Having watched Colin Powell’s enraptured endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press, I got to thinking about Powell’s track record of judgment calls.
That took me back to memories of Powell’s performance during the debate at the UN over the Iraq War — not his presentation at the on WMD (which reflected available intelligence on WMD at the time) but his strange omission of something I think was highly germane. As the U.S. Secretary of State, responsible for U.S. dealings with the UN, Powell was probably best placed – after maybe Kofi Annan and Saddam Hussein — to know that the UN’s corrupt Oil-for-Food program had deeply compromised the integrity of the UN Security Council itself (at least, to the extent it had any integrity to begin with). With UN approval, Saddam Hussein had thrown massive, lucrative business to veto-wielding Russia, France and China. They had stakes in billions worth of deals with UN-sanctioned Baghdad; they also had an interest in covering up the graft that had become the norm within the program.
Colin Powell had privileged access to details and documentation which could have shown this. He never brought it into the public debate, and his State Department refused to release it to the public. While intent on taking Iraq’s case to the UN, Powell apparently failed to alert President Bush, and certainly failed to alert the American public, to the corrupting influence of billions worth of Oil-for-Food dollars on the UN debate itself.
That, in my view, was a cover-up that helped Saddam’s pals and business partners, hurt America, and demonstrated lousy judgment on the part of Secretary of State Colin Powell. So, in light of Powell’s Obama endorsement, on Monday I wrote a column about all this, in which you can find more details, dollar amounts and a fuller explanation, on National Review Online, “General Blind Spots.”
NRO does not post reader comments, but does forward them. And in the stack of messages I received, from various quarters, the basic message was that in focusing chiefly on Powell’s odd handling of Oil-for-Food, I had produced far too kind an appraisal of his record.
The notes were addressed to me, not to the public, so to avoid violating the confidentiality of those who wrote in, I will paraphrase. But here’s the gist, in some cases combining a number of comments:
1) Although Powell claims to be friends with McCain, he did not so much as give him a call before endorsing Obama on Meet the Press. That is underhanded.
2) Don’t forget, in the 1991 Gulf War, Powell was one of the influences behind the decision to stop the war before Saddam was completely defeated. That, plus America’s abandonment of the Iraqis who rebeled after the first Gulf War were serious mistakes, with deadly results for many.
3) During the tempest over the “outing” of Valerie Plame, Powell and his deputy at State, Richard Armitage, kept silent about the real source, leaving the White House to take the heat.
4) In 2005, Powell called his own 2003 speech at the UN, making the case for invading Iraq, a “blot” on his record. So he would have preferred to leave Saddam in power, to be succeeded by his sadistic sons, running a regime that cut off hands, cut out tongues, ripped out nails with pliers, and butchered its own people?
5) A yen for bureaucratic revenge? (This one is a bit complicated, but an interesting conundrum): Obama argues that the Bush administration and its Iraq war, in which Powell played a major role, was dishonorable. Powell, who left office on a sour note, is now lending his honor to Obama. Just how much honor can a man afford to lend to the idea that he was dishonorable, before he is actually dishonoring himself in the process?
Great piece Claudia. Also enjoyed your interview in the movie on the UN they did at the Moving Picture Institute.
Gen. Powell faced the choices:
1. Ensorse McCain.
Upside: None. Would not get a spot in a McCain administration anysway.
Downside: labeled as a “traitor” to “his people” whether Obama wins or not. Rule out any role in an Obama administration. No peace for a 71 year-old man from now on.
2. Endorse Obama.
Upside: Possible role if Obama wins, get “back in the game” in D.C., since being an outsider these last years.
Downside: None. Most conservatives know all they need to know about Powell after reading John Bolton’s excellent book “Surrender is not an Option”.
3. Endorse neither.
Upside: little upside. Retain options if either one wins…declare support after winner is apparent.
Downside: If Obama loses, he is branded a “traitor” to “his people”, as if election is close it could be argued his endorsement might have made the difference.
Given these choices, his endorsement of Obama is a real yawner. But it does confirm the “social climber” accounts of the General’s career in and out of uniform.
Please spare us this utterly predictable phony piece of moralizing trash. If Powell endorsed McCain, I doubt you and the rest of the hatchet (wo)men on the right would not be trashing him like this.
As I see it, Colin can vote for whoever he wants, but if he’s going to endorse Obama, then I don’t see where he finds the chutzpah to call himself a Republican. Remember when he ran for president but refused to say which party he belonged to? But these days he’s a real GOP’er, eh?
You can’t have it both ways.
Unless race is the god-almighty factor which renders all other factors completely irrelevant, then it is inherently, completely, and irrevocably inconsistent to call yourself a Republican and vote for someone so far to the left he passes Bernie Sanders without breaking a sweat.
Mr Powell, vote your pleasure, but get out of my party– you don’t represent us, and we don’t represent you.
