Colin Powell, a trillion dollars short and four years too late:
(CBS) The United States is losing the war in Iraq but sending more troops to Baghdad is not the best way to change course, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Face The Nation.
Powell said he agreed with the assessment of the Iraq Study Group co-chairmen, Lee Hamilton and James Baker, that the situation in Iraq is “grave and deteriorating,” and he also agreed with recently-confirmed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the U.S. is not winning the war.
Powell also says its not too late to turn things around if we put the right strategies in place. Sorry, Colin, but that’s dead wrong. There are no “right strategies” left. And even if there were, you know full well President Bush and Dick Cheney would not implement them. They wouldn’t know a good foreign policy if it came up and bit them in the ass. Basically we have two options left: stay and be a part of an ongoing catastrophe which continues to kill and maim thousands, and displace millions of Iraqis, or leave. Either way, its too late to stop the blood bath which Bush and his cronies unleashed when, with Powell’s willing connivance and full participation in the administration’s disinformation campaign to deceive gullible Americans, they foolishly invaded Iraq in the first place.
Powell is now in full “save my reputation” mode. I wouldn’t listen to anything he has to say about Iraq at this point, because it’s merely self serving bullshit meant to point the finger at anyone other than himself for what went so tragically wrong there. He should have publicly resigned as Bush’s Secretary of State when he lost the battle with the neocons regarding how best to prosecute the “War on Terror.” He knew back in 2002 that invading and occupying Iraq would be a monumental mistake by Bush, and that this error in judgment would be severely compounded by the grossly incompetent ideologues who were given free rein to manage that war.
If Powell had resigned under protest in early 2003, he might have made a difference. At this point, however, his appearances in the media are simply feeble attempts to wipe the bloody stain of Iraq off the carefully crafted marble bust of himself as noble warrior, visionary statesman and ultimate patriot which he and his friends have sculpted over the course of his long career. Unfortunately some stains are permanent. No amount of scrubbing can remove them once the damage has been done.
Powell could have been a hero. He could have stood up to the President and said “Hell no.” Now he’s just another has been who will pop up periodically on our television screens to utter vapid and inane commentary about the state of our country, a country to which he has brought shame and dishonor in spades.
Powell was a black man high up in a power hungry white man’s world. Maybe he should have known better than to side with the neocon ideologues and probably did, but could a black man in his position survive if he did?? Now he is remorseful and, as Steven says, looking to untarnish his reputation. Alas, however, it is too late. A truly tragic figure in the historical sense of the word!
Now for the fun part! Can you think of a similar such figure that will play out the same way soon??
He put loyalty to the Bush family before loyalty to country. I have little sympathy for him.
He’s always been a media darling, so no doubt he will skate away from most criticism fairly easily, but I believe history will judge his actions as Bush’s enabler very harshly.
At this point, however, his appearances in the media are simply feeble attempts to wipe the bloody stain of Iraq off the carefully crafted marble bust of himself as noble warrior, visionary statesman and ultimate patriot which he and his friends have sculpted over the course of his long career. Unfortunately some stains are permanent. No amount of scrubbing can remove them once the damage has been done.
So well written, Steven, and so entirely on point.
I have long since stopped thinking he was anything but craven. Anything he says now is met by deaf ears.
He could have done something about this mess. He chose not to do so. What the #@%! is the point of him doing yak-yak shows now? He should just go back to do whatever it is he does…his daily self-puffery, or whatever.
What a waste.
He thought he could follow orders and still come out on top of the bloody heap of Vietnam.
New situations call for new measures, Colin. Now you’re just a lying sack of…well, you know. The stuff you used to shovel in ‘Nam.
It may be that Powell’s race played a part in his decisions. It may be that he saw others who tried to tell the truth were fired, or attacked. I don’t believe the attack on Plame had anything to do with her gender.
Powell blew it. I guess I figured it was his military background and his indoctrination to the “chain of command” thing that kept him quiet.
I don’t know his reasons, but he did not serve his country well.
His race? Nah…more like his place in the minds of the public–better to score high on the corporate lecture circuit.
Honestly, when dick cheney–someone you reportedly can’t stand and more importantly, don’t trust–tells you, “You’ve got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points,” then it’s past time to do something to change course or tell them to go straight to hell.
This man gave this corrupt administration the benefit of his sterling (bleh) reputation. He had more credibility than ANY of these cretins–times ten–yet he did nothing to stop them when he must have known he was being shut out. He was there from the beginning as chief water-carrier and dirt-doer, nothing else. Opinion changed on a dime after his speech, and he knew before the first word was uttered that it was all a lie. Yet he did it anyway. Good soldier, my ass.
But the lecture circuit pays well. I’m sure he’s sleeping as soundly as junior these days.
See here for an excerpt of Karen DeYoung’s Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell and here for the NYT Book Review of the same book. Kind of long, but breathtaking.
Powell could have been a hero. He could have stood up to the President and said “Hell no.” Now he’s just another has been who will pop up periodically on our television screens to utter vapid and inane commentary about the state of our country, a country to which he has brought shame and dishonor in spades.
I’d like to believe that he’s a “has been” but unfortunately many people have short memories/attention spans, if they were aware of his role at all. He might yet be able to reinvent himself. If Obama has a place on the ballot (VP?) in 2008, it might very well be that Powell will find himself in a parallel position on the Republican side.
/ If Obama has a place on the ballot (VP?) in 2008, it might very well be that Powell will find himself in a parallel position on the Republican side./
OMG! That would be truly barf-worthy.
And actually checking that comment before posting would have made a lot of sense, too..!!!
