Colin Powell

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The American Prospect on Colin Powell, from last April: “no backbone, even less vision.”

If there’s a tragedy here, it’s one mostly of Powell’s making. For all their success in cutting Powell down to size, Cheney and company have not altered one basic fact: Bush needs Powell more than Powell needs him. Powell could have crippled the administration had he quit at any point in the last two years. Given his immense clout, he was in a position to raise important doubts about the administration’s course on Iraq. In choosing not to confront Bush with his concerns, he not only failed his president; he failed the country.

8 thoughts on “Colin Powell”

  1. Amen to that. While Powell accomplished a lot internally here at the State Department, especially technology-wise (e.g., just as one example, before his tenure we had no Internet access), I’ve been increasingly frustrated and angered with his “I’m just a soldier who follows orders” bend-over attitude, and his selling the entire country out on Iraq.

    And now that his leaving means we’re going to be saddled with Condi Rice as our new leader here at State I’ve lost, from a purely selfish level, what last little bit of esteem I ever had for the man. Thanks for nothing, boss.

  2. What do you expect form a man whose entire career derived from his efforts to cover up the My lai massacre?

    The notion that Powell is a “centerist” or even “Liberal” voice is a complete fantasy.

    He’s a war criminal.

  3. I’m continously amazed at how post-war mis-management of the Iraq War is, somehow, transformed into some existential question of the American ethos (CityOnTheHill). These same arguements were heard prior and during each and every American war; Maybe that says something about our national character(s), more than it does about the necessity of this or that military conflict.

    And don’t go pidgeon holing me as a war-lover.
    I’m not, at all.

    Powell, like many moral-minded men, thinks the Iraq War was a necessary task given alQaeda and other Jihadists in the region (coup in Jordan anyone? Saudi? anyone? how about Egypt?). The Iraq War did not create the MidEast’s Islamic Fundamentialist 5th column. It’s merely one step towards eliminating that movement, and their pretext for creating an conflict with Western nations.

    Powell did right.
    Condy will, too.

    Maybe State isn’t the place for you.
    Try the Guardian in London.

    rob@egoz.org

  4. “Powell, like many moral-minded men”

    What on earth makes Colin Powell “moral-minded”?

    HE FUCKING LIED TO THE ENTIRE WORLD ABOUT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!

    And of course you don’t care because “The Iraq War did not create the MidEast’s Islamic Fundamentialist 5th column. It’s merely one step towards eliminating that movement, and their pretext for creating an conflict with Western nations.”

    My, what a rich fantasy life you lead!

  5. Did Powell really intend to lie? Or, in diplospeak, did he merely relate an untruth (written by the CIA)? That is an important difference when judging the man — or any man. There’s a reason the head of the CIA was behind Powell — a big reason.

    I wonder if a necessary war exists in many Western disney-land-living liberals’ minds. (Actually, i don’t.) In this ultra-lefty’s mind (yes), necessary wars do exist.

    Iraq was one them:

    [] the mideast is at a critical political junction, accelerated by 9/11v1 and events to follow
    [] alQaeda is, in terms of the Arab street, utilizing this turning-point for clearly evil goals: alQaeda puppet regime anyone? In alQaeda’s agenda sharia is merely a coded term for an oligarchy justified by a cosmetic theocracy.
    [] Iraq, of any mideast state, was positioned to be TheBestExample of what a democratic-Arabic institution could look like

    Take a look at the NYTimes articles regarding Central Europe a mere year or two after Berlin’s defeat. They are, interestingly (and suprisingly to some, which i find astonishing) very, very much like those of today regarding current predictions of Iraq’s future. Many people thought Germany, Italy, and Japan completely salted soil in terms of pluralistic, liberal democracies. They were, quite simply, wrong.

    If leftists in the West have an error, it’s their default negativity towards their own states intentions — and abilities.

    Iraqis are a sophisticated, relatively high-educated people with a most Western bent in their politics and culture. They stand out in the mideast in so many, many ways. They are as Western as they come in the region. Politically they’ll establish a firm trend in the region — towards a pluralistic, liberal democracy, despite leftist Westerners irrational fears, and often desires.

    rob@egoz.org

  6. “Did Powell really intend to lie? “

    Well, DUH!It was a stupid lie, very easily and very swiftly exposed as such.

    You call yourself a Lefty but your post is right out of Runyard Kipling –like this administration. We are being asked to do nothing less than “take up thw white man’s burden” and “teach” these obviously “child-like” Muslims Democracy — even if we have to kill every last one of them to do it.

  7. I wouldn’t exactly say “white man’s burden” and “child-like Muslims” characterizes either Powell’s or Rice’s attitude towards the mideast emerging nation-state. Indeed, both of their careers provide ample experiences that have demonstrated otherwise: Powell during the GulfWar campaign (Arab thrones and their staff don’t take well to being talked down to, and subtle tones/inbetween-line-speak are all the rage in the region — not exactly conducive to such a supposed attitude upon his part, given his respect in the region’s power centres), and Rice during her studies and work with prior administrations (she’s often touted as being a Soviet expert, but she also is a mideast/islamiworld expert, too).

    Ideas about democracy, rule-o-law might seem rather right-wing/christo-fundamentalist/republican to some. But, all of these things (i believe, and contrary to the nihilism of Chirac) are attainable by any human culture, in our time, regardless of the partisan squables now raging in America’s many media forums. These are not Western ideals alone. They are truthful ideals.

    I merely believe it every nation’s duty, and every individual’s, to dedicate their existence towards their propagation in al the corners of the globe — in our lifetime. Contrary to what some might claim, those are traditionally leftist ideals.

    Turning away from problem areas is not the solution and is a recipe for a bigger and bigger rip in the nylon stocking that makes up human civ. Engagement, and where necessary direct confrontation, is the proper mode of all nations when it comes to fostering and enabling these ideals.

    rob@egoz.org

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