WP/Milbank: Colonel (Larry Wilkerson) Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes

[kskiska]

As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time.

He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."

And how about Karen Hughes's efforts to boost the country's image abroad? "It's hard to sell (manure)," Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend.

The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences."

(snip)

Wilkerson adds a new dimension to the criticism. A 31-year military veteran and former director of the Marine Corps War College, he worked for Powell in the public and private sectors for much of the past 16 years, and he was often described by colleagues as the man who would say what Powell was thinking but was too discreet to say.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902246.html

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. When the going gets tough, people like Wilkerson rise to the top.

[Demeter]

13. In Democratic Administrations, Maybe

This guy could replace Powell, Rice, and half a dozen other zeroes and still have time for a paper route.

[0rganism]

2. Great, and only.... 12 months too late to do anything about it!

Well, thanks anyway, Colonel.

There should be some kind of official penance required for these guys who played quietly along while dubya ruined everything and then start singing like birds when his lame duck stock drops. Like wearing a sign on their backs that says, "kick me, I helped bush destroy the world," for a week or two.

Maybe I'm just extra grouchy tonight cos I have to go to a 10:30pm meeting to help (large tech company)'s offshored employee base set up a farking macintosh on the other side of the frickin' planet.

[tblue37]

10. If these guys had spoken up before the election,

or before the invasion of Iraq. . . .

[gratuitous]

11. I don't know if you're extra grouchy; you're still absolutely right

I, too, am quite disgusted with former Bushistas suddenly rediscovering their consciences after they get out of that criminal enterprise. Did they put their sense of right and wrong in a blind trust when they took the job?

We knew in our hearts that not everyone in this corrupt administration went along with its hare-brained imperial designs. But brave folks like Coleen Rowley, who dared to speak up, were left to hang out in lonely opposition to the steamroller.

So, thanks for your day-late, dollar-short critique, Colonel. The question remains: What are you going to do about it?

[Straight Shooter]

3. "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man"

Well, he met bush, didn't he?

Reminds me of that statement (paraphrased) by Armitage, "Every day I have to go and talk with the stupidest fucker on the planet." Armitage was also referring to D. Feith. I guess bush wants Feith around so there's at least one person in the world to whom he can feel intellectually superior.

[antonialee839]

4. Well, he met bush, didn't he?

:rofl:

[lovuian]

5. "It's hard to sell (manure)," actually thats easier to sell than what

Bush is been doing!!! They really think that people are so dumb!!!
Now they find out they were dumb!!!

[pnorman]

7. "Manure"?? More like Toxic Sludge.

Barely biodegradable. It belongs in a well sealed containment pond.

pnorman

[annabanana]

6. kickin' in the am............n/t

[robbedvoter]

8. Re: Powell=most loyal soldier - some reality check from America Blog

Powell is hardly the world's most loyal soldier, please
by John in DC - 10/20/2005 11:37:00 AM
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/powell-is-hardly-worlds-most-loyal.html

Overall, this is a great article (Rob cites it in the post below). Colin Powell's former chief of staff just SAVAGES Cheney and Rummy. But then he says something that is simply untrue. Powell is upset at him for speaking up because Powell is the world's most loyal soldier.
Gag me.
Powell wasn't the world's most loyal soldier when he publicly took on his commander in chief in that commander's first days in office in early 1993. And he wasn't the world's most loyal soldier when he savaged that commander in his subsequent memoirs. more

[depakid]

9. Powell's legacy has been destroyed

Whatever claim to honor he may once have had disappeared in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. History will not be kind to him.

[Shipwack]

14. Agree 1000%

I have always said that Clinton's first, and possibly biggest mistake in the Whitehouse was not ordering the resignation of the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff for their very public insubordination when he took office (over gays in the military). Privately disagreeing with the President and threatening to quit is fine. Publically defying and opposing his policies was a violation of their oath.

I've always suspected that maybe (at first, at least) Clinton didn't really understand the military culture, and was hoping that being the "good guy" would swing them to his side. Never happened, and he was repayed for his restraint with hundreds of mocking pictures and and office jokes in military units throughout the world.

[WCGreen]

12. I too add my voice to the call of Where were you when it counted...

Trying to capture the first wave of what we all know will be a bunch of "insider" books on how bad Bush really was/is, this guy comes out with both guns blazing...

I say, he is guilty of at least cowardice and, in the extreme, treason...

How dare he open his mouth now...

Several State Department officials quit on principle, and yet he stayed knowing full well that all was bushit...

I am disgusted....

[On the Road]

15. Bush is Guilty of "Cowboyism"?

Does that make him a "cowboyist"?

[glitch]

16. carrying water for bush = not a hero.

even if he does out the cheney/rummy cancer.
and that goes for powell too.

gotta admit, loving this blowback though.