Saturday 22 October 2005
Washington - The Bush administration is bracing for a powerful new
attack by Brent Scowcroft, the respected national security adviser to
the first President George Bush.
A Republican and a former Air Force general, Scowcroft is a leading
member of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, and his critique
of both of the style and the substance of the Bush White House, is
slated to appear in Monday's editions of the New Yorker magazine.
The article also contains some critical comments on the handling of
U.S. foreign policy by the current President Bush from his father,
whose 1989-1993 presidency is hailed for deft management of the end of
the Cold War, German unification, the first Gulf war and the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
The new attack comes hard on the heels of the denunciation of "the
cabal around Cheney's office" by Col. Larry Wilkerson, the chief of
staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell in a widely reported
speech to the New American Foundation in Washington this week.
Wilkerson said the national security decision-making process was
effectively "broken."
Scowcroft's criticisms will be taken seriously at the highest
levels of the Bush administration because he is seen as a mentor by
some of its senior figures, notably Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, whose political career began when she worked under Scowcroft as
an adviser on Soviet affairs.
The attack also comes as President Bush's opinion poll approval
ratings have sunk to around 37 percent, partly reflecting the
ill-handled federal government response to Hurricane Katrina's
devastation of the Gulf coast. But majorities of Americans are also
telling pollsters the country "is on the wrong track" and saying the
Iraq war was a mistake.
The beleaguered Bush administration is also nervously waiting to
see whether indictments in the CIA leak case are to be handed down next
week against two key White House aides, Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby.
The White House is facing heavy flak from its conservative base over
the controversial nomination of the president's counsel, Harriet Miers,
to the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. And traditional
balanced-budget conservatives have been dismayed by the double deficit,
a combined deficit on the federal budget and on the current account
that adds up to over $1 trillion this year.
A cartoon in the Washington Post Friday depicted the Bush White
House being inundated by "The Perfect Storm" of Miers, Hurricane
Katrina, Iraq, Rove, the budget deficit and the indictment this week of
the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, on
charges of money laundering campaign funds
Washington - The Bush administration is bracing for a powerful new
attack by Brent Scowcroft, the respected national security adviser to
the first President George Bush.
A Republican and a former Air Force general, Scowcroft is a leading
member of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, and his critique
of both of the style and the substance of the Bush White House, is
slated to appear in Monday's editions of the New Yorker magazine.
The article also contains some critical comments on the handling of
U.S. foreign policy by the current President Bush from his father,
whose 1989-1993 presidency is hailed for deft management of the end of
the Cold War, German unification, the first Gulf war and the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
The new attack comes hard on the heels of the denunciation of "the
cabal around Cheney's office" by Col. Larry Wilkerson, the chief of
staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell in a widely reported
speech to the New American Foundation in Washington this week.
Wilkerson said the national security decision-making process was
effectively "broken."
Scowcroft's criticisms will be taken seriously at the highest
levels of the Bush administration because he is seen as a mentor by
some of its senior figures, notably Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, whose political career began when she worked under Scowcroft as
an adviser on Soviet affairs.
The attack also comes as President Bush's opinion poll approval
ratings have sunk to around 37 percent, partly reflecting the
ill-handled federal government response to Hurricane Katrina's
devastation of the Gulf coast. But majorities of Americans are also
telling pollsters the country "is on the wrong track" and saying the
Iraq war was a mistake.
The beleaguered Bush administration is also nervously waiting to
see whether indictments in the CIA leak case are to be handed down next
week against two key White House aides, Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby.
The White House is facing heavy flak from its conservative base over
the controversial nomination of the president's counsel, Harriet Miers,
to the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. And traditional
balanced-budget conservatives have been dismayed by the double deficit,
a combined deficit on the federal budget and on the current account
that adds up to over $1 trillion this year.
A cartoon in the Washington Post Friday depicted the Bush White
House being inundated by "The Perfect Storm" of Miers, Hurricane
Katrina, Iraq, Rove, the budget deficit and the indictment this week of
the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, on
charges of money laundering campaign funds
