Letter
of Resignation
by U.S. Diplomat John Brady Kiesling
ATHENS
Thursday 27 February 2003
From:
U.S. Diplomat John Brady Kiesling
To:
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
Subject: Letter of Resignation
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign
Service of the United States and from my position as Political
Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March7 . I do
so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included
a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service
as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand
foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians,
scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S. interests
and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country
and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic
arsenal.
It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State
Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about
the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes
shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was
rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But
until this Administration it had been possible to believe
that by upholding the policies of my president I was also
upholding the interests of the American people and the world.
I believe it no longer.
The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible
not only with American values but also with American interests.
Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander
the international legitimacy that has been Americas
most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days
of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest
and most effective web of international relationships the
world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability
and danger, not security.
The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and
to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly
not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such
systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation
of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September
11 tragedy left us stronger than, rallying around us a vast
international coalition to cooperate for the first time in
a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather
than take credit for those successes and build on them, this
Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political
tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda
as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror
and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the
unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and
perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of
shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the
safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand
of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the
fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to
ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model,
a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction
in the name of a doomed status quo?
We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more
of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over
the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners
that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished
values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question,
our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little
comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild
the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we
indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel
is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that
overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism?
After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in
Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms
ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.
We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many
of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral
capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are
persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be
perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism.
Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone
the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and
allies this Administration is fostering, including among its
most senior officials. Has oderint dum metuant
really become our motto?
I urge you to listen to Americas friends around the
world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism,
we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper
reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about
American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult
and dangerous place, and they want a strong international
system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership.
When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it
is time to worry.And now they are afraid. Who will tell them
convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon
of liberty, security and justice for the planet?
Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character
and ability. You have preserved more international credibility
for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive
from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration.
But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining
beyond its limits an international system we built with such
toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations,
and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively
than it ever constrained Americas ability to defend
its interests.
I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile
my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S.
Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process
is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way
I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better
serve the security and prosperity of the American people and
the world we share.
John Brady Kiesling
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