Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change

[Troubleshooter]

Think these guys might know a little of what they are talking about?

Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change

Mission Statement

The undersigned have held positions of responsibility for the planning and execution of American foreign and defense policy. Collectively, we have served every president since Harry S. Truman. Some of us are Democrats, some are Republicans or Independents, many voted for George W. Bush. But we all believe that current Administration policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving national security and providing world leadership. Serious issues are at stake. We need a change.

From the outset, President George W. Bush adopted an overbearing approach to America’s role in the world, relying upon military might and righteousness, insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations. Instead of building upon America’s great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources, the Administration, motivated more by ideology than by reasoned analysis, struck out on its own. It led the United States into an ill-planned and costly war from which exit is uncertain. It justified the invasion of Iraq by manipulation of uncertain intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, and by a cynical campaign to persuade the public that Saddam Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda and the attacks of September 11. The evidence did not support this argument.

Our security has been weakened. While American airmen and women, marines, soldiers and sailors have performed gallantly, our armed forces were not prepared for military occupation and nation building. Public opinion polls throughout the world report hostility toward us. Muslim youth are turning to anti-American terrorism. 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. No loyal American would question our ultimate right to act alone in our national interest; but responsible leadership would not turn to unilateral military action before diplomacy had been thoroughly explored.

The United States suffers from close identification with autocratic regimes in the Muslim world, and from the perception of unquestioning support for the policies and actions of the present Israeli Government. To enhance credibility with Islamic peoples we must pursue courageous, energetic and balanced efforts to establish peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and policies that encourage responsible democratic reforms.

We face profound challenges in the 21st Century: proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, unequal distribution of wealth and the fruits of globalization, terrorism, environmental degradation, population growth in the developing world, HIV/AIDS, ethnic and religious confrontations. Such problems can not be resolved by military force, nor by the sole remaining superpower alone; they demand patient, coordinated global effort under the leadership of the United States.

The Bush Administration has shown that it does not grasp these circumstances of the new era, and is not able to rise to the responsibilities of world leadership in either style or substance. It is time for a change.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And they are:
The Honorable Avis T. Bohlen
Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, 1999
Ambassador to Bulgaria, 1996
District of Columbia

Admiral William J. Crowe, USN, Ret.
Chairman, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Committee, 1993
Ambassador to the Court of Saint James, 1993
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1985
Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Command
Oklahoma

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Davidow
Ambassador to Mexico, 1998
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1996
Ambassador to Venezuela, 1993
Ambassador to Zambia, 1988
Virginia

The Honorable William A. DePree
Ambassador to Bangladesh, 1987
Director of State Department Management Operations, 1983
Ambassador to Mozambique, 1976
Michigan

The Honorable Donald B. Easum
Ambassador to Nigeria, 1975
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, 1974
Ambassador to Upper Volta, 1971
Virginia

The Honorable Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs, 1993
Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1989
Rhode Island

The Honorable William C. Harrop
Ambassador to Israel, 1991
Ambassador to Zaire, 1987
Inspector General of the State Department and Foreign Service, 1983
Ambassador to Kenya and Seychelles, 1980
Ambassador to Guinea, 1975
New Jersey

The Honorable Arthur A. Hartman
Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1981
Ambassador to France, 1977
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, 1973
New Jersey


General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC, Ret.
Commander in Chief, United States Central Command, 1991
Deputy Chief of Staff, Marine Corps, 1990
Commanding General, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, 1987
Massachusetts


The Honorable H. Allen Holmes
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, 1993
Ambassador at Large for Burdensharing, 1989
Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs, 1986
Ambassador to Portugal, 1982
Kansas

The Honorable Robert V. Keeley
Ambassador to Greece, 1985
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, 1980
Ambassador to Mauritius, 1976
Florida

The Honorable Samuel W. Lewis
Director of State Department Policy and Planning, 1993
Ambassador to Israel, 1977
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, 1975
Texas


The Honorable Princeton N. Lyman
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, 1997
Ambassador to South Africa, 1992
Director, Bureau of Refugee Programs, 1989
Ambassador to Nigeria, 1986
Maryland

The Honorable Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987
Director for European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, 1983
Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, 1981
Florida

The Honorable Donald F. McHenry
Ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 1979
Illinois

General Merrill A. (Tony) McPeak, USAF, Ret.
Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, 1990
Commander in Chief, Pacific Air Forces, 1988
Commander, 12th Air Force and U.S. Southern Command Air Forces, 1987
Oregon

The Honorable George E. Moose
Representative, United Nations European Office, 1997
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, 1993
Ambassador to Senegal, 1988
Director, State Department Bureau of Management Operations, 1987
Ambassador to Benin, 1983
Colorado

The Honorable David D. Newsom
Secretary of State ad interim, 1981
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, 1978
Ambassador to the Philippines, 1977
Ambassador to Indonesia, 1973
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, 1969
Ambassador to Libya, 1965
California

The Honorable Phyllis E. Oakley
Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, 1997
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, 1994
Nebraska

