Am I still supposed to admire colin powell?

[Philosoraptor]

He has a new book coming out, and I won't read it. But I'm sure I will read the highlights from the pundits and reviewers. He has long been seen by many, even some here, as some admirable figure, but I've never bought into that. I've despised him since I first became aware of him during daddybush's gulf war.

When he held up the little vial of white powder at the UN and swore up and down we were going to be attacked by Saddam's nukes, I saw it as the low point of his so called stellar career. I saw him as bush's slave and spokesman.

Now that he's coming forward with a book, I'm curious as to how he will paint the very people he served so loyally for all those years.

Like woodward, he kissed the bush's asses for way too long for me to just forgive him overnight. He is complicit in all these unnecessary deaths, he profited from it, now if he wants to distance himself from them, its too late.

If he directly attacked them, and showed genuine remorse for his misdeeds against America, I might forgive him, but I expect a whole lot of wishy washy hemming a hawing and no real substance from his highly anticipated book.

I never had any respect for him, and I doubt I'll magically cultivate any.

[Skittles]

1. he was a bush whore

even after bush inc stole the election in part by denying blacks the right to vote. That about says it all. Unless he comes clean in this book, I will forever see him as a scumbag bush whore.

[Kahuna]

18. Yep Skittles. I always go back to that one, when the tom showed

his true colors. He let bush use him like a bitch during the election fight. To me, that was even more shameful than his UN debacle. He's a disgraceful lackey. Harry Belafonte was 100% right about him and has been vindicated.

[peekaloo]

2. 'My Life As A Cover-Up Artist' or 'How I Lied My Way To Respectability'

one man's story.

[HereSince1628]

16. The Duty of Lying or Valet to Strassianism n/t

[eringer]

3. Another one of W's hand puppets

He is really a pathetic character. Threw it all away for nothing.

[newyawker99]

23. Hi eringer!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Crankie Avalon]

4. He ended his career pretty much the way he started it...

...My Lai and the "tissue of lies" speech at the UN. The bookends of his career.

[acmejack]

5. Unlike you narrow minded people, I really do like

his Corvette!

[liberal N proud]

6. He lost any respect I had for him when he went to the UN for bu$h's war

He could have stood up then and said this is not right. It would have cost him his job then but America would have respected him for it if it had stopped the regime from killing so many of our young people.

[bowens43]

7. He showed himself to be a man low character

the moment he accepted the nomination for Secretary of State under bush.

[wakeme2008]

8. Never this is the picture of Colon I will alway remember

[driver8]

9. Exactly -- same here. Powell sold his soul to the neocons and now he has

to live with that for the rest of his life.

He knew what he was saying at the UN was a lie, but he said it anyway.

I guess protecting the regime was more important than his self respect.

[Kahuna]

20. Mine is him standing with dubya at the ranch during the 2000 recounts..

to lend shrub some of his gravitas and popularity. Bushco and Powell knew that by Powell standing by him at the ranch, it was telling America that hey, if a great American like Colin Powell thinks he's okay, he must be okay. So even if Gore really won, we should stop counting the votes because Powell says so. What a dispicable act.

[stlsaxman]

10. Let me be blunt in expressing my feelings about him....

Fuck him. He needs to be indicted for crimes against humanity. He was Secretary Of State when we bombed Iraq to the stone age.

Philosoraptor- did you know that Powell was also instrumental in the Mai Lai Massacre cover-up? That was the position that gained him the attention of his beloved Cheney and Rumsfeld.

While I'm at it- Fuck his son Micheal as well.

[depakid]

11. He disgraced himself

and the country that he served.

His legacy and place in history is now assured.

And it won't be pretty.

[DRoseDARs]

12. Lost all credibility in my eyes with the dog-n-pony show at the UN. n/t

[LWolf]

13. You aren't "supposed" to admire anyone.

You get to decide all by yourself, using your own yardstick, what and whom you find to be admirable.

[izzie]

14. Look at it this way. He comes from a place where orders are the

thing and he does it well. I think he was used very badly but he let them do it. I do not feel sorry for him at all. Power is great for evil as we all know.

[Kahuna]

21. Except when he worked for Clinton, orders didn't mean shit...

Powell is human garbage.

[izzie]

24. I do not recall what he did under Clinton. He has usually been a

man who takes orders under Bush.He also would not be a Gen. unless he could take orders. One big reason I always feel a little up tight about the service. Many now seem to have for got what oath and to what they took it to. North was the worst service man I ever read about.

[xchrom]

15. powell is a conservative. what's to admire?

[sarge43]

17. I haven't had any respect for him since he publicly bad mouthed

Clinton over the DADT stupidity.

Good soldiers don't publicly disagree with their superiors. Go to the mat with them in private - yes, that's part of the job. However, once the decision is made and the order given, a good soldier has three choices (1) salute smartly and obey the order, (2) salute smartly and put in the resignation or retirement, (3) salute smartly and say "In good conscience sir/ma'am, I cannot obey that order."

Worse than that, he then hid behind the ordinary soldiers. He said in effect that he knew the grunts wouldn't tolerate gays. Four stars have no idea what the grunts are thinking. They know only what their staff tells them and it's usually just exactly what staff believes they want to hear. If Powell doesn't know this, he's either at the headwaters of De Nile or he's dumber than a bag of wet hair.

He's simply a careerist.

[Kahuna]

19. Yeah, that was another tom moment for uncle colin.

:puke:

[sarge43]

22. Yup

He wouldn't have tolerated that kind of behavior from his subordinates. He was lucky Big Dog wasn't channeling Harry Truman.