A couple of old-line Republicans have stepped in to add their thoughts to the administration’s talk of war with Iraq. Interestingly enough, it was not the kind of words the hawkish Bush White House wanted to hear. Instead those words were, for a change, a return to reason.Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made it known he thought the Bush plan was a faulty one a few days ago in an op-ed in the Washington Post. That was painful to the eggers-on in Washington. But the big news came at week’s end when no other then Brent Scowcroft, the main man behind of the Gulf War, authored an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal blasting the administration.
In his piece Scowcroft wrote, “an attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counter-terrorist campaign we have undertaken.”
Scowcroft’s and Kissinger’s thoughts come on the heels of similar remarks made by Nebraska’s Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Bush ally who feels it will be fairly easy to kick Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, but it will be very difficult to extract the United States from the country.
All of this outside criticism comes at a time of growing divisions within the administration over Iraqi policy.
Apparently Secretary of State Colin Powell had a recent chat with Kissinger. The focus of that talk was how Secretary Powell could bring the administration around both to a reasonable approach to the Iraqi problem and to be more constructive towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Secretary Powell has long been the most powerful voice of reason within the administration on foreign policy, and he has consistently been stepped on by the hawks closer to the president. In seeking out Kissinger, he’s simply looking for advice.
Lately it has seemed that the administration hasn’t been listening very carefully to critics in this country and from our allies who have no interest in supporting this venture at all. But it is interesting how this issue has been aired.
When was the last time such a public dialogue was carried out about a military issue? It seems the administration is encouraging this debate, it is almost as if the hard-liners and those urging the reasonable approach in the White House have decided to let the public decide how to move forward.
That at least is a good sign. We do have the comfort of knowing that this is being decided at least with some public input. Now if the president will just listen to the wise words of these elder Republicans he might just do the right thing yet and put this invasion of Iraq on hold.
