Full Version: Colin Powell, Rock Star
As Colin Powell is again a media darling due to his current Israeli "road map" efforts, I thought it might be timely to raise a question or two regarding the man and his background. As Powell seems to be the squeaky clean front man for an otherwise fairly degenerate administration - even to most liberals - I doubt I'm about to make myself very popular with anyone. Nevertheless... 
On September 25, 1995, during the national book tour for his autobiography, My American Journey, Gen. Powell enumerated a number of recent military successes - the invasion of Panama, the Gulf War - and, rightly, gave credit to the troops on the ground. "The fact of the matter is, I think the American people are reflecting on me the glory that really belongs to those troops... It's not just Colin Powell, rock star. It's all of those wonderful men and women who do such a great job." Unfortunately, his fine, modest words were interrupted by Ron Kovic, Vietnam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July, who kept demanding that Powell tell the truth about the conflicts whose praises Powell was singing. "I want the American people to know what the general hid from the public during the Gulf War," Kovic shouted from his wheelchair. "They hid the casualties. They hid the horror. They hid the violence... We need leadership that represents peace. We need leaders who understand the tragedy of using violence in solving our problems."
It's not just suppressing coverage of over 100,000 Iraqi casualties (including the slaughter of 15,000 civilians) which, to me, renders Powell somewhat less than the "rock star" he assumes many take him to be. In fact, I've always been astounded by his seemingly unquestioned qualifications as a Secretary of State: a rather amoral and aggressive Secretary of Defense, maybe - but Secretary of State? Then again, I was familiar with the career of Colin Powell long before the Gulf War which catapulted him to fame.
I knew, for example, that during the Vietnam conflict, Maj. Powell, serving as a G-3 officer for Maj. Gen. Charles Gettys, brushed off written allegations of routine brutality against civilians by the Americal division, suggesting (without investigation) that "relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent". I knew that it took another GI, Ron Ridenhour, to bring the truth of the My Lai massacre to light. And I knew that, despite his initial denial, Powell later defended the fact that a military-aged male in civilian clothes moving was routinely considered "hostile" and justification for gunning him down - despite the fact that, elsewhere in the world, this constitutes a war crime.
I knew that, as top deputy for Casper Weinberger in 1986, Maj. Gen. Powell supervised the army's transfer of 4,500 TOW missile to the CIA, nearly half of which became part of the Reagan administration's arms-for-hostages deal with Iran. And I knew that Powell helped hide that transaction from Congress and the American people.
I knew that, as Reagan's National Security Advisor, Powell became a key operator in the attempt to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua; that, in 1988, he threatened to cut off US aid to any country in Central America that refused to go along with the terrorist activity of the Contras (and their murder of thousands of Nicaraguan civilians); and that he worked to subvert the peace process initiated by President Arias of Costa Rica.
I knew that, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when US troops invaded Panama in December, 1989, he was the central figure in the decision to invade, and that of the 3,000 casualties of that invasion, 300 civilians were left dead. I also knew that on the day of the invasion, Powell declared, "We have to put a shingle outside our door saying, Superpower Lives Here."
And I knew that, in 1992, Powell threatened to resign from the Joint Chiefs (taking the rest of the staff with him) if Clinton went ahead with his plan for legitimizing the military status of gays.
Since the Gulf War, I haven't found his career to be any more illustrious. Recently declassified documents, for example, suggest that in 1986, Powell was a player in the secret policy to supply Saddam Hussein's military with American-designed equipment that boosted Iraq's air mobility, a capability that helped Iraq conquer Kuwait in 1990 and set the Persian Gulf crisis in motion in the first place.
In the first year of this administration, Powell often seemed to be the lonely voice of dissent within the White House. People on discussion boards in which I was then participating wondered why he did not resign in protest at many of the decisions of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft. Perhaps, I argued, he is only play-acting a moderate role. Perhaps he is every bit as duplicitous as anyone else on Team Bush - perhaps even more so.
Even during the preparation for the Iraqi campaign, Powell seemed to be taking a less hawkish line than the rest of the reactionaries in the White House. However, as Mary McGrory of the Washington Post put it, Powell "didn't tell the president not to go to war; he told him how to go to war in a politically correct way... [He] only tried to put it off for a couple of weeks and provide a fig leaf."
It was ultimately Powell who made the final hard sell to the UN - and, as we now know, he did it in the knowledge that he was presenting a false case with phony "evidence". He knew he was lying to the General Assembly and the public in order to garner support for an unprovoked, totally unjustified military action.
