Posted on 11/15/2004 5:10:20 PM PST by Pokey78
Colin Powell, veteran soldier and bureaucratic infighter, had the makings of an outstanding secretary of state. Notice of his potential came with the handling of the spy plane incident with China a few months after the new Republican administration had taken office.
The mid-air collision between an EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft and an F-8 fighter over the South China Sea threatened a major confrontation between a President who had spoken of strategic competition with Beijing during the election campaign, and a Communist Party only too happy to bang the nationalist drum to shore up its legitimacy.
In the event, despite the death of the Chinese pilot, the EP-3E and its crew of 24, having been forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island, were returned to the United States. This was a classically restrained diplomatic solution to an alarming military mishap. The imperative of maintaining relations with an emerging great power took precedence over any repugnance Washington might have felt for its authoritarian system of government. The State Department had prevailed over the conservative ideologues.
All this changed with September 11, 2001. With the invasion of Afghanistan later that year and the increasingly obvious determination of George W Bush to complete the unfinished business of the first Gulf war by toppling Saddam Hussein, the balance of power within the administration shifted from State to the Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld.
The defence department not only directed the conquest of the Taliban and the Ba'athists, its natural field of operations, but was also given charge of reconstruction. Mr Powell appeared increasingly at odds with Mr Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, briefing against them and putting his own slant on their pronouncements on how to handle countries such as Syria and Iran.
The outside world is used to hearing conflicting counsel from Washington. But during the occupation of Iraq it reached new heights. The problem for Mr Powell was that his rivals generally prevailed. Even worse, he lost credibility after his claims before the UN Security Council on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in 2003 proved to be hollow. Having promised to be one of Mr Bush's most successful appointments, Mr Powell soon came to look like a fish out of water.
Of possible successors, Condoleezza Rice is close to the President but, as a National Security Adviser, has often seemed overshadowed by the outsize personalities of Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Powell. John Danforth, a former senator and special envoy to Sudan who is now ambassador to the UN, also enjoys the trust of the White House and is well qualified for the job.
Whoever is chosen, the announcement of Mr Powell's retirement gives Mr Bush, re-elected this month with a much strengthened mandate, the chance to appoint a secretary of state more in tune with his unique blend of social conservatism and foreign policy radicalism. If that results in a more coherent face being presented to the outside world, Washington and its allies, still facing enormous challenges in the Middle East, will be the winners.
Will Powell run for President in 2008 as a Democrat, now that Democrats have discovered their devotion to military heroes?
Where do people in England get "their" news? It seems that the only thing the English press reports is what's happening over here.
I don't know if they're gonna like Condi...she can, on occasion, make Dubya look "nuanced..."
LOL....I was thinking....maybe THEY haven't heard yet who Pres. Bush has replaced Powell with!
That's because Freepers aren't interested in Brit news, so don't post it. You'd be surprised how parochial the English press is.
WHOA, the EP-3 is mentioned! Someone remembered the incident actually happened, the plane was actually forced down by a hotdogging bonzai afficianado, and our soldiers were held prisoner in China! Astounding! Uh...and the nice article about Col. Powell is good too...but somebody rememebered the EP-3 incident!
The second way which America represents her interests is thru Defense(or war department), via Secretary of Defense. The defense secretary's checkbook pays for guns, bullets, bombs, and guts.
It's time to put that State Department checkbook in a lockbox. Powell paid the leaders of the Taliban, as our good friends, $26,000,000 just three months before we went to war with them. Does anyone wonder why the rest of the world loves Powell, but hates Rumsfeld? Hmmmmm......Let me guess?
As for Anne Coulter, she's an egotistical, self centered, vain bimbo who happens to have a brain but skipped charm school in favor of dishing out caustic insults like she happens to be the Einstein of the trailer park.
I think Powell has no further political ambitions.
From his comments over the past 5 years or so, I think he's a thinking man, and knows that at the end of his life, Sec'ty of State etc will not mean as much as his conscience.
Frankly, I think he could still be devastating to the Left as a Presidential contender, but he doesn't want the job.
The owned & controlled Western press have all but ignored Powell's contribution to the stemming of Christian martyrdom in Southern Sudan. Clinton and notBright did absolutely nothing, by design, to stop the slaughter and enslavement of tradtionally peaceful, generational christians in that region. Bush/Powell made it a priority. Now the Arabic jihadists in the Darfur region are killing at will in an effort to be "cut in" on the deal [payments]. If anyone ever writes an honest appraisal of Powell's service, the saving of thousands of lives in Southern Sudan should be the pinnacle, IMHO. And I ain't black, liberal, or coastal.
Z
Powell believes in the free market and individual freedom, so I surely hope he will not become the opposite of those things, a Dem.
Now, let's be series. Ann Coulter for the diplomatic post of Secretary of State? No, she'd be much better suited to replace Rumsfeld when he departs.
I've read many, many articles on FR written by the British press about UK news, opinion, etc.
LOL, of course I'm not serious. Ann Coulter would better serve the White House a public relations officer. Now that would be fine entertainment and proper service returned to the MSM. LOL
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