Scowcroft: Sharon Has Bush Wrapped Around His Little Finger - Iraq A "Failed Venture"

by Steve

In a story that the Financial Times had two days ago but the Washington Post just picked up today, Brent Scowcroft has wandered off the reservation again, presumably with Poppy's knowledge.

I love family squabbles…

A leading Republican says President George W. Bush is "mesmerised" by Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, and that the Bush administration's recent co-operation with the United Nations and NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq is a desperate move to "rescue a failing venture".

"Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Mr. Scowcroft said. "I think the president is mesmerised."

"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 [Mr. Sharon] has been nothing but trouble."

Mr. Scowcroft also cast doubt on Mr. Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which last week Dov Weisglass, a leading Israeli adviser, said was intended to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.

But at least we have your protégé as our NSA, right?

"When I first heard Sharon was getting out of Gaza I was having dinner with Condi [Rice] and she said: 'At least that's good news.' And I said: 'That's terrible news . . . Sharon will say: 'I want to get out of Gaza, finish the wall [the Israelis' security fence] and say I'm done'."

Oops. But at least we are managing Afghanistan and Iraq pretty well and our prospects are good, right Uncle Brent?

Mr. Scowcroft said the US's initial failure to take up NATO offers of assistance in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 was a "severe rebuff". "We had gotten contemptuous of Europeans and their weaknesses," he said. "We had really turned unilateral."

He added that US unilateralism had diminished to some extent but that fundamentally little had changed. He said US engagement with the UN and NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq was "as much an act of desperation as anything else ... to rescue a failing venture".

A failing venture? Gee, that’s not what our strong and steadfast leader said in the debates about Iraq.

Why does Brent Scowcroft hate America so much? And why does Poppy let him say those terrible things about Scooter's foreign policy?