In bid to get varied opinions, Bush meets with old guard

WASHINGTON -- President Bush met with a dozen former secretaries of state and defense yesterday, including those who have openly criticized his Iraq policy, in what he described as an effort to solicit divergent opinions on the war.

The White House's first invitation to members of the old guard, ranging from two Vietnam-era Pentagon chiefs to the war Cabinets of Bush's father and Bill Clinton, marked a rare instance of the president seeking input on national security matters from people outside his tight-knit inner circle.

The participants, representing much of the US foreign policy and military hierarchy of the past 40 years, urged Bush to be more frank with the American public and as one put it, told him ''some things he did not like."

The former secretaries warned that the war is stretching the armed forces to the breaking point, according to participants. Bush was also urged to not conflate the Iraq war with the wider war on terrorism and was advised to do more to enlist Sunni Iraqis in the political process.

Among those in attendance were Bush's national security team and senior administration officials linked in by video from Iraq.

''Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq, and I fully understand that," Bush said in brief remarks after the session in the Roosevelt Room. ''And I am most grateful for the suggestions that have been given. We take to heart the advice."

The eminent group included Robert S. McNamara, who at 89 was the senior statesman in attendance, having served under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; Melvin Laird and James Schlesinger, who served under Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford; Harold Brown, who was Jimmy Carter's secretary of defense; Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan's defense secretary; and William Perry and William Cohen, Pentagon chiefs during the Clinton administration.

The former top diplomats on hand were Colin L. Powell, Bush's first secretary of state; Alexander Haig and George Shultz from the Reagan administration; Lawrence Eagleburger and James Baker from the administration of George H. W. Bush; and Madeleine K. Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration.

The hourlong meeting was also an opportunity for Bush to ask for their help in maintaining support for a mission all agreed must succeed because the United States has so much at stake in Iraq.

Cohen, who is also a former Republican senator from Maine, said Bush asked the group to speak out about the importance of the Iraq mission during their foreign travels and to use their business contacts to help enlist support for investment in Iraq's shaky economy.

The meeting was cordial, according to participants, but not without its share of dissent.

''He heard some things he did not like. He heard some things he did like," said Laird, who recently penned an article in Foreign Affairs that both accused the Bush administration of ignoring the mistakes of Vietnam and called for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Each participant was given the opportunity to say their piece and ''whoever felt compelled to speak up did, and almost everybody did," Cohen said by telephone. ''All of us went there with the understanding that the president was reaching out. It was an opportunity for individual members to say 'Here's what I think you need to be doing.' "

The session ran about 15 minutes longer than expected, before the participants were ushered into a separate briefing by Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley.

Some members of former administrations who were not at the meeting saw the president's decision to invite the former officials -- both Republican and Democrat -- as signaling a new willingness to listen to his critics and possibly apply some of their advice.

''There has been this legitimate concern that he has been isolated," said David Gergen, former White House chief of staff and aide to four presidents. ''It is a smart move on his part to do this. Presidents in the past have frequently called in the old guard. He gets the benefit of hearing different views and is seen as getting out the bubble."

Added Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government: ''Before Christmas we began to see a change in tone on Iraq, even though the policy didn't change. Perhaps in the new year there will be a new political approach."

''It is encouraging they are reaching out to see how they can find a better way to approach the problem," said retired Admiral Stansfield Turner, who served as CIA director under Carter and has been a vocal critic of Bush's Iraq policy.

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.