clue. Anyone who knew squat about Israel's history and plans for the West Bank knew what Sharon was up to from the start. That Condi didn't is simply frightening to me.

Cheney was the key: once the neocons had his ear, there was no powerful, knowledgeable voice that could counteract it. So you have a president who boasts that he doesn't read being advised by a guy in the pocket of the neocons -- essentially the hawkish wing of AIPAC -- and Rice, who knows next to nothing about the Middle East.

Now that I look at everything, I'm amazed we aren't in worse shape than we are.

[Unstuck In Time]

3. The Bushies really show their character when the pressure's on, huh? n/t

[RafterMan]

4. Scowcroft isn't cracking under pressure

He's been on the side of reality since before the war. Publicly and privately.