In the lead-up to the 2000 election, it was rumored that, no matter who won the presidency, Colin Powell was likely to be the next Secretary of State. I didn't get this at all. In light of all I knew of Powell and his career, I wondered what exactly people felt qualified him for such a position. His record clearly does not belong to a statesman, by anyone's definition (except maybe Henry Kissinger's) - nor even to a man of conscience. Can anyone here make a case for Colin Powell as Secretary of State? Or even as rock star?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
The book tour incident is recounted in Target Iraq by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich. The casualty figures from the Gulf War - and the media blackout orchestrated by Powell - are detailed in Stephen Zunes' Tinderbox. Powell's role in Nicaragua is described in Martin Walker's America Reborn. Everything else here should have a link - though there are several more confirming most of the biographical points raised.
On September 25, 1995, during the national book tour for his autobiography, My American Journey, Gen. Powell enumerated a number of recent military successes - the invasion of Panama, the Gulf War - and, rightly, gave credit to the troops on the ground. "The fact of the matter is, I think the American people are reflecting on me the glory that really belongs to those troops... It's not just Colin Powell, rock star. It's all of those wonderful men and women who do such a great job." Unfortunately, his fine, modest words were interrupted by Ron Kovic, Vietnam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July, who kept demanding that Powell tell the truth about the conflicts whose praises Powell was singing. "I want the American people to know what the general hid from the public during the Gulf War," Kovic shouted from his wheelchair. "They hid the casualties. They hid the horror. They hid the violence... We need leadership that represents peace. We need leaders who understand the tragedy of using violence in solving our problems."
It's not just suppressing coverage of over 100,000 Iraqi casualties (including the slaughter of 15,000 civilians) which, to me, renders Powell somewhat less than the "rock star" he assumes many take him to be. In fact, I've always been astounded by his seemingly unquestioned qualifications as a Secretary of State: a rather amoral and aggressive Secretary of Defense, maybe - but Secretary of State? Then again, I was familiar with the career of Colin Powell long before the Gulf War which catapulted him to fame.
I knew, for example, that during the Vietnam conflict, Maj. Powell, serving as a G-3 officer for Maj. Gen. Charles Gettys, brushed off written allegations of routine brutality against civilians by the Americal division, suggesting (without investigation) that "relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent". I knew that it took another GI, Ron Ridenhour, to bring the truth of the My Lai massacre to light. And I knew that, despite his initial denial, Powell later defended the fact that a military-aged male in civilian clothes moving was routinely considered "hostile" and justification for gunning him down - despite the fact that, elsewhere in the world, this constitutes a war crime.
I knew that, as top deputy for Casper Weinberger in 1986, Maj. Gen. Powell supervised the army's transfer of 4,500 TOW missile to the CIA, nearly half of which became part of the Reagan administration's arms-for-hostages deal with Iran. And I knew that Powell helped hide that transaction from Congress and the American people.
I knew that, as Reagan's National Security Advisor, Powell became a key operator in the attempt to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua; that, in 1988, he threatened to cut off US aid to any country in Central America that refused to go along with the terrorist activity of the Contras (and their murder of thousands of Nicaraguan civilians); and that he worked to subvert the peace process initiated by President Arias of Costa Rica.
I knew that, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when US troops invaded Panama in December, 1989, he was the central figure in the decision to invade, and that of the 3,000 casualties of that invasion, 300 civilians were left dead. I also knew that on the day of the invasion, Powell declared, "We have to put a shingle outside our door saying, Superpower Lives Here."
And I knew that, in 1992, Powell threatened to resign from the Joint Chiefs (taking the rest of the staff with him) if Clinton went ahead with his plan for legitimizing the military status of gays.
Since the Gulf War, I haven't found his career to be any more illustrious. Recently declassified documents, for example, suggest that in 1986, Powell was a player in the secret policy to supply Saddam Hussein's military with American-designed equipment that boosted Iraq's air mobility, a capability that helped Iraq conquer Kuwait in 1990 and set the Persian Gulf crisis in motion in the first place.
In the first year of this administration, Powell often seemed to be the lonely voice of dissent within the White House. People on discussion boards in which I was then participating wondered why he did not resign in protest at many of the decisions of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft. Perhaps, I argued, he is only play-acting a moderate role. Perhaps he is every bit as duplicitous as anyone else on Team Bush - perhaps even more so.