The Honorable Robert Oakley
Special Envoy for Somalia, 1992
Ambassador to Pakistan, 1988
Ambassador to Somalia.1982
Ambassador to Zaire, 1979
Louisiana

The Honorable James D. Phillips
Diplomat-in-Residence, the Carter Center of Emory University, 1994
Ambassador to the Republic of Congo, 1990
Ambassador to Burundi, 1986
Kansas

The Honorable John E. Reinhardt
Director of the United States Information Agency, 1977
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, 1975
Ambassador to Nigeria, 1971
Maryland

General William Y. Smith, USAF, Ret.
Chief of Staff for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, 1979
Assistant to the Chairman, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1975
Director of National Security Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1974
Arkansas

The Honorable Ronald I. Spiers
Under Secretary General of the United Nations for Political Affairs, 1989
Under Secretary of State for Management, 1983
Ambassador to Pakistan, 1981
Director, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, 1980
Ambassador to Turkey, 1977
Ambassador to The Bahamas, 1973
Director, State Department Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, 1969
Vermont

The Honorable Michael E. Sterner
Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, 1974
New York

Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN, Ret.
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1977
Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe (NATO), 1975
Commander, U.S. Second Fleet, 1974
Illinois

The Honorable Alexander F. Watson
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1993
Ambassador to Brazil, 1992
Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 1989
Ambassador to Peru, 1986
Maryland

[tw]

This is the actual text from the group originally reported by the LA Times, quoted in the BBC, and discussed on 14 Jun 2004 in the Current Events section as:
Are you safer today?

As of this date, I have yet to find a single retired American military general who approves of George Jr and his war. This president and his administration is that despised by the military - who must speak through their retired peers. A military that is still made that we let Ossama bin Laden get away on orders from the mental midget president.

[Undertoad]

As of this date, I have yet to find a single retired American military general who approves of George Jr and his war.

There are many. Ralph Peters for example, although he disagrees with how it was done.

Sounds like a group of tree hugging liberals who have to go bleed their hearts all over everything they see. Wouldn't give them the time of day.

[Happy Monkey]

Why do diplomats and military commanders hate America?

[xoxoxoBruce]

They don't, that's why they want to "fix" it.

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
They don't, that's why they want to "fix" it.

Right on, Bruce!

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
There are many. Ralph Peters for example, although he disagrees with how it was done.

Who is Ralph Peters? When was he a member of the Joint Chiefs or a commander of a Unified Command? In the meantime, keep going. Provide this long list of Generals who agree with letting Osama bin Laden go free. Even Tom Clancy and the General Fred Franks who commanded the Seventh Corp (that liberated Kuwait by crushing the 1991 Republican Guards) speak with contempt for the agendas of our mental midget president. As does Gen Frank's boss at that time, Norman Swartzkopf. And so do Central Command Generals who preceded and succeeded Swartzkopf in that position.

Where, pray tell, do we find a General of any consequence who agrees with George Jr's agenda? Especially the part about going after Saddam rather than capturing bin Laden. Contempt even when his administration still encourages lies that Saddam conspired to attach the WTC. Where do we find all these retired generals who agree with the president? Need we go so far down the ranks as to find Gen Janis L. Karpinski's retired predecessor to find support for George Jr?

One of the original authors of the Iraqi invasion was Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard. He who even wanted Iraq invaded says this administration screwed it all up. He even used the word 'incompetant' in his description of how the Iraqi invasion was handled. It was not something you would expect from a Vulcan. But that is how much George Jr's administration has screwed up American international relations.

The intelligent people are roundly saying this administration needs be replaced. Unfortunately that is not the majority of Americans - yet. Too many listen to talk radio - lying by telling half truths - propaganda; then feel they are informed. Eventually they too will see how incompetant this administration has become. Hopefully before November.

We really should not have to go through the 1970s again. And Americans overseas really cannot continue to be so unpopular as they have been only for the past couple of years. We desperately need to fix the decades of work that George Jr destroyed in only 3 years. How did he do it? In part by lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting even members of the Cellar to believe his outright and intentional lies. Even undermining the Oslo Accords. Incompentant and lies so bad that international political professionals are even doing something that professional diplomats and generals do not do - call for the removal of the president.

[Undertoad]

Who is Tom Clancy?

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
Who is Tom Clancy?

