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November 15, 2004
Powell's resignation
Matthew Rothschild, reviewing Colin Powell's resignation, says that it came two years too late. Powell was against the invasion of Iraq, and instead of resigning in 2002, when he saw that he could not sway Bush from his course, Powell should have resigned.
Instead, Powell chose to front for Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, parroting their propaganda, most embarrassingly at the United Nations in February of 2003. There, before all the world, Powell presented, in his most authoritative manner, a detailed case against Saddam Hussein, citing "evidence" about weapons of mass destruction and about connections to Al Qaeda. On point after point, Powell was not telling the truth.
And even when confronted with the fact that he wasn't telling the truth, Powell continued to insist on the case for war, a war he knew was a bad idea, and a war whose evidence he knew everyone knew was fabricated. On 7 February 2003, two days after his warmongering speech to the U.N. Security Council, Powell was confronted with the evidence of falsification in the British "dossier" that he had used as evidence for warmaking. His spokesperson at the State Department replied, "The British report contained good information. We'll leave it to them to talk about how it was put together." Not only did Powell advance the cause of a war that he did not himself support, but he also stood behind the evidence for that cause, even when that evidence had been revealed as false. And a year later, on 3 February 2004, he finally acknowledged that the evidence was false but still stood behind the invasion.
Let's not kid ourselves about Colin Powell's integrity and conscience. He has neither--or if he does, he skillfully ignores them.
Posted by senioritis at November 15, 2004 05:24 PM
Comments
And who are we going to get as a replacement? Ms. Mushroom-Cloud & Aluminum Tubes herself. How is it that you can be so wrong about so much--dead wrong as it turns out--and be promoted? I've never seen anything like this. I feel like going home and watching Dr. Strangelove, but why when I can just turn on Fox News or CNN. Yeeha!
Posted by: Bender at November 15, 2004 07:11 PM
I can't even allow myself to think about Powell's replacement. It's just too gruesome.
Posted by: senioritis at November 15, 2004 09:25 PM