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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (2666)	2/6/2002 12:16:56 AM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 15516

Tuesday February 5 7:15 PM ET Republican Senators Find Fault with U.S. Diplomacy By Jonathan Wright WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration met rare Republican criticism of its foreign policy on Tuesday when a handful of senators questioned its Afghanistan strategy and its rhetoric in the ``war on terrorism.'' Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, accused members of the administration of taking a cavalier attitude toward Washington's European allies and of using language that could have dangerous consequences for the United States. He was referring to President Bush's use of the term ``axis of evil'' to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea, with the implicit threat that the United States would take unspecified action against them. The Bush administration argues the three governments are developing weapons of mass destruction and support ``terrorism.'' All three deny the allegations. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, said he feared Afghanistan would revert to the status of a ``basket case'' unless the United States gave more military and economic support to interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. Secretary of State Colin Powell defended the ``axis of evil'' concept and declined to rule out pre-emptive attacks as a matter of principle. ``These are very dangerous regimes and it isn't enough just to say they are dangerous regimes. ... Action is going to be required,'' he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing on the State Department budget for 2003. But he added: ``It doesn't mean that war is going to start tomorrow or that we are going to invade anybody. It may mean in the short term a focus on the policy that we have in place with respect to each of the three countries.'' ``It does not mean that we are ready to invade anyone or we are not willing to engage in dialogue. Quite the contrary,'' he said. The United States has offered dialogue to Iran and North Korea. Iran says the United States must drop sanctions first, while North Korea objects to the U.S. request that a dialogue should cover conventional military forces. THE ALTAR OF MULTILATERALISM Powell said the United States believed in multilateralism, but not to the extent of compromising U.S. interests. ``We also believe in sticking up for what we believe is right and not sacrificing it on the altar of multilateralism for the sake of multilateralism. ``We can be decisively cooperative when it serves our interests and the interests of the world but ... when it is a matter of principle, we will stand on that principle, whether it is universally applauded or not,'' he added. Hagel said that by talking of an ``axis of evil'' the Bush administration was creating expectations that it might regret having to fulfill. He cited the analogy of the Vietnam war, saying the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson found it impossible to extricate the United States from the conflict. ``I was a little bit concerned at somewhat of a cavalier attitude that I have heard from this administration. ... There are some in the administration who ... (say) 'So what if our sissy European allies don't like it.' The actions and words have consequences that are very dangerous at a time when there is little margin of error left,'' he added. Lugar criticized the administration for its reluctance to join the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, which is dominated by European forces. ``This (Afghanistan) needs to be our West Germany. It needs to be a signal that we really know how to offer something to that part of the world, that talks about human rights, democracy, economic success, as opposed to a basket case, which I fear it will become,'' he added. Democratic senators on the committee said they thought the Bush administration was wrong to ask for a disproportionate increase in the Pentagon budget for 2003, while adding much less to the much smaller State Department budget. dailynews.yahoo.com