Well, yes, I'm sure he does want to set himself apart from Bush/Cheney.......but NO he cannot. He was a willing participant in this mess. He was not a "soldier" when he lied for them, he was a civilian SecState. No "following orders" excuses for Powell. While some may think its admirable for him to solidly repudiate Bush now, it's too late for history, Colin. You had your chance and you passed. He knew the force size was way too small to begin with and you knew that there were no plans whatsoever for post war...but even worse, he knew there was no reason to go to Iraq in the first place. Now he knows the people he abetted are fools, and he's a fool too.
Posted by T2 at December 18, 2006 09:33 AMI've been repeating Powell's assessment of the influence of Iran and Syria on the Iraq situation for a long time, i.e. I'm sure they're involved in some marginal way, but I very seriously doubt that either one is "the problem." Taking away the influence of Iran and/or Syria will result in a perhaps one to five percent change in the overall situation. Most participants won't even notice it.
Posted by Rich at December 18, 2006 10:15 AMAs long as Powell fails to acknowledge his role in the Mi Lai massacre he is nothing more than an enabling fuck. As a dog robber he was in his element, but his career is otherwise marked by mediocrity and moral cowardice. Truly, there is no power to change anything in his statements.
Posted by phidipides at December 18, 2006 10:29 AMToo late for his "remdepmtion". He is trying to re-build his reputation with this journalist friends. He committed what Catholics call a sin of ommission. He knew wrongdoing was going on and did nothing about it.
Had he resigned in the fall of 2004, Kerry would have won. African-Americans would have deserted Bush, and whites who thought Bush was not a racist because of Powells apointment would have desserted Bush also.
Posted by mje at December 18, 2006 10:44 AMI'v had NO respect for Powell ever since I watched him give his speech at the UN, lying his ass off. As I watched him, I thought, "Wow, this sounds pretty damning--maybe I was way off track". But when he said the piece about the terrorist who was operating out of a certain location and had been dealing with Saddam is when I was pretty certain the whole thing was a lie, because the location appeared to be in the no-fly zone of the Khurds. I figured that if he was lying about one thing, it was likely the whole thing was a lie. He knew he was lying, but he did it anyway. The man has no strength of character.
Posted by Julie at December 18, 2006 10:52 AMWell, shoot, if that one won't work, try this one
Posted by Julie at December 18, 2006 11:08 AMArrrrgh!
Posted by Julie at December 18, 2006 11:09 AMI sure hope our returning vets remember who is trying to bring them home and who isn't. It is hard to imagine a vet voting for these people. obvious exceptions are those that are also profiting on the war, and those that really do enjoy killing others for not agreeing with their point of view
perhaps that civilian army of contractors is getting ready to be the police in our country. makes sense with the army out of country and broken at home
http://www.australianpolitics.com/news/2003/02/03-02-05.shtml
I hope his words that day follow him all the way to his grave.
Posted by Julie at December 18, 2006 11:16 AM"....But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder. Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, an associated in collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida lieutenants.
Zarqawi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago. Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of his specialities and one of the specialties of this camp is poisons. When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqaqi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp. And this camp is located in northeastern Iraq....."
Yeah, snack dab in Khurd territory that was protected by our no-fly zone?
Before history is written Bush and a few accomplices will be alone on an island, disavowed and shunned by all but most devoted Kool-aid drinkers. It is not hyperbole to speculate he'll be tagged the worst president ever.
Posted by steve duncan at December 18, 2006 11:54 AMPowell should garner all the respect due to someone who held up a salt shaker and a cartoon of a truck to start a never ending war from hell.
He will never recover from that, insert the fork.
Posted by TIKI AL at December 18, 2006 12:05 PMOff topic:
Saturday, mainsailset posted a link to a piece detailing how the Chinese may be prepared to dump U.S. treasury bonds (quite a hit since they are a major financer of our public debt). mss's link was to Hal Turner --an apparent supremacist type of git-- but I've been trying to follow up on this today, and came across this interesting piece:
Euro steady after Iran replaces dollar with euro in foreign transactions.
You might remember the Iraq oil bourse in Euros in 2000, what some see as one of the major reasons for war against Iraq. But other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, seem to be moving toward the Euro.
And I find this piece about the dollar's drop against the Euro to be quite interesting.
Posted by phidipides at December 18, 2006 12:08 PMJulie, I fixed both your links. They were very close, but you will want to replace the "http://www.url.com/" with your urls.
Posted by Mary at December 18, 2006 12:10 PMThank you, Mary.
Posted by Julie at December 18, 2006 12:20 PM>Don't underestimate the impact of these remarks inside the Pentagon.
Like zero. They used Powell, they don't need him now. Why should they care what he says?
Why should anyone care what Powell thinks now?
Posted by degustibus at December 18, 2006 12:21 PMI guess Condi will dismiss Powell's comments by remarking that he doesn't understand how much the Near East has changed since he was SoS.
Posted by Brian Boru at December 18, 2006 01:50 PMHe's showing off what Saturday Night Live called his retirement balls.
Posted by croatoan at December 18, 2006 03:27 PMThe Donald, Rumsfeld that is, on Powell:
"Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning."
Posted by Seven of Six at December 18, 2006 04:26 PM