Diplomacy

Twenty-seven retired career diplomats went on record to deliver what, for a diplomat, is harsh criticism:

"We all believe that current administration policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving national security and providing world leadership,'' said a statement signed by the 27 retired officials. "We need a change.''

The rare criticism by career senior U.S. officials came from a group that included members of both major political parties, two former ambassadors to the Soviet Union and a retired chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In attacking Bush's national security record, they challenged a key Bush argument for his re-election against Democrat Sen. John Kerry, that the Iraq war has made America safer.

"Our security has been weakened,'' the group said.

The former officials, some of whom said they had voted for Bush, said the Republican president manipulated intelligence on Iraq to lead the United States into an "ill-planned and costly war from which exit is uncertain.''

Bush has maintained an "overbearing'' approach to foreign policy that relied excessively on military power, spurned the concerns of U.S. traditional allies and disdained the United Nations, the group said.

"It justified the invasion of Iraq by manipulation of uncertain intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, and by a cynical campaign to persuade the public that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda and the attacks of September 11,'' it said. "The evidence did not support this argument.''

"Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted,'' it added.

I remember the old--very old--Saturday Night Live sketch for Ambassador Training School. It consisted of a "test," where the "correct" answer to all questions was to rave about the sweet and sour shrimp. Careerists tread lightly, and say little. Their statement is the polite way of saying "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on--now get the hell out.

And your sweet and sour shrimp sucked."