Even during the preparation for the Iraqi campaign, Powell seemed to be taking a less hawkish line than the rest of the reactionaries in the White House. However, as Mary McGrory of the Washington Post put it, Powell "didn't tell the president not to go to war; he told him how to go to war in a politically correct way... [He] only tried to put it off for a couple of weeks and provide a fig leaf."
It was ultimately Powell who made the final hard sell to the UN - and, as we now know, he did it in the knowledge that he was presenting a false case with phony "evidence". He knew he was lying to the General Assembly and the public in order to garner support for an unprovoked, totally unjustified military action.
In the lead-up to the 2000 election, it was rumored that, no matter who won the presidency, Colin Powell was likely to be the next Secretary of State. I didn't get this at all. In light of all I knew of Powell and his career, I wondered what exactly people felt qualified him for such a position. His record clearly does not belong to a statesman, by anyone's definition (except maybe Henry Kissinger's) - nor even to a man of conscience. Can anyone here make a case for Colin Powell as Secretary of State? Or even as rock star?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
The book tour incident is recounted in Target Iraq by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich. The casualty figures from the Gulf War - and the media blackout orchestrated by Powell - are detailed in Stephen Zunes' Tinderbox. Powell's role in Nicaragua is described in Martin Walker's America Reborn. Everything else here should have a link - though there are several more confirming most of the biographical points raised.
As a rock star? I didn't know he had musical skills. I guess the case for him being Secretary of State is that he seems to have done rather well at the job, though as Newt Gingrich has noted, he hasn't reformed the State Department, which badly needs it. He hasn't been "transformational" the same way Rumsfeld has been at Defense, but otherwise he's done about all anybody could expect of the Secretary of State, and if his performance would meet with Kissinger's approval, what higher praise could there be? Of course, I disagree that the Iraq war was unjustified or unprovoked but that's a separate subject.
Still, if I became President I'd replace him, because I'd want someone who could and would reform the State Department. I wonder if Newt would take the job ...
Still, if I became President I'd replace him, because I'd want someone who could and would reform the State Department. I wonder if Newt would take the job ...
To answer the basic question posed by this thread, I don't think Secretary Powell is a rock star, and I doubt quite seriously that he would consider that particular career path. He has however, and continues to serve this nation well, both as a military officer and now as Secretary of State, despite the claims of the hit piece posted here. As Secretaries of State go, he is certainly an improvement over the ones we've had in the recent past and I think Gingrich is way off base in his assessment.
FINALLY. I am not well educated on the evils of Colin Powell but I knew they existed (thanks to a former ex boyfriend, who kept on mentioning that Powell can hardly be called trust worthy because he made his fame by covering war crimes).
Izdaari,
You need those to become a rock star? Huh. Anyway, I get it from the metaphorical way in which it was used. Popularity reaches a point where fiction is accepted as fact, and fact is dismissed as irrational attack. It's one of those traits of mass-think that has always puzzled me.
I guess if nothing has been done to change the State Department, it's just due to this department becoming an extension of the Department of Defense.
I am not comforted to know a career military guy is our chief international negotiator. Seems to be too much military in civilian clothing in our present administration. In addition, the only jobs program seems to be to expand the military evermore.
Powell has been made a rock star through the manipulation of mass-think by the right, and this was done possibly with a grand plan to . . .
What? I guess we'll find out as time goes on.
QUOTE
As a rock star? I didn't know he had musical skills.
You need those to become a rock star? Huh. Anyway, I get it from the metaphorical way in which it was used. Popularity reaches a point where fiction is accepted as fact, and fact is dismissed as irrational attack. It's one of those traits of mass-think that has always puzzled me.
I guess if nothing has been done to change the State Department, it's just due to this department becoming an extension of the Department of Defense.
I am not comforted to know a career military guy is our chief international negotiator. Seems to be too much military in civilian clothing in our present administration. In addition, the only jobs program seems to be to expand the military evermore.
Powell has been made a rock star through the manipulation of mass-think by the right, and this was done possibly with a grand plan to . . .
What? I guess we'll find out as time goes on.
QUOTE(Aquilla @ May 13 2003, 12:13 AM)
As Secretaries of State go, he is certainly an improvement over the ones we've had in the recent past and I think Gingrich is way off base in his assessment.
You think so, Aquilla? I agree he's been an improvement over others who've held the office, and I'm sure the Newtster would say so too. But how is Gingrich wrong? He hasn't had much in the way of criticism about Powell, except that he hasn't reformed the State Department much if at all. His criticism has been focused on the Foggy Bottom institutional culture, which surely does need changing.
