AMERICA / CONOR O'CLERY: It is not unknown for US career diplomats to resign over their government's policies. Five officials left the State Department in frustration at Bill Clinton's reluctance to intervene in the Balkans.
This week John Brady Kiesling, the political counsellor at the US embassy in Athens, became the first to quit over what he called George W. Bush's "fervent pursuit of war with Iraq".
He sent a fax to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, complaining that the US was squandering its international legitimacy and claiming that his view was widely shared in the service.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, made much the same point when he said this week: "It is difficult to find a single country that supports American foreign policy. This is very serious."
Concern about the Bush administration's righteousness over Iraq is troubling many Americans at home too, and at both ends of the political spectrum.
In a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, billionaire financier George Soros accused the administration of a "visceral aversion to international co-operation" and "an imperialist vision in which the US leads and the rest of the world follows".
The AFL-CIO representing 62 US trade unions - which strongly supported the Vietnam War - sharply criticised the White House for dividing the world and insulting US allies. Transatlantic insults from Donald Rumsfeld have been so counter-productive that Spanish prime minister Jóse Maria Aznar curtly told Bush "We need a lot of Powell and not much of Rumsfeld".
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The international hostility is not just creating headaches for Colin Powell, it is translating into a serious cash problem for Washington. In the run-up to the Gulf War, George Bush senior was able to raise international pledges of $53 billion to cover the $61 billion cost of Desert Storm. Even then his chief diplomat James Baker had to go around the world as he admitted later "cajoling, extracting, threatening and occasionally buying votes". Those who didn't play ball got whacked financially.
When Yemen voted against the war - it had the misfortune to be on the Security Council at the time - a US diplomat told the Yemeni ambassador, "That was the most expensive no vote you ever cast." Three days later US aid to Yemen was cut. This time the administration is facing payouts of some $30 billion in cash and subsidised loans to shore up support around the world for a war that will cost, by Pentagon estimates, up to $95 billion. The brown envelopes are not just on offer to small nations on the Security Council but to countries seeking compensation for the consequences of war.
Egypt is requesting an add-on to its $1.3 billion aid package, Jordan wants an additional $1 billion, and Israel is looking for $4 billion in new grants. Turkey has struck a much harder bargain to allow US troops to launch an attack from the north. The first Gulf War war severely damaged Turkey's economy but the US provided only $200 million in compensation. Hamid Karzai came to Washington this week reminding everyone that the US had unfinished business in Afghanistan.
American governors also crowded into the White House looking (in vain) for more federal aid for their bankrupt states, where huge rises in the cost of services are wiping out any gains from the administration's lower taxes.
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Most countries express their feeling about the US in diplomatic language, but the Canadians keep letting their guard down. Carolyn Parrish, an MP from the ruling Liberal Party in Canada was caught on camera making the comment, "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards." Several months ago, Francoise Ducros, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, had to resign after her comment about Bush, "What a moron!"
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Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein, broadcast on CBS on Wednesday to 18 million viewers, was a classic media coup. Rather, who as I wrote here last week offered to "line up" behind Bush after September 11th, is now being assailed by conservatives as unpatriotic. The truth is that every US network and cable news channel was jostling for the interview. The Iraqi "evildoer" has been so demonised in America that he achieved his main goal simply by sitting in hand-made flannel suit and tie and talking with the 71-year-old anchorman in an even voice.
Watching Saddam I was reminded of old newsreels of Stalin. It wasn't just the moustache, it was the same deliberate, foxy style of a man who wields absolute power absolutely ruthlessly, but sees enemies everywhere.
Rather was driven round Baghdad twice in curtained limousines before getting to the palace, and the Iraqis insisted on providing the TV cameras.
There were some revealing moments. When Saddam claimed he had not been defeated in 1991, Rather replied that American viewers might be asking themselves "What is this man talking about?" Iraq lost the battle over Kuwait, retorted Saddam, but not the war.
When the cameras were switched off it was Rather's turn to be interviewed by the Iraqi president. They retired to stuffed leather armchairs where Saddam lit up a cigar and asked what Americans thought of him and why he was being linked with Osama bin Laden.
At one point the Iraqi leader pointed to CBS news executive producer Jim Murphy and asked why he had kept quiet during the conversation. "He's a deaf mute," joked Rather.
Back in the US, the White House demanded a chance to respond to the interview. CBS said it would give air time to Bush, Dick Cheney or Colin Powell.
The White House offered spokesman Ari Fleisher and CBS turned him down.
Coincidence or not, on the evening of the Saddam interview, Mr Bush made what his officials said was an important speech on foreign policy, and all the networks carried it live.
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If there is to be a war, when will it start? A new anti-war web site in Massachusetts, marchtowar.com, is running a pool, with punters paying $5 to guess when the start of the war will be announced on American media.
The winner gets petrol coupons valued at 20 per cent of the total pool.
Here's a clue from this column. Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser has just cancelled a speech he was to give at a Lincoln Day dinner in the state on March 12th. Wonder why he can't leave Washington that day?