posted on October 17, 2004 07:40:50 PM new
WASHINGTON (AP) -The
national security adviser under
the first President Bush says
the current president acted
contemptuously toward NATO
and Europe after Sept. 11 and
is trying to cooperate now out
of desperation to "rescue a fail-
ing venture" in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Brent Scow croft, a mentor to
the current national security
adviser, Condoleezza Rice, also
said in an interview published
in England that Bush is inordi-
nately influenced by Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
.'Sharon just has him
wrapped around his little fin-
ger:' Scow croft told London's
Financial Times. .'I think the
president is mesmerized."
Scow croft said the Bush ad-
ministration's "unilateralist"
position was partly responsible
for the post-Sept. 11 decline of
the trans-Atlantic relationship.
"It's in general bad," he said.
"It's not really hostile, but
there's an edge to it."
"We had gotten contemptuous of Europeans and their weaknesses" early on, he said.
"We had really turned uni-
lateral."
Although slightly diminished
since then, the unilateralist
policies have seen little
changed, Scow croft said. Re-
cent overtures to cooperate
with the United Nations and
NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq
were ''as much an act of des-
peration as anything else. ..to
rescue a failing venture."
On Israel and Sharon, the
former security adviser said
Sharon calls Bush after strong-
ly retaliating for a Palestinian
suicide attack and says: " 'I'm
on the front line of terrorism,'
and the president says, 'Yes,
you are.' "
Scowcroft said Sharon "has
been nothing but trouble."
