experts condemn us foreign policy

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    No doubt these 650 experts will be subject to personal attacks from some moric idiots who prefer their fantasy land existance because they are to scared and or to stupid to face reality.




    Experts condemn US foreign policy
    From correspondents in New York
    October 13, 2004
    MORE than 650 foreign affairs experts from the US and abroad have signed an open letter condemning the Bush administration's foreign policy, saying it has harmed the fight against terrorists.

    The letter from the nonpartisan Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy was released today and points to what it describes as a series of blunders in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

    "We judge that the current American policy centred around the war in Iraq is the most misguided one since the Vietnam period, one which harms the cause of the struggle against extreme Islamic terrorists," the letter states.

    It said that "the results of this policy have been overwhelmingly negative for US interests".

    The man who first thought to write the letter, Stuart J Kaufman, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said the group wanted to influence the public debate, not endorse one presidential candidate over the other.

    "The part of it that's news is that the overwhelming consensus among national security experts is that the current policy is not working," Prof Kaufman said. "And the people who signed this are usually people who don't agree on anything."

    Among other things, the scholars claimed that:

    The US did not send enough troops to Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda, and that the focus on Iraq diverted much needed resources from Afghanistan.

    Some of the reasons cited by the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq were later proven wrong, including by government agencies. They include the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

    "In comparative terms, Iran is and was much the greater sponsor of terrorism, and North Korea and Pakistan pose much the greater risk of nuclear proliferation to terrorists," the letter states.

    The administration did not commit enough troops to Iraq, created a security vacuum by disbanding the Iraqi army, and embarked on a poorly planned reconstruction effort.

    "As a result, Iraqi popular dismay at the lack of security, jobs or reliable electric power fuels much of the violent opposition to the US military presence," the letter states.

    American actions in Iraq have increased the popularity of al-Qaeda in some countries and attracted recruits.

    Prof Kaufman said he wrote the letter's first draft about three weeks ago, and sent it to liberal and conservatives colleagues to see whether they would sign it. Those people in turn forwarded the letter to others.

    "These are people who thought things are so far out of whack that it was incumbent upon them to take a stand," said Prof Kaufman, who was a director in the US National Security Council under President Bill Clinton.

    The scholars who signed the letter are mostly academics from universities throughout the United States and some allied countries, including Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Argentina. They include former staffers at the Pentagon and the US State Department.



 
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