HERO
GENERAL COLIN POWELL (RET.)
FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE

I was disappointed that in the first term of George W. Bush, Colin Powell did not resign his position as Secretary of State in the Bush administration rather than remain to sell the preemptive strike that began the war in Iraq. I am happy that on Meet the Press on Sunday (10/19/08) he endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama.

There can be no doubt that Vice President Cheney and his neo-cons wanted to go to war with Iraq even though no weapons of mass destruction had been found. Secretary of State Colin Powell along with Richard Armitage and Brent Scowcroft urged the president not to take this course of action but to take the matter to the United Nations.

Powell and Armitage told the president of the pottery rule which states: “You break it; you own it.” In other words, if we invade Iraq, we become the occupier and own all of Iraq’s problems.

Among Powell's allies was Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Bush's father, who wrote an op-ed piece against the war for the Wall Street Journal. After it was published in August 2002, Powell thanked Scowcroft for giving him "some running room." But Condoleeza Rice called Scowcroft to tell her former boss that it looked as if he was speaking for Bush's father and that the article was a slap at the incumbent president.

Well, we all know we went to war with Iraq and got ourselves into a quagmire from which we still cannot extricate ourselves. Over 4200 of our military men and women have been killed, thousands more have been wounded, art treasures and libraries have been destroyed, and billions of dollars will have to be spent rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq.

Colin Powell should have resigned. But having been raised in a military culture, he could not bring himself to do that, so he went along with the invasion. But now that he is no longer part of the Bush administration, he can speak freely.

On Meet the Press, Powell expressed admiration for Senator John McCain and for Senator Barack Obama and thinks either of them would be a good president. But he believes that McCain was a “little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we are having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he did not have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some questions in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.”

He then said about Senator Obama: “On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well.”

Powell said that over the last several weeks “the approach of the Republican party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower.” Obama, he said, offers “a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines—ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines.”

Although Powell admires both McCain and Obama, he raised the question, “Which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time? And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities—and we have to take that into account—as well as his substance—he has both style and substance—he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world—onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”

What an endorsement!

If you missed Colin Powell’s endorsement on the October 19th Meet the Press, U-Tube has the entire interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxydxK096Vc.

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