Dowd: House of Broken Toys

[kskiska]

When Colin Powell decided that Dick Cheney's crazy "fever," as he called the vice president's obsession with linking 9/11 and Saddam, was leading the country into a war it did not need to fight, he should have bared his heart to the president and made his case using the Powell doctrine — with overwhelming force.

Mr. Bush probably wouldn't have listened. He was in Mr. Cheney's gloomy sway, and Rummy's bellicose sway. And W. felt competitive with his more popular top diplomat.

But Mr. Powell should have tried. And if the president didn't listen, the secretary should have quit — not let himself be used by the vice president and his "Gestapo office" of Pentagon neocons, as Mr. Powell referred to them, to put a diplomatic fig leaf on a predetermined war plan and to present bogus intelligence to the U.N.

He knew his word held enormous weight around the world. And he knew he was the only one, out of all the officials in on the clandestine rush to war, who had fought in a war. He should have spoken up for all those soldiers who would fight and die and be maimed for Dick Cheney's nutty utopian dream of bombing the world into freedom, and W.'s dream of being so forceful with Saddam, the slime bag who survived his father's war, that he would forever banish his family's bête noire — the wimp factor.

It would have been much more honorable than playing Achilles sulking in his Foggy Bottom tent, privately pouting to Bob Woodward that he had warned the president about the Pottery Barn effect — break Iraq and "you know you're going to be owning this place" — and tattling that his colleagues were engaged in "lunacy."

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/04/18/opinion/18DOWD.html

[boobooday]

1. I hoped for a Powell breakthrough, too

I kept praying during the whole madness of Bush's war sale that Colin Powell would finally have enough and stand up for the truth.

Then I saw him testify before the United Nations, and I knew he had sold his soul.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Leilani]

3. Exactly!!!

I had hopes too; the UN speech changed my opinion of him forever.

He, alone of all of them had learned the Vietnam lesson; I hope he remembers with each GIs death.

[LittleApple81]

2. The article is good. But two points:

1. Why doesn't she acknowledge the NYT was guilty by becoming a shill for the administration and allowing Judith Miller to write her continued roll to war based on Chalabi's lies?
2. Why does she need to negatively mention Clinton when she is talking about Bush*?:
last paragraph:

"The plans for invading "The House of Broken Toys," as the C.I.A. referred to Iraq, may not have been sitting on his desk, but he secretly started planning with Rummy for war with Iraq in November 2001, and with Tommy Franks starting the next month. Once they were thick into the planning, the president couldn't turn back, of course. That would make him like the loathed Bill Clinton — a lot of bold talk and not much action — not like "The Man," as Mr. Cheney called his warrior president."

[senseandsensibility]

4. Good points

Maureen is a great writer, and like all DUers, I love it when she attacks *. But she has a very mixed history. I'm afraid it's just a matter of time until she starts writing about Kerry's haircuts, clothes, or "weird" personality.

[The Zanti Regent]

5. THIS IS WHY I DESPISE WHOREEN

Deep down inside, that CENSORED really hates and despises Bill Clinton. Of course that liar will cover up for her soul mate Judith Miller.

[dennis4868]

7. its weird....

there are those in the media who have this weird hatred for Clinton as if Clinton broke into their house and murdered their family....Dowd and Tweety are 2 good examples.

[dennis4868]

6. "a lot of bold talk and not much action "

yep not much action....hahaha....sheeesh!

[ashling]

8. I don't see her reference to Bill Clinton as negative.

By contrasting him with "the man," this is in fact a positive reference to Clinton. She is only parodying the way these bozos see the world. She ridiculles their paradigm very effectively, in fact.
:dem:

[CatWoman]

11. agreed

the "loathed" bill clinton.

it was the neocons who loathed him.

[indigobusiness]

15. from The Sludge Report - your drudge antidote

Bush Touches Himself in Public

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

fun stuff!!!

[Skittles]

16. THANK YOU

THAT F***ING WHORE HAS BLOOD ON HER HANDS AND SHE F***ING KNOWS IT.

[Paradise]

9. thanks kskiska,

and, yes, thanks ms. dowd.
having been a beggar to the press, i'll take whatever i can get, all the while fighting like hell for more.

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

10. Powell == Uncle Tom

He is a disgrace to America. At least bush*, insane as he is,
believes in what he is doing. Powell on the other hand, plays the
good soldier to the detriment of the Nation, and his own principles.

[The Zanti Regent]

12. Randall Robinson on Uncle Tom Powell

http://www.blackcommentator.com/80/80_cover_haiti.html

Colin Powell is “the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime.” – TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson

[Jade Fox]

13. If Powell had had the guts to do what was right.....

he'd be a true hero right now and would go down in history as such.

When you think about the lives he could have saved, and the destruction
he could have prevented....

Shame on you, Colin Powell.

[rfkrocks]

14. Powell has the tragic mix too-thinking of what could have been

Remember there was a time the GOP was actually struggling with a moderate course-imagine how powerful the GOP would have been if they ran Powell for President instead of Shrub-Powell's disintegration into the company man for neocons is also the death knell of the GOP-No moderates or Rockefeller repugs allowed anymore-The GOP is now an idealogical tool aimed at destroying fundamental cores of American life - the fact that we have followed the Vietnam path again (lead quite cowardly by service avoiders like Cheney and Shrub) and Powell was at the helm when it happened is tragic-frankly I don't know how he can stand watching his beloved army be destroyed in the pursuit of madness. And to Ms Dowd I can say-the great witch sex hunt of Clinton kept the country entertained while men were learning how to fly planes into buildings