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‘It wouldn’t have worked’: Colin Powell balked at telling George W. Bush not to invade Iraq
washingtonexaminer ^ | 01/14/2020 | Joel Gehrke

Posted on 01/15/2020 6:47:03 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27

When President George W. Bush asked Colin Powell if the United States should invade Iraq in 2003 and overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein, the secretary of state and former general refused to give a straight answer.

“I didn’t say to him, ‘I oppose this war,’” Powell says in a book published today about U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War. “Because it wouldn’t have worked.”

That admission sheds light on Bush’s decision to launch the war that defined his presidency. Powell acknowledged his muted opposition in James Mann’s new book, The Great Rift, an account of how Powell’s rivalry with Vice President Dick Cheney “defined an era.”

A longtime journalist whose reporting credentials include the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, Mann, 74, has written bestselling and award-winning books, including Rise of the Vulcans: A History of Bush’s War Cabinet. In this latest work, he shows how the friendship between Powell and Cheney turned to enmity and how the conflict between them shaped America's place in the world and its internal political debates.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: California; War on Terror; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bush; california; colinpowell; dickcheney; invade; iraq; jamesmann; liesaftertheevent; nancypelosi; powell; saddamhussein; thegreatrift; waronterror
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Another useless figurehead who follows Obama’s doctrines -

“Present” and “Leading from Behind”.


21 posted on 01/15/2020 7:09:52 AM PST by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = USSR; Journ0List + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Oh look!! Colon’s trying to peddle another book.


22 posted on 01/15/2020 7:11:11 AM PST by SanchoP (Yippy,the next generation search engine.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Colon Powell is a Republican except for:

when it comes time to vote for a Republican;

Say something in support of a Republican;

advance anything proposed by a Republican; and/or

Campaign for a Republican.

Yup, he sure is Mitt Romney’s kind of Republican.


23 posted on 01/15/2020 7:14:29 AM PST by FlipWilson
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To: ChicagoConservative27

So a critical adviser is only supposed to advise that which he thinks his boss agrees with?

Talk about a perfumed general!


24 posted on 01/15/2020 7:15:33 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: ChicagoConservative27
Just as sure as the sun is gonna set in the west later today, the media will trot out Powell this Oct/Nov to endorse the Dem candidate. The line will be: Looky here, Colin Powell is a Republican and even HE is opposed to Trump.

Anybody doubt me?
25 posted on 01/15/2020 7:16:46 AM PST by Dan in Wichita
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Because he had no spine. Hes a whining yes man.


26 posted on 01/15/2020 7:19:43 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: 9YearLurker

Colin was just playing his role. Guess he still lives on the plantation.


27 posted on 01/15/2020 7:20:21 AM PST by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Should I click and read this article. From the excerpt, it sounds like a Mea Culpa, but a half-arsed on.

One of the hardest things you can ever have to do is sit in a meeting, particularly a big meeting about a major strategy or crisis, and say “no”. Bosses hate that word, and they make your life hell when you use it. The vast majority of the time, you avoid saying no but offer alternative strategies, but a head honcho with a clear vision of what he wants is a big problem to what will sound like as weaseling to him.

That is when you need to go on record opposing, and your butt had better be prepared to outline the reasons why, because it takes a large pair to do it, but the difference between keeping your position and losing it is the difference between just saying you oppose and can’t say why, and offering a clear opinion about what you think will go wrong with it.

... But Powell says he just couldn’t do either.


28 posted on 01/15/2020 7:27:51 AM PST by z3n
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To: ChicagoConservative27

“Wouldn’t have worked”

We DID depose Saddam.

And for those who say Saddam kept the peace, his supporters must acknowledge his use of torture, murder, rape rooms, and secret police to keep down whomever he wanted (whether they be rival political factions or terrorists).


29 posted on 01/15/2020 7:27:58 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Decade of decision for America)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Didn’t Colin Powell vote for Obama (twice?).

What did he think of our war to topple Gaddafi?


30 posted on 01/15/2020 7:29:16 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Decade of decision for America)
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To: a fool in paradise

In the Arab world, Saddam was par for the course.


31 posted on 01/15/2020 7:29:54 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Well, well, well, isn’t that convenient.


32 posted on 01/15/2020 7:31:39 AM PST by Baldwin77 (They hated Reagan too ! TRUMP TOUGH - AMERICA STRONG)
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To: SanchoP

I don’t believe he has a book out. James Mann has written one about Powell and Cheney.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/books/review/the-great-rift-dick-cheney-colin-powell-james-mann.html


33 posted on 01/15/2020 7:42:53 AM PST by gloryblaze
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Powell was a toady to Bush same as he was to Obama. I wonder if Ike, MacArthur, Patton, Lemay, Nimitz etc would have waffled.


34 posted on 01/15/2020 7:44:59 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Read this from DU: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1782940


35 posted on 01/15/2020 7:56:49 AM PST by paddles ("The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." Tacitus)
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Don’t believe a word that jackass says. That # let Scooter Libby get unjustly prosecuted by another thug


36 posted on 01/15/2020 8:01:46 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Wuli

Powell is over-rated as a general. He is nothing but a self serving, pompous, holier-than-thou, ass!


37 posted on 01/15/2020 8:16:15 AM PST by ohioman
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To: pgyanke

A real profile in leadership, isn’t he?


38 posted on 01/15/2020 8:19:24 AM PST by Cecily
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To: ChicagoConservative27

You should have told him, then resigned. But you pussed out. Weak leaders fold.


39 posted on 01/15/2020 8:52:08 AM PST by fuente (Liberty resides in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box--Fredrick Douglas)
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To: ChicagoConservative27
Lying whore. This prick had balls the size BBs.

He is a real trans bitch.

May he rot before he gets to hell and then burn forever.

40 posted on 01/15/2020 10:51:54 AM PST by USS Alaska (NUKE THE MOOSELIMB, TERRORISTS, NOW!)
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