Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Just as Over-Rated: Colin Powell
When the later histories of the Bush administration are written, Colin Powell is going to come off looking even worse than Bush, Cheney, or David Addington. Well, maybe not Addington. Few figures in American political life have had as much credit for integrity as Colin Powell. But how did Powell use his massive credibility while he was Secretary of State--to bring Bush and Cheney's dreams of invading Iraq to live. Although the machinery for the invasion was in place before the famous UN speech, overthrowing Saddam Hussein was not a popular idea until Colin Powell used his credibility to promote Bush administration's lies about mobile bio-labs and other pseudo-threats. If Bush neo-cons are the North Koreans in white face, Colin Powell was the useful idiot who made them look credible and convincing.
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Powell lost a lot of credibility with me in 2003.
But the war was going to happen no matter what he did. Senate Democrats had already caved in large numbers, joining Republicans by surrendering to Bush their authority to declare war. The press was largely in the tank.
Powell's job at the time was to convince the U.N. to join the cause and he failed. He didn't convince anybody who didn't already want to be convinced.
I would never have supported Powell for any elected office as he is not of my party. He was, however one of those rare high-profile Republicans I respected. He was far more balanced and moderate than the Republican leadership. His credibility was shot for me when he agreed to accept a post, ANY post in an ideologically rigid, far-right Administration whose accent to power was based on a fatally flawed Supreme Court ruling in Bush V. Gore. That was a huge strike against him for my part. Then he went to the U.N. with "evidence" of WMDs that he and every delegate in attendance at the U.N. as well as every high-ranking Bush Administration official knew to be false. He did not have to do this. He could have resigned and blown the whistle on Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Rove, et al. He could have resigned and said nothing. He did neither. He went along with the lies to the U.N., to the House and the Senate, and to the American people.
Well said JINCHI, "He didn't convince anybody who didn't already want to be convinced." The U.N. was not fooled. Some American citizens (myself included) believed that war in Iraq would occur regardless of evidence and that the facts were going to be fabrications to "fit the policy", as the Downing Street Memos later confirmed.
Bottom line, Powell should have walked away from the Bush vultures. Better yet, he should never have accepted ANY post at the behest of an unelected, illigitimate President. He could have been viewed by history as one of the great and noble ones. Now, he will be forever remembered as the guy who helped an administration made up of sociopaths sell an unnecessary war the cost of which in lives ruined, lives lost, and damage of all kinds may well be incalcuable. He is a fallen hero who has blood on his hands that will never wash away. How sad.
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