This was published on the Straits Times Interactive site on Oct 13, 2004:

Experts condemn US foreign policy

NEW YORK - More than 650 foreign affairs experts from the United States and abroad have signed an open letter condemning the Bush administration's foreign policy, saying it has harmed the fight against terrorists and calling for a change of course.

The letter from the non-partisan Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy was released on Tuesday and points to what it described as a series of blunders in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

'We judge that the current American policy centred around the war in Iraq is the most misguided one since the Vietnam period, one which harms the cause of the struggle against extreme Islamic terrorists,' the letter states.

It adds that 'the results of this policy have been overwhelmingly negative for US interests'.

The man who first thought to write the letter, Dr Stuart J. Kaufman, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said the group wanted to influence the public debate, not endorse one presidential candidate over the other.

'The part of it that's news is that the overwhelming consensus among national security experts is that the current policy is not working,' he said. 'And the people who signed this are usually people who don't agree on anything.'

Among other things, the scholars claimed that:

• The US did not send enough troops to Afghanistan to fight Al-Qaeda, and that the focus on Iraq diverted much needed resources from Afghanistan.
  


• Some of the reasons cited by the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq were later proven wrong, including by government agencies. They include the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.


• The administration did not commit enough troops to Iraq, created a security vacuum by disbanding the Iraqi army, and embarked on a poorly planned reconstruction effort.


• American actions in Iraq have increased the popularity of Al-Qaeda in some countries and attracted recruits.
  

The scholars who signed the letter are mostly academics from universities throughout the US and some allied countries, including Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Argentina. They include former staff at the Pentagon and the US State Department. -- AP