WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- International media predict a widening rift between the U.S. departments of State and the Defense, after a former speaker of the House of Representatives on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the institution responsible for managing world affairs for the United States.
Newt Gingrich's remarks "represent the opening salvo in a campaign by neo-conservatives to transform the State Department in the image of the Defense Department under (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld," the British Broadcasting Corp said.
"The disagreements over strategy within the Bush administration seemed to have intensified with the end of the war, with conflicts over the approach to Syria, Iran, and North Korea as well as in how to rebuild Iraq," said BBC.
"And the right, made bold by its victory in Baghdad, seems to be winning more of the arguments."
Gingrich's speech "reinforced the view that Mr. Rumsfeld had built a position of almost unrivalled authority inside the administration, notably in intelligence matters, and that (Secretary of State) Mr. (Colin) Powell had been significantly weakened," reports London's Financial Times, quoting a European diplomat.
CNN quoted a former official of the Bush administration as saying that Gingrich's comments were "really directed at President George W. Bush."
"This was a shot at Bush, not a shot at Colin," the official said.
And one Powell aide told CNN that it could be an "attempt to shift attention from the Pentagon's effort to bring security and services to Iraq in the post-Saddam (Hussein) era."
"It's too timely to be otherwise," the aide said.
Weekly Standard publisher William Kristol told Fox News that Gingrich is right about two things -- a feud between the State and Defense departments is growing and the State Department is in need of an overhaul.
"People in the administration who don't want some criticism are going to say Newt Gingrich stepped in it, but the truth is he told the truth. And Rumsfeld has tried to reform the Defense Department. He's broken a lot of china; he has got a lot of enemies as a result. Colin Powell, who is an impressive man, has not rocked the boat at all at State, and I think that's a mistake. State needs to be reformed," Kristol said.
Gingrich's comments were first reported in The Washington Post, which featured a front-page story Tuesday examining what it described as rivalries and tensions between the State and Defense departments.
Later, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank, Gingrich demanded a major overhaul in the State Department, saying that during the Iraqi crisis the department failed miserably to project America's policies to the rest of the world.
"The last seven months have involved six months of diplomatic failure and one month of military success. The first days after military victory indicate the pattern of diplomatic failure is beginning once again and threatens to undo the effects of military victory," said Gingrich, who is also a member of the institute.
According to Gingrich, the culture of the State Department represents "process, politeness, and accommodation" as opposed to the president's approach of "facts, values and outcomes."
The State Department, he said, undermined the U.S. position at the United Nations by accepting inspections and by agreeing to Hans Blix as the chief U.N. weapons inspector.
And it was the "ineffective and incoherent" State Department that lost the battle for world public opinion, and despite a "pathetic public campaign of hand wringing and desperation" it failed to gain a majority on the Security Council for a second resolution.
"It was a stunning diplomatic defeat of the first order," he said.
The international media also predicted that now the war in Iraq is over, the political and economic rebuilding of Iraq will continue to be the central battleground between the State and Defense departments.
For example, BBC said that the Pentagon wants to an Iraqi exile leader, Ahmed Chalabi, to take charge in Baghdad while the State Department has cautioned against giving too much power to him.
The international media also point out that the State and the Defense departments also fought a fierce battle in Congress for control over the reconstruction funds.
Gingrich, clearly, supports the Pentagon in this battle. In his speech at AEI, he dismissed the State Department aid arm, the U.S. Agency for International Development, as useless and said that it should be abolished.
Instead he advocated the Army Corps of Engineers the job of rebuilding Iraq, saying that in Afghanistan, where USAID is responsible for reconstruction, "not a single mile of road has been paved in two years."
He said people on the State Department reconstruction team had a soft corner for corrupt "Middle East governments deeply opposed to democracy." State Department officials, he said, grew up in a culture "of propping up dictators, coddling the corrupt, and ignoring the secret police."
Gingrich's speech also highlighted differences between the State Department and the Pentagon on how to deal with the emerging crises in Syria, Iran, the Palestinian territories, and North Korea.
He strongly opposed Powell's reported trip to Syria as long as the Arab state continues to support terrorist groups. Instead, he urged the administration to take advantage of the opportunity brought by the victory in Iraq and "apply genuine economic, diplomatic and political pressure."
"The concept of the American secretary of state going to Damascus to meet with a terrorist-supporting, secret police-wielding dictator is ludicrous," said Gingrich, who resigned the speakership under fire in 1999.
The international media point out that unlike Powell, who wants to engage Syria diplomatically, Rumsfeld has repeated warned the Arab state to harboring members of the former Iraqi government or face the consequences.
Similarly, the reports said, the Pentagon moved stealth bombers closer to North Korea even as Powell was flying to China to try and organize multi-lateral talks to defuse the crisis.
More recently, according to The Post, Rumsfeld tried to replace James Kelly as the U.S. negotiator in the forthcoming North Korea-China-U.S. talks with hardliner John Bolton.
Gingrich also attacked the State Department plan for peace in the Middle East, the so-called "roadmap" that will be put forward by the "Quartet" -- the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia.
He said this was "a deliberate and systematic effort to undermine the president's policies" and that it was unimaginable after the bitter lessons of the last five months that the United States "would voluntarily accept a system in which the U.N., the EU and Russia could routinely outvote President Bush's positions by three to one."
"I think Secretary Powell is an extraordinary figure and I think he's a very effective advocate, but I think he is currently presiding over an institution that's broken," Gingrich said.
Gingrich, a prominent Republican with close ties to the Pentagon, stressed he did not want to make the issue personal. He said his criticism was based on conflicting worldviews rather than a clash of personalities.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said Gingrich's remarks did not necessarily reflect defense policy or opinion.
Gingrich also blamed an "ineffective and incoherent" State Department for failing to win over Turkey's support for the war against Iraq, the success of the French counter-offensive within the United Nations and losing public support for the United States worldwide.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, however, rejected the criticism, saying it was carrying out the president's policies "effectively, loyally, diligently, and with a fair amount of creativity and accomplishment."
"The State Department is here to carry out the president's policy," he said. "In every one of these instances being cited, we are doing that effectively. We doing that loyally, we are doing that diligently and we're doing that with a fair amount of creativity and accomplishment. That's what we are here to do. We carry out the president's policy, and I think I we're doing so very well."
But Gingrich warned that without an overhaul at the State Department, the United States would "find itself on the defensive everywhere except militarily."
The White House, however, expressed its confidence in Powell, saying he had done an "excellent job" in promoting the president's views and advancing his agenda.
"The actions of Secretary Powell and the Department of State are the president's actions," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Tuesday. "They carry out the president's directions and they do so very ably and professionally. The nation and the president are fortunate to have a secretary of state as ... strong as Secretary Powell."
