He's gone. Colin Powell's finally gone, and under the most cowardly of circumstances, just slipping out the back door quietly to no good purpose, and not three years ago, not two years ago and ultimately not at any time before November 2, but instead only days after the apparently successful election campaign of the man for whose stupidity and insane belligerance he destroyed whatever reputation he may* have assembled years ago.
That same cowardice, in the line of his duty as Secretary of State, is responsible for the deaths of perhaps over a hundred thousand Americans and Iraqis.
Powell's legacy will, and not incidently, include his argument that the U.S. armed services couldn't (shouldn't?) be integrated - for homosexuals, that is. I'm sure however that he would have made the usual exception for times of war like the present, when they are needed for cannon fodder.
A very small man indeed.
*I'll leave it to others, who know much more than I do, to comment on Powell's early, very problematic career in the Viet Nam war (a Mai Lai cover-up is apparently only part of it) and in the Iran-Contra affair (coordinating the sale of missiles to Iran), and I'm sure they will.
[thanks to Elise Engler for the reminder about Powell's early days]
This is old news... Powell's resiganation has been known for months, been covered in the press and discussed on the Sunday Political TV shows... this was no slip out the back door... it has been known for a long time. Shame on you for not doing the research before spitting out your opinion.
No. Shame on you. Powell is a nasty, pro-war, pro-occupation apologist for US imperialism, and the crimes committed in its name. That includes the destruction of civil liberties and the torture and murder of people in Saddam Hussain's old prisions in Baghdad (sue me!). If all you can do is criticise a blogger for not reading the in's and outs of all the columns in a few old US newspapers, then you clearly don't understand why Powell, and the adminstration he defended, so many times since the 1970s are despised by the vast majority of the people of the world. Shame on you for hiding yourself in the face of reality.
Fuck this UNCLE TOM....Powell is A WAR CRIMINAL with the blood of thousands of IRAQIS and Vietnamese civilians,victims of U.S imperialist wars...motherfucker is a DISGRACE in the eyes of blacks worldwide...FUCK IM...