Sensing Shift in Bush Policy, Another Hawk Leaves
March 21, 2007
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, March 20 — Among the hawks in the Bush administration, Robert Joseph long occupied a special perch.
As the architect of much of the administration’s strategy for countering nuclear proliferation, he helped engineer the decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, worked secretly to squeeze Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, and created a loose consortium of nations, now numbering more than 80, committed to intercepting illicit weapons at sea, in the air or on land.
But last month Mr. Joseph quietly left the State Department, where he was under secretary for arms control and international security, telling colleagues that, as a matter of principle, he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February.
Mr. Joseph has declined to talk publicly about why he left, but he told colleagues that he thought the deal would prolong the survival of a North Korean government he has publicly called “criminal” and “morally abhorrent” while failing to require it to give up the weapons it has already produced. In an interview, Mr. Joseph made clear that he “does not support the policy” that President Bush has now embraced.
“The approach I would have endorsed was to continue to put pressure on the regime,” Mr. Joseph added.
He is among the last of the hawks to turn off the lights and walk away from an administration that many conservatives say has lost its clarity of mission. He insists he is leaving without rancor and without regrets, including for his role in assessing the weapons intelligence about Iraq. “I do share the recognition that there was an intelligence failure, but it wasn’t just a failure of the Bush administration,” he said. “Look, if we press too hard we are accused of politicizing the intelligence; if we don’t press, then we are not doing our job.”
LinkHere
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, March 20 — Among the hawks in the Bush administration, Robert Joseph long occupied a special perch.
As the architect of much of the administration’s strategy for countering nuclear proliferation, he helped engineer the decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, worked secretly to squeeze Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, and created a loose consortium of nations, now numbering more than 80, committed to intercepting illicit weapons at sea, in the air or on land.
But last month Mr. Joseph quietly left the State Department, where he was under secretary for arms control and international security, telling colleagues that, as a matter of principle, he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February.
Mr. Joseph has declined to talk publicly about why he left, but he told colleagues that he thought the deal would prolong the survival of a North Korean government he has publicly called “criminal” and “morally abhorrent” while failing to require it to give up the weapons it has already produced. In an interview, Mr. Joseph made clear that he “does not support the policy” that President Bush has now embraced.
“The approach I would have endorsed was to continue to put pressure on the regime,” Mr. Joseph added.
He is among the last of the hawks to turn off the lights and walk away from an administration that many conservatives say has lost its clarity of mission. He insists he is leaving without rancor and without regrets, including for his role in assessing the weapons intelligence about Iraq. “I do share the recognition that there was an intelligence failure, but it wasn’t just a failure of the Bush administration,” he said. “Look, if we press too hard we are accused of politicizing the intelligence; if we don’t press, then we are not doing our job.”
LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 3:37 PM
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