Gingrich Slam's Powell's State Department
Wertz,
Sorry, but I believe Powell. Many people have made claims of abuse and genocidal tendencies during war and all we're left with is what comes after the allegations, the investigations. If they proved nothing, how can I accept what this man says? In 2002 their was a raid by Israeli Defense Forces on a ghetto in Gaza. After the Israeli's left the Phalestines made a claim that it was a massacre and all the Press Agencies jumped on it especially in europe calling it a terrible act of genocide. After a couple days passed all these journalists descended on Gaza trying to find the mass graves that Arafat had sopke of in the papers. What they found were 15 dead Phalestines. Far from a massacre and as bad and cold as that may sound, those Phalestines died in war. Not innocently. Innocent people don't have the mortar making operations that those Phalestines had going on in their ghetto. Sorry, but you'll just have to do better than that because people do have tendancies to lie, but I have never known Sec. Powell to be a liar.
Sorry, but I believe Powell. Many people have made claims of abuse and genocidal tendencies during war and all we're left with is what comes after the allegations, the investigations. If they proved nothing, how can I accept what this man says? In 2002 their was a raid by Israeli Defense Forces on a ghetto in Gaza. After the Israeli's left the Phalestines made a claim that it was a massacre and all the Press Agencies jumped on it especially in europe calling it a terrible act of genocide. After a couple days passed all these journalists descended on Gaza trying to find the mass graves that Arafat had sopke of in the papers. What they found were 15 dead Phalestines. Far from a massacre and as bad and cold as that may sound, those Phalestines died in war. Not innocently. Innocent people don't have the mortar making operations that those Phalestines had going on in their ghetto. Sorry, but you'll just have to do better than that because people do have tendancies to lie, but I have never known Sec. Powell to be a liar.
QUOTE(Izdaari @ May 13 2003, 01:23 AM)
and if his performance would meet with Kissinger's approval, what higher praise could there be?
I guess you're right. Kissinger was responsible for slaughtering thousands upon thousands of cilvilians in his war crimes, so I suppose he would approve of the current Sec. of State committing similar acts himself. Kissinger had Cambodia and Vietnam, Powell has Central America and the Middle East.
Without any analogy to the topic at hand (Colin Powell), I'm not sure what the point of discussing Israeli and Palestinian conflict here was, John. If either Israel or Palestine display a tendency to lie, what does this have to do with a portion of Colin Powell's record presented by Wertz or the questions posed by him?
You say you have never known Secretary of State Powell to be a liar, yet you don't attempt to refute the cases put forth by Wertz. Would you not consider somebody who hides evidence from Congress and either defends or hides American war crimes to be a liar? While I'm not sure how his record compares to past men of his position, I don't think I would personally consider him a choice candidate for Secretary of State. Perhaps on your next visit you can address the topic itself and provide us some insight into your defense of the man. Maybe you'd rather have a liar holding such office.
You say you have never known Secretary of State Powell to be a liar, yet you don't attempt to refute the cases put forth by Wertz. Would you not consider somebody who hides evidence from Congress and either defends or hides American war crimes to be a liar? While I'm not sure how his record compares to past men of his position, I don't think I would personally consider him a choice candidate for Secretary of State. Perhaps on your next visit you can address the topic itself and provide us some insight into your defense of the man. Maybe you'd rather have a liar holding such office.
I don't know that there are any documented instances of Powell lying outright, but he sure has a history of being deceitful. I couldn't call him liar per se, but I can certainly state that I wouldn't trust him any more than I would a pit viper. He is, and always has been, a "company man". In a soldier, this is admirable. In a Cabinet Secretary, I would expect a bit more than someone who is willing to compromise anything to "follow orders" and toe the line.
QUOTE(Wertz @ Jun 16 2003, 12:46 AM)
I don't know that there are any documented instances of Powell lying outright, but he sure has a history of being deceitful. I couldn't call him liar per se, but I can certainly state that I wouldn't trust him any more than I would a pit viper. He is, and always has been, a "company man". In a soldier, this is admirable. In a Cabinet Secretary, I would expect a bit more than someone who is willing to compromise anything to "follow orders" and toe the line.
You don't get into the kind of positions being discussed unless the President feels he can trust you and that you support him in his decisions. Surely Colin Powell has his say, but the final decisions are not his to make.
As a corporate CEO once said to his staff, "Consensus is desired, cooperation is required".
Once the decision is made, you either support the effort or leave the office.
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