«I think from the administration's point of view, this is an opportunity to make a very major
pronouncement on its
foreign policy and its European
policy,» said Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and a former deputy secretary general of NATO.
Even those who gravitate toward harsh criticism of the Iraq War and of Bush - era American
foreign policy do not avail themselves, except in the occasional rhetorical flourish, of the
pronouncements of religious authorities.