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After the Twin Towers came tumbling down, no human could make a difference to stop the neocon train set in motion in the nineties. Whether the SoS was man, woman, black, white or red would not have made a difference. In his position Colin Powell should have stood up and be counted for history’s sake. VP Dick Cheney already had a stranglehold on the whole Bush administration from his 911 bunker! He still does …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Better late than never as the old adage goes.Yes tens of thousands have died so I bear no water for the man.
To be fair, Powell is right though. In a Bloomberg (Update1)article reporting on his interview; Powell Says U.S. Army `About Broken’ Because of Iraq
I read an interesting take that ‘Bush Can Deal McCain Harm With Iraq surge option’
“More,” more is also McCain’s call. What can an additional 20-30,000 over exhausted troops in a broken army accomplish? Al-Sadr has 60,000 in his militia with plenty fresh volunteers in the wings.
If Bush leans this way – of the ‘one last’ surge -option and fails, as Powell and other critics think it most certainly will, McCain could be vulnerable in `08.
So much for eating cake.
…tho that’s a bit of a stretch for all those families who have lost people to this ongoing folly…
Who knows who will be called up for it. All I know is that when I sniff the air today it smells like a surge. A surge into a great vast darkness……surging away from the light. Lemmings racing madly for the ocean. I feel venomous toward Laura Bush today about that bullshit that she put out there that the media doesn’t report the good things in Iraq so nobody knows about them except those who have a loved serving there. Fuck you Laura! Why don’t you go have a picnic and run around collecting wild flower bouquets in Iraq, take Barney and make a new Barney cam show? Show all of us how delightful Iraq is right now you chain smoking bubblehead! Can’t call her a Bimbo because she’s too frigid for that one!
You know I have long admired you, but I wonder–how do you stay sane in the midst of this madness? My brother is out of the Navy, so I don’t have the same back-of-my-mind fears for him I once did. I just know that other military families do, especially if they’re in the Army or Marines.
Anyway–you rock. I just always wonder about your secrets as to how keep it together. Part of it, I suppose, is that you do because you have to, but still. I have a cousin who just retired and he had a big retirement send off–the military does that very well, I must say. He received so many accolades and awards, and his wife received a medal, too. Of course, I was sitting there thinking, A medal isn’t even the half of what she should be getting.
my thoughts and feelings as well as the friendships I have out there and a lot of you guys here. I feel like there is a blinking net of truth out there all connected together and anybody can join anytime they want to or need to as we all travel this road. The second thing that has brought me a lot of inner peace was probably about three MAJOR spousal fights about all of this. Men in our society aren’t encouraged to talk about things as women are. Often men know how they feel about something but the closer it gets to their heart and soul the harder it is to put into words. I wanted my husband to get out, at least make a try at it. I knew many people who had family members who were ill and used it to get out and avoid this craziness. That was when I came face to face with what my husband is made of, I always knew it was there but times like these are terrifying and what if he couldn’t handle it. In a nutshell, there has never been a time when the soldier that he is has been so needed. He prevented the slaughter of an Iraqi police unit previously when he was in Iraq. The guys on the ground were scared and they had every reason to be scared but he commanded the air assault and something didn’t feel right. He asked the guys on the ground to double check who these “bad guys” were and he gave them some time to do that by refueling. When he returned it was discovered that the scared guys on the ground wanted him to open fire on an Iraqi police unit. That is who my husband is though. If he isn’t sure before pulling a trigger he won’t. He carries a lot of rank now too. He was kind of a black sheep when he was there before. He went and shook Hillary Clinton’s hand in an airport in Ireland because his wife was one of her admirers and that ended up getting reported to his Wingnut Lt. Colonel who is leaving the Army now because he can’t cut the hard stuff. Funny how a guy who goes out of his way to shake Hillary’s hand can still cut it even after all the shit his Lt. Col gave him in Iraq for it. He is unwilling to abandon the democracy and take everything you guys gave him and trained him with because he is scared and fruitcakes have temporarily taken over our government. He fights the fight that we fight for decency and the Geneva Convention from the inside while we fight it from the outside. Between our husband/wife fights we both came to understand that if he is killed in this he did die for his country and for you and for me but he never died for Bush or any of the rest of those bastards. He will have died doing what he could to save his country from the evil they had done. He will have died because horrible men created an evil mess and if he goes he goes to do what little he can, help the American children packing guns scared to death right now firing at shadows and help the Iraqis that he can who find themselves stuck in the middle of this. He feels that if he fought to leave service, anything that he personally could have done to prevent more evil from occurring would be lost and he would have turned his back on you and I when we needed him most. He believes in the Democracy and he believes in you and I and on November 7 we renewed his faith. He’d stand by us on the ground in a shitstorm bloodbath to save who can be saved knowing that the voters are going to shut this fucker down!
Sounds like the military needs a lot more people like your husband. Or at least a lot more people like him with some rank, in reading some of the great books out right now about Iraq, there are a lot of good people over there and then there are some real morons over there who have put everyone else in danger by acting like cowboys.
You should encourage him to write this stuff down, it sounds like it would make an excellent memoir when he’s out of the service.
Well said. Powell has ruined his brand name with the recent books detailing the inner workings of the Bush presidency. It’s been pretty well established that he knew that what he was saying was totally full of shit, but he said it anyways.
Sad part for him is that he had a reputation in this country that was approaching reverence, thanks to his reputation for personal honesty. His poll numbers were good among everyone, he had crafted that image as a non-partisan guy who had a little bit to offer everyone and just wanted what was best for the country. Hell, he probably could have been President if he played his cards right, but he pissed it all away to play the “good soldier” one last time.
Fuck Colin Powell. He betrayed the country just like the rest of them, and he still has the “Great Man Syndrome guiding his actions even now, as though he can rehabilitate himself by “acting” noble and saying the “right” things.
There are a lot of ugly things in the world, and an unrepentent, remorseless ego is one of them.