I like him.
FRuiTY
Colin Powell, God bless him !
- Thread starter Nolan
- Start date
FRuiTY
"He speaks so well. He's so well spoken."
~Chris Rock on Colin Powell, Bring The Pain 1995
~Chris Rock on Colin Powell, Bring The Pain 1995
Something happened to Powell prior to his dramatic UN presentation, the one many ET members derided him for (you know who you are).
It was being portrayed as a Powell v.s. Rumsfeld & Cheney thing, Powell the peace-loving diplomat v.s. the hawks. Something happened to convince Powell that Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the big boss were in fact correct.
Prior to his conversion I was wondering why he was so patient with taking the dovish side, considering his role in Desert Storm. Maybe he really believed a diplomatic solution through the UN was a viable route, or maybe he was thinking of his future political career. When all is said and done, his role in all this will be remembered for taking the slow & careful route. Whether or not that will backfire on him down the road remains to be seen.
In any case, he's a sharp guy and we're lucky to have him.
It was being portrayed as a Powell v.s. Rumsfeld & Cheney thing, Powell the peace-loving diplomat v.s. the hawks. Something happened to convince Powell that Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the big boss were in fact correct.
Prior to his conversion I was wondering why he was so patient with taking the dovish side, considering his role in Desert Storm. Maybe he really believed a diplomatic solution through the UN was a viable route, or maybe he was thinking of his future political career. When all is said and done, his role in all this will be remembered for taking the slow & careful route. Whether or not that will backfire on him down the road remains to be seen.
In any case, he's a sharp guy and we're lucky to have him.
Magna
Administrator
Possibly because he has seen, up close and personal, the effects of war and wanted to pursue every other viable means to try and prevent it. I suppose one could call that a "dovish side" but I prefer to think of it as a reasoned and realistic approach when many young men will be sent to their deaths, never get the chance to make it past their teens or early twenties. In contrast to Colin's actual experience in a war, we have President Bush, Vice-Presedent Cheney, and Ms. Rice all of whom have never served a single day in a warzone. So I think, for them, it stays much more theoretical, much different than if your good buddy alongside you suddenly has half his face torn off and the remainder of it turned to mush splattered all over you. I'm not saying their decision to eliminate Saddam would have been any different, but it might have given them a little more pause similar to Colin's initial approach.
Powell's the one who insisted on calling off the dogs in the Gulf War, so to speak. This led to the U.S. ceasefire agreement with Iraqi generals which then led to the massacre of Iraqi rebels and the non-removal of Hussein from power. This non-removal of Hussein from power in 1991 led to U.S. forces "permanently" in Saudi Arabia to contain Hussein, which led to Bin Laden forming Al Qaeda in protest. And we know what happened from there.