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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (14166)	3/7/2003 8:35:22 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

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.'' CC