Former top US diplomats call for Bush's defeat; By Ronald Brownstein in Washington; June 14, 2004

A group of 26 former senior US diplomats and military officials, many appointed to key positions by the Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush snr, is to issue a joint statement this week saying that President George Bush has damaged America's national security.

The group, which calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, will explicitly condemn Mr Bush's foreign policy and urge his defeat in the November presidential elections, several of those who signed the document said. "It is clear that the statement calls for the defeat of the Administration," said William Harrop, the ambassador to Israel under Mr Bush snr and one of the group's principal organisers. Those signing the document, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, include 20 former US ambassadors, appointed by presidents of both parties, to countries from Israel and the former Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Others are senior State Department officials from the Carter, Reagan and Clinton administrations and former career military leaders, including the retired general Joseph Hoar, who was commander in chief of the US Central Command under Mr Bush's father. Some of those signing the document - such as Mr Hoar and a former Air Force chief of staff, Merrill McPeak - have already identified themselves as supporters of John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But the group says most signatories have not endorsed any candidate.
.."A lot of people felt the work they had done over their lifetime in trying to build a situation in which the United States was respected and could lead the rest of the world was undermined by this administration, by the arrogance, the refusal to listen to others, the scorn for multilateral organisations."

Jack Matlock, who was Mr Reagan's and then Mr Bush snr's ambassador to the Soviet Union, expressed similar views. "Ever since Franklin Roosevelt, the US has built up alliances in order to amplify its own power," he said. "But now we have alienated many of our closest allies, we have alienated their populations." The document will echo a statement released in April by a group of high-level former British diplomats condemning the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for being too closely aligned to US policy in Iraq and Israel. And an open letter to Mr Bush in May from 50 former senior US diplomats accused the White House of destroying the chances of a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/13/1087065033801.html