by Frank James
That President-elect Barack Obama has been talking to Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's National security Adviser, is worth knowing.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Obama has been talking with Scowcroft for some time.
The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White House.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was deputy national-security adviser under Mr. Scowcroft in the George H.W. Bush administration, is almost certain to be retained by Mr. Obama, according to aides to the president-elect. Richard Haass, a Scowcroft protégé and former State Department official, could be tapped for a senior National Security Council, State Department or intelligence position. Mr. Haass currently runs the Council on Foreign Relations...
... Mr. Scowcroft said his biggest piece of advice for the new administration was that it should make a renewed push to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He also endorsed Mr. Obama's call for diplomatic engagement with Iran.
"Compared to the other alternatives we face with Iran, we ought to give it a really good, sincere try," Mr. Scowcroft said. "I have a hunch that we'll be more successful than a lot of detractors think."
As the Journal story reports, Scowcroft wrote an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal in 2003 warning the administration against invading Iraq. Scowcroft was later dropped from a White House intelligence advisory post.
The Journal story doesn't mention that at the time, many Washington tea-leaf readers interpreted Scowcroft's op-ed as having the implicit approval of the first president Bush since the two men are so close and it was inconceivable that Scowfcroft would have faced off with the current president if his father hadn't given the nod.
Scowcroft is one of Washington's pragmatic old wise men who has been around this town a long time. A retired Air Force lieutenant general, his service around presidents dates back to the Nixon Administration where he was a military and national security assistant to the president.
It's just another example of the non-ideological path Obama is taking as he prepares to assume the presidency.
Comments
This is an emotional time. It appears that sanity is going to return to Washington. Foreign policy that on its face appears rational and comprehensible and not founded on machismo. How pleasant.
Posted by: Ron M | November 24, 2008 11:21 AM
Were have all these reasonable minded people been? It seems they were "forced" into hiding by the inclusive(?) right.
Posted by: bill r. | November 24, 2008 11:31 AM
Bill R., from what I've read, '43 simply does not want to hear facts that do not fit into his worldview. People who contest his plans are replaced, shunted to the sidelines, or end up quitting in disgust when they realize they're not going to be able to make an impact on what's happening.
Posted by: Heron | November 24, 2008 1:37 PM
W's treatment of Gen Scowcroft, like his treatment of Paul O'Neill, tells you all you ever want to know about his "legacy", his methods, and his fixation on his "One Big Idea" (a profitable one for his friends) in the face of all reason.
But perhaps we're too harsh on him. After all, 25 % of those polled are still backing him--so they claim.
Posted by: ornery | November 25, 2008 2:16 AM