“Independent”? Fine. But you’re not a Republican if you support post-birth infanticide, if intend to transmogrify the IRS into a gargantuan welfare vehicle, if you select a VP who is the *third* most liberal member of the Senate, (the *first* was already spoken for!), if you intend to silence conservative talk-radio, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum ad nauseum.
Enough already.
Dear Claudia, thanks for the synopsis…this very topic came up today with some liberal co-workers who believed Powell was poorly served by the administration…I wish I had these facts at hand. I must read you more often!
zeppenwolf
What an ugly little comment from an ugly little mind, cool alias withstanding. It’s pinheads like you that have driven out all but the most petty, bullying anti-intellectual cretins from the GOP. You are nothing but a windbag of empty slogans and putdowns. I have 1000 times the respect for the General than you.
Who let you out of the grave? Remember when us Republicans had a centrist element? God. It’s absurd you would trash Powell for being a centrist, then act as if McCain is your man. He is hardly a true conservative, supporting some of the biggest socialist policies our nation has ever seen. You are terribly ill-informed and ought to be fired. With all due respect to your attempts, Dick Cheney was the reason we didn’t finish the job back in Iraq previously. If you honestly believe that Bush and everyone else in the white house didn’t know who outed Plame, you’re clearly quite unqualified to take a reporting job. Don’t blame the man whose job it wasn’t. You defend Bush/Cheney from Powell, when some of the things you blame on him are the current administrations fault. Your last point is just a big joke. McCain is a general. He was a four star general. To suggest he got where he is by loving black people preferentially is just stupid. You can barely get a job where you’re at with bad traits like that, and obviously the qualifications to write where you are aren’t very significant. It’s really rather amusing to me, because you’re probably one of those fake conservatives who were up in arms after people were mean to general Petraeus. Oh how indignant those people who spoke ill of him were! Seriously. None of your points hold water with this Goldwater conservative. Get out of my party.
We don’t need a Praetorian military. Retired military general and flag officers would do well to follow GEN Odierno’s advice- stay out of politics and don’t vote for or endorse ANYBODY as it will only lead to politization of the military. Politicians should likewise stay clear of reaching out to these officers, who even though they are retired, still hold sway in the five sided puzzle palace in Arlington.
“God. It’s absurd you would trash Powell for being a centrist,…”
Hilarious. One of the reasons Colin Powell gave for his opposition to McCain is the prospect of a couple of conservatives being appointed to the Supreme Court. Colin Powell is a Rino.
Colin Powell did nothing while Bush administration officials faced indictment for “outing” Plame when it was Powell’s deputy Armitage who have “outed” her.
And anyone, including Colin Powell, who thinks Iraq can be conceded to Al Qaeda and Iran without disastrous results, is nuts.
Your party is the party of the absurd.
Re Javelin’s comments: Is not calling someone “a windbag of empty slogans and putdowns(sic)” not itself the rantings of such a person? Also, how does one measure respect in numbers? And what difference does it make to any argument how much respect some anonymous person has for anybody?
Re Ryan’s comment: McCain is not and never has been a general. Did you mean Powell?
According to Bob Woodword’s dynamic The War Within, Powell counselled against the Iraq War, but went to the UN out of fealty to Bush. I’m not sure when it happened, probably with the purported determination that there were no WMDs after all, but CP subsequently felt bitterly betrayed by the Bush administration. Wordward has him in front of the bipartisan Iraqi War commission openly spilling his guts in rancor.
I think it’s fair to say that Powell is alienated from much of the Republican Party, at least those that identify with Bush’s concept of the War on Terror. Maybe by throwing in with the antiwar Obama he feels he’s redeeming himself of his own involvement, but think of the stunning ramifications: Powell the military man endorsing Obama who voted against the supplemental troop funding bill because it was stripped of a mandatory withdrawal timetable, a timetable that at the time absolutely would have insured defeat. A case can be made that he has lost his moral bearings.
Someone has pointed out that this is not the first time Powell has crossed party lines when race was involved. He did so by contributing to Doug Wilder’s run for the VA governorship.
Put this together with the following URL and then ask yourself if judges are bought off or in this case will the judge enforce the law.
http://www.obamacrimes.com/ or here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyspCRmJv7w
Javelin: What an ugly little comment from an ugly little mind, cool alias withstanding.
Happy to offend you.
Javelin: It’s pinheads like you that have driven out all but the most petty, bullying anti-intellectual cretins from the GOP.
Yet still numerous enough to be a voting majority in 00 and 04. Your objectivity having been established, let’s see what other gems you have to offer…
Javelin: You are nothing but a windbag of empty slogans and putdowns.
As opposed to the *substance* that you’re offering?!?
Go find a mirror, you twit.
THANK YOU, CLAUDIA…
…for so effectively summarizing the highlights of that lowlife’s “career.”
WHOIS2811
Thanks for the obamacrimes URL. I wonder how much press it will get. It needs to be spread around.
Powell schmowell. Who cares?
Here’s a little known tidbit about Powell.
He’s not very bright.
He’s not a good writer. Go find something he’s written. It’s horrible. (And bad writing is indicative of bad thinking.)