Maureen Dowd's Trenchant Column on Colin Powell and Iraq

[martin]

No news columnist writing today is better than Dowd at getting straight to the essence, as she does in her Times column on Powell. Here is part:

"He could have been president. Excitement swirled around him when he published his memoir 'My American Journey' on the cusp of the ’96 race.

But like another son of immigrants, Mario Cuomo, Powell shrank from a run at the last minute. It always struck me that Cuomo and Powell seemed to overanalyze whether they were worthy, while the WASPy sons of privilege, like George W. Bush and Dan Quayle, just assumed they were worthy, no matter how little they knew.

Back in 1995, I wrote a column about the needlepoint-pillow rules Powell laid out in his memoir. It is sad to read them now because he broke so many of them when he drove his tank off the cliff known as Iraq. Like Rule No. 7: 'You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.'

Rule No. 1 was: 'It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.'

But there will be no morning from here to eternity when the decision to invade Iraq will look better.

Powell even failed to follow the Powell doctrine, which shunned attenuated wars in which our national security interests were not at stake.

The Shakespearean tragedy of Powell is that he knew it was a rotten decision. And, unlike the draft dodgers in the Bush White House, he knew the real cost of war. He knew they weren’t playing with toy soldiers.

But Powell embodied the phrase “soldiering on.”

He did not resign in protest, which might have stiffened the spines of Joe Biden, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, who all voted to authorize the war out of political expediency.

He let Dick Cheney goad him into making the phony case for war at the United Nations; Cheney mocked Powell, asking if he was afraid to jeopardize his soaring popularity ratings, treating him like a flower child. And somehow, Powell naïvely thought that he and his pal George Tenet could scrub his speech of all the deceptions shoehorned in by Cheney’s co-conspirators.

The demonic Cheney and the war-loving neocons in his posse — the ones in the Pentagon were ridiculed by Powell as a “Gestapo office” — needed an unimpeachable frontman. Once they began leeching Powell’s integrity, there was no way that they weren’t going to drain him dry...."


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/o...ll-legacy.html

[BidenPresident]

Powell will be remembered for lying to the UN about Iraq. His legacy.

[cawacko]

For sh*ts and giggles, does anyone think Powell could/would have beaten Clinton in ‘96 if he ran?

[archives]

Interesting how some on the Left are eulogizing Powell focused on his UN speech, and those on the Right for his supposedly turning RINO, but what's often overlooked is that the guy was an American hero in a time when there were very few. He made mistake, but name a famous American who didn't

[BidenPresident]

Interesting how some on the Left are eulogizing Powell focused on his UN speech, and those on the Right for his supposedly turning RINO, but what's often overlooked is that the guy was an American hero in a time when there were very few. He made mistake, but name a famous American who didn't

750,000 mistakes (Iraqi lives). oops

[leaningright]

I’ve heard of this person Dowd, but never have I read anything she wrote until this…that I know of. Gee, I wonder which side of the aisle she is on. Let’s see…

She uses WASP to describe Bush and Quayle. Might as well be describing my dad. My mom, otoh, would have to be BIPP (Brown Indigenous Protestant Person). Draft Dodgers? Ok, maybe some. But y’all had Bill Clinton and have Biden now. My favorite adjective though was “demonic” Cheney. Mmm….OK.

That opinion piece just oozes hatred … not unlike some right wing opinion pieces that I have read.

I wonder if Powell would have decided to run and became President…I wonder how many negative opinion pieces she’d have written about him?

[archives]

For sh*ts and giggles, does anyone think Powell could/would have beaten Clinton in ‘96 if he ran?

No, especially being a Black Republican, wasn't going to draw well in some GOP districts

[archives]

750,000 mistakes (Iraqi lives). oops

It wasn't Powell's UN speech that led to the war nor did he have any vote in Congress approving such

[BidenPresident]

It wasn't Powell's UN speech that led to the war nor did he have any vote in Congress approving such

It was. He was a punk.

[archives]

I’ve heard of this person Dowd, but never have I read anything she wrote until this…that I know of. Gee, I wonder which side of the aisle she is on. Let’s see…

She uses WASP to describe Bush and Quayle. Might as well be describing my dad. My mom, otoh, would have to be BIPP (Brown Indigenous Protestant Person). Draft Dodgers? Ok, maybe some. But y’all had Bill Clinton and have Biden now. My favorite adjective though was “demonic” Cheney. Mmm….OK.

That opinion piece just oozes hatred … not unlike some right wing opinion pieces that I have read.

I wonder if Powell would have decided to run and became President…I wonder how many negative opinion pieces she’d have written about him?

Too bad, she is an excellent writer, and leans right in the majority of her columns

[cawacko]

No, especially being a Black Republican, wasn't going to draw well in some GOP districts

Was there polling or evidence at the time stating this or are you just stating that because it’s what you want to believe?

[archives]

Was there polling or evidence at the time stating this or are you just stating that because it’s what you want to believe?

I believe "for sh*ts and giggles" implies opinion as opposed to documented data

And being 1996, I think it was pretty improbable that many of those good ole boys down South were going to turn out in masses to vote for a Black candidate, especially when he was running against an Arkansas boy

[Nordberg]

It wasn't Powell's UN speech that led to the war nor did he have any vote in Congress approving such

Yes it was. he had great integrity and the people trusted him. he was the deciding factor in the approval by the people and pundits. Of course Bush would have gone in anyway.

[martin]

Yes it was. he had great integrity and the people trusted him. he was the deciding factor in the approval by the people and pundits. Of course Bush would have gone in anyway.

There wasn’t any single deciding factor, there were many, and the speech was one along with the rest of Powell’s cooperation in bringing on the war.
Cheney’s hold on Bush was at least as critical, and the war resolution would not have passed without the chicken hearted acquiesce of Democratic senators that Dowd mentions.

[BidenPresident]

There wasn’t any single deciding factor, there were many, and the speech was one along with the rest of Powell’s cooperation in bringing on the war.
Cheney’s hold on Bush was at least as critical, and the war resolution would not have passed without the chicken hearted acquiesce of Democratic senators that Dowd mentions.

Let alone the violation of the US Constitution. Congress did not declare war.