[Vision2020] Ex-Generals, Others Hit Bush Hard-line Policies

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (August 16, 2006) Spokesman Review -

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Ex-generals, others hit Bush hard-line policies
Peter Spiegel
Los Angeles Times
August 16, 2006

WASHINGTON – In an effort to counter a mounting White House campaign to 
depict its Middle East policies as critical to the nation's safety from 
terrorist attacks, 21 former generals, diplomats and national security 
officials will release an open letter Thursday arguing that the 
administration's "hard line" has undermined U.S. security.

The letter comes as President Bush has made a series of appearances and 
statements, including a visit Tuesday to the National Counterterrorism 
Center in McLean, Va., seeking to promote the administration's record on 
security issues in advance of November's midterm congressional elections.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, one of the signers of the letter and a 
former military assistant to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in the 
1960s, said the group was particularly concerned about administration 
policies toward Iran, believing them to be a possible prelude to a military 
attack on suspected nuclear sites in that country.

Gard said the letter's signers – who will include retired Marine Corps Gen. 
Joseph P. Hoar, head of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994, and Morton 
H. Halperin, a senior State Department and National Security Council 
official in the Clinton administration – do not believe that Iran has the 
wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon in the near term and will push the 
administration to open negotiations with Tehran on the issue.

Gard noted that Iran has in the past sought to open negotiations with the 
U.S. through Swiss intermediaries, efforts the letter-signers believe are 
worth exploring as a means of defusing tensions in the region.

But Gard said the administration appeared to be going in the opposite 
direction, adding that he was particularly concerned by recent warnings from 
former Israeli military officials that a strike against Iran may be needed 
to disable that country's nuclear program. He noted that the Bush 
administration's unabashedly pro-Israel stance during the recent conflict 
with Hezbollah was an indication that the White House may accede to such 
Israeli assessments.

"This administration is clearly so beholden to Israel that it raises the 
concern we might go along" with a military strike, he said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


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"In America, anybody can become president.
That's one of the risks you take . . ."

- Adlai Stevenson

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