Yup.. we’re not just gonna kick the UN out of America, we’re gonna kick the State Department out too! Those rational fools! They’re obsolete.
I do like to see that the nuts still have an endless supply of disconnected spokespersons on top of their unnamed officials.
Gingrich Says State Department Undermines Bush
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an adviser to the Pentagon, called on Tuesday for dramatic change at the State Department, which he accused of backing Middle East dictators and undermining the policies of President Bush.
In what appeared to be part of a battle within the Bush administration on the course of U.S. foreign policy after the invasion of Iraq, Gingrich said: “America cannot lead the world with a broken instrument of diplomacy.”
“Without bold dramatic change at the State Department, the United States will soon find itself on the defensive everywhere, except militarily… The collapse of the State Department as an effective instrument puts all this at risk,” he told the American Enterprise Institute [how do they keep popping up?].
The institute is associated with the neoconservative group that backed the invasion of Iraq [oh! ok]. A leading member is another Pentagon adviser, Richard Perle, who lobbied for years for the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and for democratic transformation in the Middle East. …](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1276&e=3&cid=615&u=/nm/20030422/pl_nm/iraq_usa_state_dc)]
Gingrich found fault with the way the State Department had failed to win over international public opinion to the Iraq war or obtain explicit U.N. authority for the campaign. He then attacked its plans for Middle East policy.
“The concept of the American secretary of state going to Damascus to meet with a terrorist-supporting, secret police-wielding dictator is ludicrous,” he said.
“This is a time for America to demand changes in Damascus before a visit is even considered,” he added.
On the Quartet, he said: “It is unimaginable that the United States would voluntarily accept a system in which the U.N., the European Union and Russia could routinely outvote President Bush’s positions by three to one.” [messing with the king?] The others are the remaining members of the mediation group.
“This is a deliberate and systematic effort to undermine the president’s policies procedurally by ensuring they will consistently be watered down and distorted,” he added. [paranoid?]
He then attacked the State Department’s bureau of Near Eastern affairs, saying the people it has sent to Iraq “were promoted in a culture of propping up dictators, coddling the corrupt and ignoring the secret police.” [let’s forget DoD’s SOP]
Gingrich carefully spared from attack Secretary Powell, who always wins high approval ratings from the American public and has many friends abroad. [so kind of him?]
A State Department official said publicity about the policy battle had hit morale in the department, especially after a front-page story in The Washington Post on Tuesday.
“All of our hearts sank when we read this… For those of us who work in foreign policy to have inter-agency disputes on the front page makes it very hard to work with the foreign audience, who begin to not be certain that what you are telling them is our policy,” he said.
“It also undermines our foreign policy generally. We are annoyed by it personally… It makes us feel we are at battle with Defense (Department),” he added.
