Bush Sr. Security Adviser Publicly Frustrated

The second-most frustrated man in Washington's foreign-policy establishment these days, next to Secretary of State Colin Powell, must be Brent Scowcroft, the courtly and self-effacing retired army general who served as George Bush Sr's national security adviser.

WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (IPS) - The second-most frustrated man in Washington's foreign-policy establishment these days, next to Secretary of State Colin Powell, must be Brent Scowcroft, the courtly and self-effacing retired army general who served as George Bush Sr's national security adviser.

Like Powell, Scowcroft has consistently counselled the younger Bush to pursue a cautious, multilateral approach in carrying out his ''war on terrorism'', especially with regard to Iraq and the Middle East in general.

But his advice has gone virtually entirely ignored, as the unilateralist, pro-Likud hawks centred in the Pentagon's civilian leadership and Vice President Dick Cheney's office have consolidated their control of policy since last December's successful military rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

With the exception of Cheney, many of the men who now appear to be dictating policy - on both the scope of the war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the general unilateral thrust of U.S. policy - served under Ronald Reagan but then left government or were forced out under Bush's father.

Others, as in the case of two of today's most influential players - Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby - were retained but kept under a tight rein.

The significance of the fact that Scowcroft has gone public with his advice on several occasions over the last three months cannot be exaggerated.