WH House Fears That Colin Powel Will Finally Tell The The Truth & Ruin September's PR Surge

[kpete]

Will the real Colin Powell stand up?
The White House fears that the former secretary of state will finally tell the truth about planning for the Iraq war.

By Sidney Blumenthal
.

Aug. 9, 2007 | Every movement, gesture and tic of the Bush administration is shadowed by its past. When National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell was deployed politically to overawe timorous legislators into approving unlimited and warrantless domestic surveillance, he was acting in the shadow of former CIA Director George Tenet, whose presence was used to lend credibility to intelligence being fixed to suit arguments for the invasion of Iraq. As Gen. David Petraeus prepares to deliver his report in September on the "surge" in Iraq, he is elevated into the ultimate reliable source, just as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's sterling reputation was exploited for his delivery of the case for invasion before the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, a date that will live in mendacity, for every statement he made was later revealed to be false; Powell regretted publicly that it was an everlasting "blot" on his good name. Meanwhile, during the dog days of August, the president's aides are preparing the fall public relations campaign to envelop Petraeus' report. On cue, neoconservative organs spew out good news of "progress on the ground" and thrash critics as "defeatist." "Defeatists in Retreat" trumpets William Kristol's latest screed in the Weekly Standard, repackaging old themes once again.

.............................

Wilkerson and Bodine have spoken out before. But Armitage's debut in particular has the White House fuming and fretting that it somehow signals Powell's emergence as a full-throated critic in the middle of the September P.R. offensive. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, according to sources close to him, has voiced anger and concern about whether Powell will step forward and what he might say, and other presidential aides are wondering how to cope with that nightmarish possibility.

Two months ago, Powell declared the surge a near-certain failure. On June 10, on NBC's "Meet the Press," he declared, "The current strategy to deal with it, called a surge -- the military surge, our part of the surge under General Petraeus -- the only thing it can do is put a heavier lid on this boiling pot of civil war stew ... And so General Petraeus is moving ahead with his part of it, but he's the one who's been saying all along there is no military solution to this problem. The solution has to emerge from the other two legs, the Iraqi political actions and reconciliation, and building up the Iraqi security and police forces. And those two legs are not -- are not going well. That part of strategy is not going well."

Hadley and others are taking Powell's early skepticism toward the surge and willingness to express it as a potential sign that he will swoop down on them just after Petraeus asks for more forbearance for the president's policy. Powell is the White House's ticking-time-bomb scenario. He was Petraeus before Petraeus, the good soldier before the good soldier, window-dressing before window-dressing. The White House aides' fear of Powell reflects their guilt, if not their stricken consciences, over his disposal. Powell was used, ruined and tossed overboard. His warnings were ignored, his loyalty was abused, and when he no longer served Bush's purposes he was unceremoniously discarded.

more at:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/08/09/iraq_powell/?source=whitelist

[hatrack]

1. No chance. Powell will remain the eager little puppy he is, drooling for his Milk-bone

:puke:

[babylonsister]

2. I'd be really, REALLY surprised if the wh has anything to fear. nt

[saltpoint]

3. Perhaps Powell will atone for his fibbing at the U.N. with a

revelatory address to undermine the surge propaganda.

Telling the truth would be refreshing for us and a new experience for him.

[malaise]

5. Don't hold your breath n/t

[saltpoint]

7. I'm not. But if he wants his chance, this might be it.

[bigtree]

4. not holding my breath

these cabal members are always the stalking horse for continuing. I expect somewhere near the end of Powell's objections he'll say he thinks we need to continue on for another 6 months. That's their pattern - to create this republican cover with the objections as if they were somehow confronting Bush. I'll wait for results on this one.

[treestar]

6. Stay off small planes advisory in effect nt

[KharmaTrain]

8. Remember The Pottery Barn???

Powell is no threat to this regime...just another diversion. Also another scapegoat. This looks like a "shut up and be quiet, Colin", piece...that the regime's slime machine is likely to turn on him as its done on other critics.

The 25% of this country that still supports this war for profit will pay no attention as Powell will join all the other generals/defeatists and Powell will be kicked around on hate radio and by the "pundits" as having caused problems back then that made things worse now.

For the rest of us, Colin's blow in the UN was the point of no return...we knew he was spewing lies those days and his inability to speak out publicly since its been refuted speaks how much of a coward the man really is. His "buyers remorse" at the Pottery barn comes several years and 3,500 American deaths too late. In this country's darkest hour, this soldier failed.

[tecelote]

9. If we have any hope of recovery in this great nation...

...we will need to have people like Colin Powell discover their conscience and do what is right. Maybe he will realize his immortality and make an effort to change. I know that this is optimistic but, for some reason, I seem to see some real soul searching in this man.

You can't expect a big change without believing in people. There are a lot of people who are caught up in the greed and I have no hope for them to change. Colin Powell doesn't seem that greedy or that dumb.

There is a lot of power in doing the right thing.