Retired general: Bush foreign policy a
'national disaster'
Saturday, July 31, 2004 Posted: 11:15 AM EDT (1515 GMT)
(CNN) -- A former Air Force chief of
staff and one-time "Veteran for
Bush" said Saturday that America's
foreign relations for the first three
years of President Bush's term
have been "a national disaster" but
that the president's Democratic
rival was "up to the task" of
rebuilding.
Retired Gen. Tony McPeak, the Air Force chief
of staff during the first Gulf War, delivered the
Democratic radio address supporting
implementation of the 9/11 commission's
recommendations for national security.
"As president, John Kerry will not waste a
minute in bringing action on the reforms urged
by the 9/11 commission," McPeak said of the
Massachusetts senator nominated by the
Democrats this week. "And he will not rest
until America's defenses are strong."
The president, on the other hand, "fought
against the very formation of the commission
and continues to the present moment to give it
only grudging cooperation, no matter what he
says," the general said. "Why should we
believe he will do anything to institute the
needed change?"
Administration officials have said that Bush
could approve some of the commission's
suggested changes by early next week.
McPeak, a former fighter pilot who
campaigned for Bob Dole in 1996 as well as
Bush in 2000, said Bush's inability to craft a
true allied coalition was a serious deficiency.
"The report of the 9/11 commission makes this
clear: Fighting terrorists alone just doesn't
work," he said. "If our enemy hatches a terror
plot in Rome, we will need help from the
Italians. If German intelligence knows the
whereabouts of a senior al Qaeda member,
America must have that information."
Instead, he said, Bush has "alienated our
friends, damaged our credibility around the
world, reduced our influence to an all-time low
in my lifetime, given hope to our enemies."
McPeak said he backed Bush in 2000 because
he "had hoped this president could provide"
the leadership needed to face modern threats.
But disillusionment, he said, has led him to
change his voter registration from Republican
to independent and shift his support to Kerry.
"The real deal for me is not whether a strategy
or a plan or an idea is Republican or Democrat,
but whether it makes us safer," he said. "And
it means an awful lot to me that John Kerry
fought for his country as a young man."
"We who have some experience -- who have
seen war close up and sent troops to battle --
know that victory is not won by single combat," he continued. "War is not like that. War is a
team sport.
"We built the team that won World War II. We put together the great team that won the Cold
War. That's why what has happened over the last three years is such a tragedy, such a
national disaster. Rebuilding the team won't be easy." |