Acts of War
Airborne : a guided tour of an airborne task force. BOOK c1997
Armored cav : a guided tour of an armored cavalry regiment. BOOK 1994
Battle ready / Tom Clancy ; with Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz. BOOK c2004
The bear and the dragon / Tom Clancy. BOOK c2000
The cardinal of the Kremlin BOOK c1988
Carrier : a guided tour of an aircraft carrier / Tom Clancy. BOOK 1999
Clear and present danger BOOK c1990
Debt of honor. BOOK c1994
Every man a tiger / by Tom Clancy, with Chuck Horner. BOOK 1999
Executive orders. BOOK 1996
Fighter wing : a guided tour of an Air Force combat wing. BOOK c1995
The hunt for Red October / Tom Clancy. BOOK c1984
Into the storm : a study in command. BOOK 1997
Marine : a guided tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit. BOOK c1996
Net force (numerous books)
Op-center (numerous books)
Patriot games. BOOK c1987
Rainbow Six. BOOK c1998
Red storm rising / Tom Clancy. BOOK 1987
Shadow warriors : inside the Special Forces / Tom Clancy, with Carl Stiner and Tony Koltz. BOOK c2002
SSN : strategies of submarine warfare. BOOK c1996
The sum of all fears. BOOK c1991
The teeth of the tiger / Tom Clancy. BOOK 2003
Without remorse. BOOK c1993

Remember when Condi Rice said she could not even conceive of airplanes being used as weapons? Obviously a lie if she had any knowledge of international security. Al Qaeda attempted it prevously with planes in Paris on the Eiffel Tower. But Tom Clancy had already demonstrated how easy a Washington attack airplane would be years previous. So where has Condi Rice been all this time? Lying. She has to because Tom Clancy's books - both fiction and non-fiction - are well read, well researched, and based on what insiders have been saying. If she did not know, then multiple members of her senior staff knew of the dangers - just from reading Clancy books.

Tom Clancy is that well informed as you might now remember from just a few of his works in the abridged list. Just some of the more popular titles I could find.

Who is Tom Clancy?!? Was that a serious question? I must say that I find the people who post here to be a pretty intelligent, well informed group. Yet for all that, someone can still ask who Tom Clancy is. I don't mean to put anyone down here, no disrespect intended, etc. But if an intelligent American can ask that question, then how can one expect the average American voter to understand the far more arcane issue of the havoc George Jr. is wrecking for this country abroad? Its discouraging, really it is.

A minor point: "And Americans overseas really cannot continue to be so unpopular as they have been only for the past couple of years." Try being an American in Latin America in the late sixties and early seventies when Vietnam was raging and the CIA had just assasinated the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvadore Allende. Complete strangers would stop me on the street in the city in Brazil where I was staying at the time, and treat me to invectives against Johnson and Nixon and hold me personally responsible for American foreign policy. We have been well hated before, my friend, and we will continue to be.

[tw]

Originally posted by marichiko
Try being an American in Latin America in the late sixties and early seventies when Vietnam was raging and the CIA had just assasinated the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvadore Allende. Complete strangers would stop me on the street in the city in Brazil where I was staying at the time, and treat me to invectives against Johnson and Nixon and hold me personally responsible for American foreign policy. We have been well hated before, my friend, and we will continue to be.

You are confusing a time when America was acting just as we are today. But lets go back to 1963 when my grandfather was in Santiago Chile. When Kennedy was shot. People were literally crying in the Chilean streets. Is that a world who hates Americans? No. America was loved before presidents lied and 'Pearl Harbored' sovereign nations.

VietNam is when America attacked a nation for no good reason - no smoking gun - exactly like Iraq. Then yes, US citizens were called ugly American. The book goes by that exact title. Americans went from being loved to being outrightly confronted on the street. But according to George Jr, those other nations are only confused or are 'old Europe'. Anything to justify the knowledge provided to him by god and righteousness.

Nam was just another time when the American government was so corrupt that it even feared we might read the Pentagon Papers. And it does not stop with Vietnam either. The US even tried to manipulate the Australian elections. One today would have thought Americans had learned the lessons of the 1970s. No. Many of us are so historically ill informed as to even trust anything George Jr says and foolishly belive the doctrine of evil - called preemption. A man whose credibility is so bad that Americans again are learning what it is to be the Ugly American. Three plus years ago, American were well received throughout the world. Clinton was even given a 5 minute standing ovation in the UN General Assembly. Not the Security Council. The General Assembly where all nations are represented. How quickly George Jr has again made it dangerous to admit to being American - just like during Johnson's and Nixon's time. Expecially during Nixon's time when lying presidents were even reelected by 49 out of 50 states.

Yes, liars like George Jr can be popular in America where the citizens would rather listen to Rush Limbaugh than learn real world history. How quickly we forget why the book Ugly American applied to America during VietNam - another war fought without a smoking gun due to a lying president.

Lets not forget how popular being American was on 11 Sept 2001 - before George Jr's lies became prolific. From Ron Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty":

Military cares arrived at midmorning the next day to pick up the O'Neill (Sec of Treasury) delegation. As the enturage emerged from the main entrance, they saw hundreds of Imperial Hotel employees - bellman, desk clerks, cooks, - lined up to the waiting vehicles, applauding loudly all the way.

Then George Jr lies made the world unsafe for Americans again.

I am in complete agreement with you, TW. I took it to mean that you were leaving out the Vietnam era when you used the phrase "only the last couple of years." I am pleased to see that at least one of my fellow Americans has some understanding of this country's recent history.

[Undertoad]

I know who Tom Clancy is, foolz

I ask because tw asked who Ralph Peters is, but yes it turns out that he was not a retired general like I thought.