MIDDLE EAST: A group of former US diplomats has charged that President Bush's Middle East policy is costing the United States credibility, prestige and friends around the world.
In an open letter to the president made public yesterday, they express support for 52 retired British diplomats who also sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.
"We former diplomats applaud our 52 British colleagues who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States," the US letter begins. Harshly criticising Mr Bush for his support for Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, the letter said: "Your unabashed support of Sharon's extra judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plans are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends."
According to Mr Andrew Killgore, who served as US ambassador to Qatar from 1977 to 1980 and was co-ordinating the effort, the letter has been signed by several former ambassadors, including Mr James Akins, who was US ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1973 to 1976; Mr Robert Keeley, who was assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1978 to 1980 and later ambassador to Zimbabwe and Greece; and Mr John Gunther Dean, ambassador to India from 1985 to 1988.
"We're not the good guys any more and our foreign relations have been and are being damaged.
"We are viewed as hypocritical," said Mr William Rogers, who was under secretary of state for economic affairs in the mid-1970s.
