Ex-State official blasts 'Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal'
Wilkerson, who reached the rank of Army colonel before retiring and was part of efforts to rebuild the Army after the Vietnam War, bemoans damage to morale and combat readiness resulting from heavy deployments to Iraq. "My Army, right now, is truly in bad shape," he declared. He predicts that ever more soldiers facing repeated postings to Iraq would "vote with their feet" and not re-enlist.
He also criticized Bush for occasional "gracelessness" in conducting international affairs. Wilkerson cited as an example Bush's abrupt rejection of then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's recommendations for handling North Korea in a 2001 White House meeting -- an incident that shocked Seoul and wound up embarrassing Powell, who unlike hawks–and the president -- favored continuing the Clinton administration's outreach to Pyongyang.
"That's not diplomacy. That's cowboyism," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson counts himself a fan of the first President Bush. "The difference between father and son, in my mind, comes in that difference in their attitudinal approach to the world," he says.
He laid part of the blame for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal --characterized by the administration as an isolated case of individuals acting without authorization -- at the doorstep of top leaders.
"We are going to be ashamed of what we allowed to happen," he says. He says the administration conveyed a "carte blanche" mentality toward pursuing suspected terrorists, with the attitude being, "You should not have any qualms because this is a different kind of conflict."
And on the question of public diplomacy -- promoting favorable views of the United States and its policies, especially in the Arab and Muslim worlds -- Wilkerson fell back on some soldier's salty language to describe the dilemma.
"It's hard to sell s---," he said, paraphrasing the comment of an Egyptian.
Wilkerson says he hopes his speaking out might "effect some change for the good." He acknowledges that his dissent has taken a personal toll–especially in his relationship with Powell. He says he was "physically thrown out" by Powell from the secretary's office after an argument over Iraq. He still praises Powell's leadership and "inveterate optimism." Unlike Wilkerson, Powell has kept his counsel private since leaving Foggy Bottom, aside from a few public comments on mistaken U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"He's the world's most loyal soldier," says Wilkerson.
Wilkerson, we now know, has a different sense of what loyalty dictates.
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