Retired Officials Say Bush Must Go

Los Angeles Times ^ | 06/13/2004 | Ronald Brownstein

[Hawk44]

WASHINGTON — A group of 26 former senior diplomats and military officials, several appointed to key positions by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) and George H.W. Bush, plans to issue a joint statement this week arguing that President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has damaged America's national security and should be defeated in November.

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The group, which calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, will explicitly condemn Bush's foreign policy, according to several of those who signed the document.

"It is clear that the statement calls for the defeat of the administration," said William C. Harrop, the ambassador to Israel under President Bush's father and one of the group's principal organizers.

Those signing the document, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, include 20 former U.S. ambassadors, appointed by presidents of both parties, to countries including Israel, the former Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia.

Others are senior State Department officials from the Carter, Reagan and Clinton administrations and former military leaders, including retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East under President Bush's father. Hoar is a prominent critic of the war in Iraq (news - web sites).

Some of those signing the document — such as Hoar and former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill A. McPeak — have identified themselves as supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But most have not endorsed any candidate, members of the group said.

Article.

[Last Dakotan]

One senior Republican strategist familiar with White House thinking said he did not think the group was sufficiently well-known to create significant political problems for the president.

Is there an IQ test one has to take to be a "Republican strategist"? As in those with too high a number cannot apply.

[jocko12]

SO!

[Tennessee_Bob]

Well, that says enough for me.

No kidding. Saw that name and started laughing.

[TonyM]

Someone should tell them they misspelled "Retarded" in the title.

[Owen]

Where is the Bush campaign's equivalent group of people to get in front of the cameras and say the opposite? Why is the campaign perpetually failing to have equivalent stories created for the press?

[Dog Gone]

Do you think the media would be interested in carrying those stories?

[NonValueAdded]

Ambassadors ... like the ones that counseled Reagan that the Germans "were used to the Wall" and please don't tear it down? And from the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton admins.? Let's see ... one or two Reagan guys (probably Carter hold-overs) and the rest RATS. Finally, if you accept their premise that GWB did this, then are they saying Kerry is the answer?????????

[sergeantdave]

The cultists at the LA Times compound are popping magic mushrooms again. The pest patrol is sending in the fumigation squad.

[TankerKC]

I don't know of Hoar, but I will guarantee you that McPeak has zero credibility with most current and retired Air Force types.

[solo gringo]

Every time i see a latimes story i remember the number they tried on ARNOLD.This rag should be shut down and padlocked.

[gatorbait]

Don't you have an ambulance to chase?

[Let's Roll]

Anyone who doesn't understand that we are safer being feared than sneered at doesn't deserve an opinion or a vote.

I can't believe that the American people don't understand that.

[pepsionice]

After retirement...McPeak didn't find that gravey train waiting for him...like he expected. Other than silly programs, there wasn't alot of changes that he made...that actually stayed inplace. Companies are not keen on making changes strictly for the purpose of making changes. McPeak's whole career was based on that concept. His ice cream officers suit...dust in the wind. His leather-name-tag...dust in the wind. All of the unit reorganizations...dust in the wind. Quality...dust in the wind.

What is interesting from the entire group...is that he is virtually the only Air Force officer on it...which may say something.

[Dick Vomer]

The failure to take seriously reports of this nature and the message it sends will result in a one-term presidency. The signatories of this statement are not typically politically active, and, most assuredly, they are not traditional Democrats. Anyone who thinks that Generals McPeak or Hoar may be dismissed as merely expressing ideology is either displaying unrelenting and unthinking ignorance or is simply blinded by his own ideological intensity.

Once I got to Admiral Crowe's name I stopped..... that Clinton sucking p#@$k has about as much credibility as Hitler addressing a "Human Rights" conference.

Either follow sponsorship, corporate board membership or both. Follow the money... even a Marine General can be "flipped"... look at Zinni. Saw him on C-Span with Clancy... Jesus Christ.... the term "useful idiot" comes to mind.

I've been trying to figure out Zinni's motives and I think I got a glimpse when he went on for about 5 minutes about how Flag officers aren't allowed to keep on the job for 3-4 years and that all that experience is "lost" and then they have to retire.... I think this guy was "allowed" to retire and is hacked off.

[Zechariah11]

Hot, pompous, pretentious air.

[Froggie]

Hey, give Al credit -- being the President of Vice in the Clinton Administration was one heck of a job!!!

[Northern Yankee]

How appropriate his name was hoar.

And I thought it was just a misspelling!

[NYCVirago]

I remember when that really stupid, out of control ex-POTUS and his sidekick, the bellicose and equally shallow al gore, in trying to take down future President Bush in the last election, regurgitated or brought up the petitions signed by HISTORIANS of note. (lol)

Yep, and Sean Wilentz, who came up with that campaign for Clinton, was quoted in Friday's New York Times as saying that Reagan was not a great president. Of course, his previous political activism was unmentioned.

[middie]

Gen. Zinni is just about the last of the breed of Marine who places mission above politics and winning battles above the internecine struggle for appropriations for new gee-whiz weapons that have little efficiency against a non-state enemy in a low intensity conflict. Zinni is cast in the mold of "Chesty" Puller vis-a-vis the Marine toady we see at TV briefings regurgitating the Rumsfled misapplication of fighting doctrine.

[Free ThinkerNY]

Anti-Bush vomit bags must go!