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They came ostensibly to praise George W. Bush and to highlight the finer points of the Texas governor's foreign-policy views. But the six men on the dais at a July 31 foreign-affairs forum in Philadelphia -- nearly all veterans of Bush's father's Administration -- just couldn't help themselves. The real business at hand was bashing the foreign policy of outgoing President Bill Clinton. "We'll bring you foreign policy without prevarication," said Arizona Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), in opening remarks. And as the attacks on Clinton's foreign policy flew, the partisan crowd ate it up.
Most scathing was Lawrence S. Eagleburger, a former Bush Secretary of State, who referred derisively to Clinton's foreign-policy advisers as "that bunch." Speaking before an audience of about 500 at a forum sponsored by the International Republican Institute, Eagleburger blasted what he termed the Clinton Administration's "total lack of any attempt to design a strategy" for foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. "This Administration has wasted eight years," declared Eagleburger. "It is inexcusable that they have not spent any time talking to the American people about what problems lie ahead in the next 10-20 years."
Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to both Bush and former President Gerald Ford, complained about "the diminishing regard in which we're held by increasing numbers of countries. We are now spending our political capital around the world at an astonishing rate." Scowcroft, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, blasted the Clinton team that followed him for conducting "foreign policy by domestic opinion polls."
"NATIONAL DISGRACE." The U.S. may pay dearly for underfunding defense priorities, said Paul Wolfowitz, a Defense Undersecretary in the late '80s and now dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "We're so far behind on missile defense, it's a national disgrace," he fretted. Also on hand for the assault were Robert Zoellick, former Undersecretary of State in the Bush Administration, and Richard L. Armitage, who held troubleshooting posts at State and Defense.
Even when they lauded George W., this "collection of has-beens and soon-to-bes," as Eagleburger poked fun at the assembled group of GOP advisers, couldn't resist making digs at Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore. Castigating the Democrats for failing repeatedly to balance strength and diplomacy, George P. Shultz, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State, said Bush was a man "who understands this and will use it to our nation's credit."
By Amy Borrus in Philadelphia Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
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Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P.
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