Bloodless Coup

Scowcroft on George W.'s Middle East Policies

Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Advisor to the first president Bush (and basically Bush I's ideological soul-mate) publicly states that he thinks George W. Bush has taken American foreign policy horribly off-course when it comes to the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process. He still wants him reelected, but he hopes for a fundamental change in the direction of Bush II's policies.

Of course the Ron Suskind article I linked to yesterday notes that at his very first National Security Council meeting Bush made it clear that he wanted the US to pull-out of the peace process (reversing decades of bipartisan foreign policy on the issue) and give Sharon a free-hand to do whatever he wanted. Now Secretary Powell objected to this (though he quickly learned not to do that), but the president wasn't interested in hearing from regional experts or considering how this might affect other US priorities in the region, he simply stated "a show of force by one side can really clarify things".

Now given the president's deeply-held beliefs on this (which, by the way, would seem to offer little in the way of a new solution since one-side has dominated that conflict in terms of power and force for decades) and his disinterest in hearing other opinions it appears clear that short of it hurting his own political strength there is absolutely no reason to expect the president will alter the direction of policies on this matter. And this is a matter of even more consequence now that we've decided to tie ourselves more closely than ever to that region of the globe. But though Scowcroft must expect more of the same policies which will negatively affect our interests on this vitally important issue ... he is a supporter of the president.