Wednesday, June 16th Update: Click here for follow-up information on the Wednesday press conference.
A group of former military and diplomatic officials – calling themselves Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change – will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to call for national leadership change. The group, which includes several prominent officials from the Reagan and Bush I administrations, will call for the defeat of George W. Bush based on what they see as his foreign policy failures. US Newswire reports that the group includes:
....former ambassadors Jeffrey Davidow, William DePree, Charles Freeman Jr., William Harrop, Arthur Hartman, H. Allen Holmes, Samuel Lewis, Princeton Lyman, Jack Matlock Jr., Donald McHenry, Richard Murphy, David Newsom, Phyllis Oakley, John Reinhardt, Ronald Spiers, Nicholas Veliotes and Alexander Watson; and Adm. William Crowe, Gen. Joseph Hoar and Adm. Stansfield Turner.
The Financial Times in London is reporting that the release of the statement could deepen distrust of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy objectives.
The 26-member group, known as Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, includes several people appointed to important positions by Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Among them are former US ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union and a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as well as retired Marine General Joseph P. Hoar, who commanded US forces in the Middle East under former President Bush.Their letter, to be published on Wednesday, represents an unusually broad attack on a president in an election year from the ranks of the career diplomats inside the Washington beltway.
It is likely to deepen doubts reflected in recent polls that the nation, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, is on the wrong course.
There was other bad news for the president this weekend. The Bush White House has been claiming that they are winning the war on terror and have pointed to recent statistics that show terrorist attacks down worldwide. It turns out the data was wrong. Colin Powell, who for some reason keeps making statements he then has to retract, promises the data wasn’t manipulated to benefit the president. "I am not a happy camper over this," Powell said. "We were wrong."
Click here for developing news on Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change.
