  From:  IRC Communications Date:  Thu Sep 25,  2003 12: 35: 08 PM US/
Central To:  communications@ irc- online. org,  peaceandjustice@
lists. riseup. net Subject:  [ Peace& Justice]
 Bush Team Disarray ~  What's New at FPIF http: www. fpif. org/  September 25,
 2003 ~  Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus Bush Administration Foreign Policy Team in Disarray By Jim Lobe As the Washington,  D. C.  area recovers from effects of Hurricane Isabel,  President George W.
 Bush keeps trying to divert the potential " perfect storm"  forming from the combination of the constant stream of bad news coming out of the Middle East and growing domestic discontent over the war and occupation in Iraq.  That storm is likely to gain even more force when the public has a chance to absorb this past week's events,  which mostly slid under the media radar as Isabel approached the capital.  Particularly striking were signs of growing disarray at the highest levels of the administration,
 revealed by remarks such as Bush's assertion that there was " no evidence"  linking Iraq to the September,  2001,  attacks on New York and the Pentagon.  This statement directly contradicted both what Vice President Dick Cheney claimed as recently as September 14th and what he and some Pentagon officials had been advocating months before the war.
 Similarly,  the assertion by the U. S.  commander in Iraq,  Lt.  Gen.
 Ricardo Sanchez,  that the popular resistance to the U. S.  occupation might be broader than radical Islamists,  foreign infiltrators and Baathist " dead-
enders"  appeared to contradict repeated assurances by top administration officials in recent weeks.  Jim Lobe is a political analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus ( online at www. fpif. org)
 He also writes regularly for Inter Press Service.  See complete new FPIF commentary online at:  http: www. fpif. org/
commentary/ 2003/ 0309Disarray. html With printer- friendly PDF version at:  http:
www. fpif. org/ pdf/ 0309Disarray. pdf ~
 Distributed by FPIF: A Think Tank Without Walls,  a joint program of Interhemispheric Resource Center ( IRC)  and Institute for Policy Studies ( IPS)
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