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November 03, 2005
Dick Cheney I don’t know anymore
New Yorker profile of Scowcroft is now available on-line
I have always contended Bush senior's re-election failure of 1992 was a tragedy for Middle East. Bernard Lewis has wielded too much power over US administration policy over the last 20 years and the following quote from the above article is most revealing:
Scowcroft suggested that the White House was taking the wrong advice, and listening to a severely limited circle. He singled out the Princeton Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis, who was consulted by Vice-President Cheney and others after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Lewis, Scowcroft said, fed a feeling in the White House that the United States must assert itself. “It’s that idea that we’ve got to hit somebody hard,” Scowcroft said. “And Bernard Lewis says, ‘I believe that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power.’ ” Cheney, in particular, Scowcroft thinks, accepted Lewis’s view of Middle East politics. “The real anomaly in the Administration is Cheney,” Scowcroft said. “I consider Cheney a good friend—I’ve known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney I don’t know anymore.”
Posted by Hazi at November 3, 2005 11:31 AM