Word: scowcroft
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Those who know Gates consider him a realist in the mold of his mentor Brent Scowcroft, which is why it was surprising to hear such an idealistic answer. But American exceptionalism can signify many things. Its assertion of America's historical uniqueness can suggest that the U.S. has special global obligations and privileges. Exceptionalism can be a dangerous faith because of how much it can extenuate and excuse. Gates is not a philosopher, and it is hard to know what he means by his profession of the exceptionalist faith. It may be just a fancy way of expressing the more...
There is also a growing sense that the President's inexperience is beginning to show - not in his overall policy, which represents the views of a broad, moderate national-security consensus ranging from Brent Scowcroft to John Kerry, but in his execution of the details. The Afghan strategy review has been too public and taken too long; the Middle East peace hunt has become a wild goose chase. A letter to Iran's Supreme Leader is a productive gesture only if it gets a response; if it doesn't, it seems weak and supplicatory. A call for the Israelis...
...more likely that Obama, as he considers his options in Afghanistan, would benefit most from any private conversation he can work in on the subject with Bush, who was considered a foreign policy maestro, not to mention Baker, who along with Brent Scowcroft (and Gates), helped Bush chart a solid and centrist foreign policy from...
President George H.W. Bush awarded medals to Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell - who also earned one from Clinton - Secretary of State James Baker, then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft in 1991. In a similar move, President George W. Bush gave the nod to Tommy Franks, the retired Army general who led the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions; former CIA Director George Tenet; and L. Paul Bremer, who oversaw reconstruction in Iraq. Bush said the three men had "played pivotal roles in great events" to make "our country more secure" - a sentiment that wasn't exactly...
...Scowcroft is that, but he's not actually "advising" Obama. The President-elect has only spoken to him twice, briefly, in the last year and not on substance. Obama's other attempts at outreach, though apparently sincere, seem equally symbolic, at least for now. Obama has had short conversations with Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz and former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and both men describe their conversations positively. But an Obama transition aide, when pressed about these contacts, admits that it is "not fair to put them in the category of advisers." Rick Warren and Obama...