US:Twenty-six former diplomats and military officials, many of whom served in previous Republican administrations, will today launch a scathing attack on President George Bush's foreign policy.
They will urge voters to reject him in the presidential election in November.
Their protest will take the form of an open letter arguing that Mr Bush has damaged national security and left the US isolated internationally, according to reports.
"We just felt things were so serious, that America's leadership role in the world has been attenuated to such a terrible degree by both the style and the substance of the administration's approach," said Mr William Harrop, ambassador to Israel under the first President Bush.
"We just came to agreement that this administration was really endangering the US," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Former assistant secretary of state Mr Princeton Lyman accused the Bush administration of intellectual arrogance and of believing the US could do what it wanted through the use of military power.
"Military superiority alone is not sufficient," Mr Lyman told National Public Radio.
"You have to have the support and understanding of the world if you're going to go after a network of terrorists like we are facing now, which requires intelligence co-operation, political co-operation, but also the support of the people in those countries. And we squandered that.
"And what many of us have found travelling abroad is the depth of anger and disillusionment with the United States among people that we have long considered our friends. That's very dangerous."
The group, calling itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, plans to release the letter in Washington. Its signatories include retired Admiral William Crowe, former ambassador to the UK under President Bill Clinton and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Reagan; and Mr Jack Matlock, a Reagan-era ambassador to the Soviet Union.
It is highly unusual for career diplomats to publicly challenge a sitting president's policies, and even more exceptional for them to urge voters to reject him.
Mr Bush has not responded to the letter but a Republican official stated that the signatories were out of touch with the post 9/11 world, and that the recent UN security council resolution on Iraq showed their timing was off as the US now had international backing on Iraq.