Why is Colin Powell out front on this request for UN help ?

[kentuck]

Everybody knows he does not make any decisions in this Administration. He does what he is told. But it appears that there are those that do not wish to be too closely connected to the UN request? Why? Is it because there are many right-wing voters that are very anti-UN participation? And those at the top would prefer to keep as much distance from this as possible, by giving the appearance it is all Colin Powell's idea?

[uptohere]

1. it is consistant with prior dealings between the US and UN

right or wrong ? I don't know, but it is consistant.

[jmcgowanjm]

21. BTW-Handmaid in Babylon: Annan, Vieira de Mello

and the UN's Decline and Fall.

The conversion of the UN into after-sales
service provider for the world's prime power.

Vieira was duly appointed. Then, earlier this year,
the imperial finger crooked an urgent summons
for him to come to Washington for inspection
by Condoleezza Rice. Vieira made all the right.
Desperate for UN cover in Iraq, the Bush White
House pressured Annan to appoint Vieira as UN
Special Envoy to Iraq.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08302003.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Probably because he is Sec. of State.

:shrug: Seems like it fits into his job description.

[leetrisck]

3. Powell did an "end run"

around Rumsfeld and went to the Joint Chiefs - started in July. Got them all together - Powell went to Bush on Tuesday with support of Joint Chiefs and got what he wanted - supposedly.

[Zero Gravitas]

14. trying to do his job

The problem here (apart from the empty suit/head figurehead) is von Dumbsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the neocon sissyhawks. The military knows that we are out of our depth in Iraq, but Rumsfeld is out of touch with reality so they had to go around him via Powell.

Apparently its easy to convince Bush* of just about anything but once you do you have to get it public quickly before someone else goes in and convinces him to do something else.

[leetrisck]

23. Agreed and I'm

glad he did it.

[CWebster]

4. He always does

the master's bidding.

[JI7]

5. he always did before

powell was always the one who went to the united nations because he is secretary of state.

[kentuck]

7. He went to the UN with the lies in his hands because...

he was told to...

[Racenut20]

6. I have noticed

When their right wing bigoted but*s are in a sling, they always bring out Secretary Powell or Miss Rice. I noticed it on the Sunday morning shows. Perhaps they think the press will not attack them as much because they basically like them. Miss Rice apparently went too far on the lying thingie, so we don't see her now.

[Aidoneus]

8. he's their "good cop"

to rest of the "bad cop" crew of criminals that got us into this failing adventure.

Besides, if they can get the UN on board, it will go a ways towards placating liberals towards accepting a continued US-dominated occupation of Iraq.

[Gman2]

9. ruse

They will use UN involvement to pull away from Iraq and not suffer electiontime blame for the anarchy they caused. They will use it to limit the contributions they owe fot the rebuild. It remains to be seen what power they allow the UN on trade issues etc.

[UTUSN]

10. His Capacity for Humiliation Has No Limits, That's Why

There is his ancient history of screwing up from Vietnam on up.

Then his high(?) point under Poppy, where he had some prestige but where the CHEENEE-DarthRUMS axis settled-in to pimp-slapping him.

When he was a leftover under the new CLINTON Admin, he took advantage of the lack of military experience there to OBSTRUCT and call the shots. He probably had more free-rein power during that time.

Perhaps luckily, he didn't declare as a Dem, where he would have been exalted and his need for being dominated (& he would NOT have been dominated as a Dem) would have led to disaster---ummmm, MORE? disaster than now.

Refusing to be a Dem player, he ran right home to be butt boy for CHEENEE-Rums. So there he was a year ago shamelessly lying, which isn't new for him, and now he's the poster boy for groveling back to the U.N. and talking about "our friends" and how everybody has a right to an opinion and a decision. HAH!

TAKE it, POWELL! I'm expecting to hear Condi singing "Old Man River" and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" in the background (as she did for Shrub the weekend after 9-11).

[terryg11]

11. still the most trusted figure in this admin

by other countries when it comes to foreign policy, which doesn't say shit anymore.

[paulsbc]

12. i have a different take

i think Powell has the best interests of the US at heart, and was seriously misled about Iraq by others in the administration. As time has progressed, he has realized he was dupped and that Rumsfeld and company were completely full of shit, has gone back to his pre-Iraq standing and power within the administration and has got his head out of his ass.

My opinion, but I still trust Powell more than anyone else in the Administation and he still seems like a good man to me

[gratuitous]

13. Well, if Powell was truly duped

And if he was a good man, doesn't logic say that he'd resign rather than continue to be tainted by his association with the nest of vipers?

Colin Powell is the Bush administration's faithful house n-word, and he wouldn't quail at wielding the whip if massah told him to pick it up.

[paulsbc]

15. interesting take

but I could see him understanding that if he left, a neocon could easily be appointed SoS and really fowl things up. If he realized he has been duped and now can re-establish his power base, which it appears he is doing, and put Rumsfeld as a second-tier advisor, then his best bet for America is to stay and push his view of the world onto puppet Bush... Remember, Bush is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer...

And I can't believe that a progressive board like this would call someone in Powell's position a house nigger. That is downright racist, stupid and wrong, IMO.

[Aidoneus]

17. racist maybe,

but a way of describing how he's used. don't know if I agree, but I've had it explained to me a couple ways:--the "house slave" lived in the master's house, dressed like the master, thought like the master, ate like the master, and so on, and was used as a PR tool against the other slaves who were treated like shit by the masters.

[jmcgowanjm]

19. I didn't see any one calling Powell a "house nigger"

But I could have missed it.

Uncle Tom and Thomasina is what I'd
call Powell and Condi

[Aidoneus]

20. post#13, sort of..

Colin Powell is the Bush administration's faithful house n-word, and he wouldn't quail at wielding the whip if massah told him to pick it up.

[Aidoneus]

16. good man?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Colin+Powell%22+%22My+Lai%22+%22Iran-Contra%22&btnG=Google+Search

:shrug:

does that "good cop/bad cop" analogy go anywhere with you? I can't see how Powell could really be seen as a good man by people familiar enough with him without deluding themselves.. Geniunely curious, what do you find good about him?

[LeftistGorilla]

18. cuz he's a...

BEEEEYATCH!

[leftofthedial]

22. he can speak without screwing up

he's cannon fodder

he's still pretending to be Sec'y of State.