Colin Powell: Failed Opportunist

[acmavm]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/112604.html

By Robert Parry
November 26, 2004

A Consortiumnews.com Special Report

<snip>

Colin Powell’s admirers – especially in the mainstream press – have struggled for almost two years to explain how and why their hero joined in the exaggerations and deceptions that led the nation into the disastrous war in Iraq. Was he himself deceived by faulty intelligence or was he just acting as the loyal soldier to his commander-in-chief?

But there is another, less flattering explanation that fits with the evidence of Powell’s life story: that the outgoing secretary of state has always been an opportunist who consistently put his career and personal status ahead of America’s best interests.

From his earliest days as a junior officer in Vietnam through his acquiescence to George W. Bush’s Iraq adventure, Colin Powell repeatedly has failed to stand up against actions that were immoral, unethical or reckless. At every turning point, Powell protected his career above all else.

<snip>

On March 16, 1968, a bloodied Americal unit had stormed into a hamlet known as My Lai 4. With military helicopters circling overhead, revenge-seeking American soldiers rousted Vietnamese civilians -- mostly old men, women and children -- from their thatched huts and herded them into the village's irrigation ditches.

<snip>

After that cursory investigation, Powell drafted a response on Dec. 13, 1968. He admitted to no pattern of wrongdoing by the Americal division. Powell claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat Vietnamese courteously and respectfully. "In direct refutation of this portrayal," Powell concluded, "is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

Powell's findings, of course, were false, though they were exactly what his superiors wanted to hear.

-MORE-

*********************************************************************
Powell has been crooked and dirty his entire military career. He's been a self-serving bastard and his biggest talent was that he could dupe the American people into thinking he was a credible, patriotic American. Read the entire article, you may be surprised at just how duplicitous the man really is. Powell's retirement is NO GREAT LOSS to the American people, for he was a useless tool for decades.

[hlthe2b]

1. Probably the best & most insightful summation of Colin Powell...

In the end, I agree with his assessment of the" real Colin Powell": the opportunist whose clever career-building over four decades finally outsmarted itself.

Like so many, I wanted to see the dignified, intelligent Colin Powell as truly compatible with the created image--a man of integrity and a true African American hero. Sadly, he is anything, but....

[The Zanti Regent]

2. Belafonte was right

and Rice will be far worse!

[Skittles]

3. Colin and Condi are both Bush Whores

they are absolute disgraces