Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change

Per BBC News, 15 June 2004:

A group of senior former US government officials will release a statement later this week condemning President George W. Bush's foreign policy.

The group calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change.

They say Mr Bush's policies have made the US more isolated and less safe, and damaged its standing in the world.

Highlights from the released statement, another Dis-endorsement of George W. Bush:

• 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.
• 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.
• [R]esponsible leadership would not turn to unilateral military action before diplomacy had been thoroughly explored.

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.

The signatories

• Avis T. Bohlen: assistant secretary of State for arms control, 1999-2002; deputy assistant secretary of State for European affairs, 1989-1991.

• Retired Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr.: chairman, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1993-94; ambassador to Britain, 1993-97; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1985-89.

• Jeffrey S. Davidow: ambassador to Mexico, 1998-2002; assistant secretary of State for inter-American affairs, 1996.

• William A. DePree: ambassador to Bangladesh, 1987-1990.

• Donald B. Easum: ambassador to Nigeria, 1975-79.

• Charles W. Freeman, Jr.: assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs, 1993-94; ambassador to Saudi Arabia, 1989-1992.

• William C. Harrop: ambassador to Israel, 1991-93; ambassador to Zaire, 1987-1991.

• Arthur A. Hartman: ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1981-87; ambassador to France, 1977-1981.

• Retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar: commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, overseeing forces in the Middle East, 1991-94; deputy chief of staff, Marine Corps, 1990-94.

• H. Allen Holmes: assistant secretary of Defense for special operations, 1993-99; assistant secretary of State for politico-military affairs, 1986-89.

• Robert V. Keeley: ambassador to Greece, 1985-89; ambassador to Zimbabwe, 1980-84.

• Samuel W. Lewis: director of State Department policy and planning, 1993-94; ambassador to Israel, 1977-1985.

• Princeton N. Lyman: assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs, 1995-98; ambassador to South Africa, 1992-95.

• Jack F. Matlock, Jr.: ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987-1991; director for European and Soviet affairs, National Security Council, 1983-86; ambassador to Czechoslovakia, 1981-83.

• Donald F. McHenry: ambassador to the United Nations, 1979-1981.

• Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill A. McPeak: chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, 1990-94.

• George E. Moose: assistant secretary of State for African affairs, 1993-97; ambassador to Senegal, 1988-91.

• David D. Newsom: acting secretary of State, 1980; undersecretary of State for political affairs, 1978-1981; ambassador to Indonesia, 1973-77.

• Phyllis E. Oakley: assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research, 1997-99.

• James Daniel Phillips: ambassador to the Republic of Congo, 1990-93; ambassador to Burundi, 1986-1990.

• John E. Reinhardt: ambassador to Nigeria, 1971-75.

• Retired Air Force Gen. William Y. Smith: deputy commander in chief, U.S. European Command, 1981-83.

• Ronald I. Spiers: undersecretary-general of the United Nations for political affairs, 1989-1992; ambassador to Pakistan, 1981-83.

• Michael Sterner: deputy assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, 1977-1981; ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, 1974-76.

• Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner: director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1977-1981.

• Alexander F. Watson: assistant secretary of State for inter-American affairs, 1993-96; deputy permanent representative to the U.N., 1989-1993.

Contact

Website: diplomatsforchange.com