Counselor first diplomat to resign over Iraq war
Fri Mar 7, 5:42 AM ET
Barbara Slavin USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- John Brady Kiesling ends a 20-year career as a foreign
service officer today after becoming the first -- and so far the only -- U.S.
diplomat to resign in protest of U.S. policy toward Iraq (news - web sites).
The former political counselor in the U.S.
Embassy in Athens, Greece, Kiesling arrived in
New York on Thursday and plans to speak at
the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on
Monday.
In a telephone interview, Kiesling said he wants
to address the cadets because ''these people
are going to learn the lessons of whatever
happens over the next few months and have to
deal with the new world order we're creating.''
For Kiesling, 45, who was born in Houston and
who has represented the United States from
Morocco to Central Asia, that ''new world order''
includes attacking a country that has not
attacked the USA, possibly without the
sanction of the United Nations (news - web
sites).
In his resignation letter, Kiesling condemned
what he called the administration's ''swaggering
and contemptuous approach to our friends and
allies. . . . Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is
driving us to squander the international
legitimacy that has been America's most potent
weapon . . . since the days of Woodrow
Wilson.''
In 1994, the American Foreign Service
Association, a membership group of U.S.
diplomats, gave Kiesling an award for
''constructive dissent'' for signing a
memorandum protesting the U.S. failure to stop
the slaughter of Bosnians by the Serbs. Five
foreign service officers resigned to protest that
policy, and the administration subsequently
changed course.
Kiesling says he is not urging others to follow
his example, but ''I pray to God those who stay
behind will come up with an alternative policy.
People are terrified that the costs of a war with
Iraq will be way too high in terms of the human
losses, economic costs and the U.S. ability to lead the world.''
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