DISQUS

NMP · 1 year ago

Other than using 'God' and 'hate' in the same sentence, I agree with 99.9% of your sentiments as well. However, that does not change the reality that Colin Powell is still one of the most, if not the most, influential Americans. If Obama can exploit his endorsement, as a defense to the impending assault, no blitz, on his AND Michelle's patrotism, without compromising his platform, I won't be mad at him.

SquarePeg · 1 year ago

nmp,


Reality check.



Colin Powell in many communities is not as respected as you think.



JJP thanks for verbalizing what so many of us feel about this utterly compromised house negro.

Angela · 1 year ago

I am not black so don't have that outlook on Colin Powell. Frankly, I feel sorry for him because I think he made choices for various reasons that don't seem to be honest or without a political bent.


I'm not trying to make excuses but Colin Powell strikes me as someone who has tried to live in two different worlds through out his lifetime and that may have caused him to make some bad decisions or compromising decisions.

The Christian Progressive Libe · 1 year ago

Jack, it sounds like you read my comment on Rikyrah's post and it sent you to the archives to dig up what you said two years ago.


I thought you were being harsh, but telling the truth, then and it hasn't changed now. I'm so looking forward to posting here...

BlackLiterature · 1 year ago

I guess I am in the minority. I think it is a little unfair to call the man "unprincipled" and "cowardly". He had a difficult working relationship with the Bush2 cabinet. His resgination told me a lot.


RE: Lying to the UN and others. I thought it was reported at the time that Powell questioned some of the 'evidence' that was used to support the administration's claims.



Let's make this personal. Your job is to advise the president/CEO and be a company spokesperson. The CEO and the rest of his executive do not agree with you and tend to not heed your advice. What do you do? Do you give your presentation to the baord with the disclaimer that you don't agree, but this is the direction the CEO wants to take?? Or do you handle that part of your job and present the committee's findings?? You've tried to do you job and advise the president to the best of your abilities.





Just another perspective. I don't have to agree with all of his actons, but I can recognize the difficult position that it seems he found himself in. I'm not going to discredit the man's entire career and his current works because of his original statements regarding Iraq. I look at the majority of the statements and actions during his tenure and evaluate appropriately.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Let's be clear about this "blackliterature". Colin Powell personally participated in the commission of a war crime, by selling what he knew to be a fabricated case about the Iraqi threat, as did Condolezza Rice. That is a war crime by definition. Colin Powell, and for that matter Ms. Rice, does not deserve anybody's sympathy. We in this country must stop making excuses for war criminals, no matter what their race.

BlackLiterature · 1 year ago

"Anonymous"


I will agree to disagree. I'm not sure of your intent. I would need to see a lot more to call Colin Powell a war criminal. That stance seems more than extreme to me.

Nita · 1 year ago

Angela said... I'm not trying to make excuses but Colin Powell strikes me as someone who has tried to live in two different worlds through out his lifetime and that may have caused him to make some bad decisions or compromising decisions.




Word.

MacDaddy · 1 year ago

"Colin Powell personally participated in the commission of a war crime, by selling what he knew to be a fabricated case about the Iraqi threat, as did Condolezza Rice."
Anonyous: From what i've read about Powell-- and i've read quite a bit from different persons, pro and cons-- yes,he participated in the selling of an illegal, pre-emptive war but, no, he didn't know the information was false.



What I read was that, when Powell was first given the outlines of the speech, he questioned some of the information and spent two days (I believe) back-checking the info with the head of the Director of the CIA. However, some of the information, being summaries and interpretations, could not be proven or disproven and, after consultation with the CIA Director, used the evidence they both decided upon for the UN speech, much of which proved to be false. In fact, I remember reading from Woodward and John Dean that Powell said to the CIA Director: "You're going to sitting next to me. So, if I go down, you're going down with me."



Listen, i'm no fan of Powell; and it was insightful of Rikyrah to have been critical of him years ago. And maybe we should not forgive him. But i'm saying his record is not one of an outright warmonger with a mission to take us to war like Cheney or Bush. It was more complex than that. For one thing the information about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction wasn't clear to Powell and a lot of people. Why? Because

Dick Cheney moved one of his underlings (Douglas Feith, I believe, was his name) over to the State Department. There he developed a program of disinformation within Powell's own State Department called The Office of Special Programs. This is important because you then had two distinct sets of info coming out of the State Department: the regular stuff vetted by analysts and the cherry-picked stuff vetted by Feith and Cheney, information that gave them rationale to go to war.



By giving the UN speech and by not calling Bush out and quitting, Powell participated in an effort to take us to war with Iraq. But it doesn't mean he knew the information was false or had criminal intent. What it means to me is that Cheney and Bush were determined to go to war with Iraq no matter what and cherry-picked info to give them the rationale to do so. It also means that Powell, though having no criminal intent, ultimately has no one to blame but himself for being too trusting of the CIA Director and too loyal to his country to say no to two right-wing warmongers in Bush and Cheney, and too trusting of the Director of the CIA, Bush's whore in the worse sin of all, an illegal, unnecessary and immoral war.