Brent Scowcroft, national
security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of
the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview
published this week, saying that the current President Bush is
"mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a
"failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach
has harmed relations between Europe and the United States.
Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial
Times, are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three
weeks before a highly contested election. In the first Bush
administration, Scowcroft was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current
national security adviser, and he is regarded as a close associate of
the president's father.
Scowcroft declined
a request for an interview yesterday. When asked if he had been quoted
correctly, his office responded with a statement: "He has been and is a
supporter of President Bush and thinks he is the best qualified to lead
our country."
Scowcroft's remarks to the Financial Times reflect a
sense of unease among some GOP foreign policy experts about the White
House's handling of foreign policy -- especially those who, such as
Scowcroft, are considered part of what is called the realist wing.
Realists, in contrast to those who are called neoconservatives, prefer
to deal with other nations on their own terms, whether they are
democracies or not, and were skeptical that a war in Iraq would help
make democracy blossom throughout the Middle East.
Generally, such concerns have been muted and voiced
privately, but Scowcroft's interview was blunt, especially over Bush's
handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"Sharon just has him wrapped around his little
finger," Scowcroft told the Financial Times. "I think the president is
mesmerized." He added: "When there is a suicide attack [followed by a
reprisal] Sharon calls the president and says, 'I'm on the front line
of terrorism,' and the president says, 'Yes, you are . . . ' He
[Sharon] has been nothing but trouble."
Although both Bush and Kerry have been very
supportive of Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Scowcroft
said he warned Rice that this is a ruse to prevent the creation of a
Palestinian state.
"When I first heard Sharon was getting out of Gaza I
was having dinner with Condi and she said: 'At least that's good news,'
" Scowcroft recounted. "And I said: 'That's terrible news. . . . Sharon
will say: 'I want to get out of Gaza, finish the wall [the Israeli
security barrier] and say I'm done.' "
The White House did not respond to a request for
comment. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, when asked about
Scowcroft's remarks on Fox TV's "Your World," said that "I have the
greatest respect for Brent Scowcroft" but that Bush had gotten Sharon
to attend a summit in 2003 with the Palestinian prime minister, and
that Sharon has said he is committed to the U.S.-backed peace plan
known as the road map.
"Whatever reluctance Mr. Sharon had, he was there,"
Powell said. "And ever since, he has reaffirmed his commitment,
notwithstanding statements by others."
Regarding U.S.-European relations, Scowcroft said the
U.S. rejection of offers of assistance after the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, was a "severe rebuff. . . . We had gotten contemptuous
of Europeans and their weaknesses. We had really turned unilateral."
He added that there has been "some pulling back of
the extremes of neocons scoffing at multilateral organizations," but
that fundamentally little has changed. He said U.S. engagement with the
United Nations and NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq is "as much an act of
desperation as anything else . . . to rescue a failing venture."
Scowcroft said that relations with Europe are "in
general bad," but that the United States has to work with Europe to
deal with the world's problems.
Powell responded: "This isn't an
administration that is not working with our partners. We're spending a
lot of time with our partners."
