Posted on 11/18/2004 6:20:27 AM PST by prairiebreeze
WEEP no tears for Colin Powell. Instead, reflect on what might have been had Mr Powell proven himself a better secretary of state. One remarkable feature of the past four years has been how few of the United States’ diplomatic failures have been blamed, even in part, on the country’s first diplomat. Mr Powell has been a Teflon Secretary of State; history may not be so kind.
One can understand why Mr Powell stayed to try and frustrate a foreign policy he did not believe in; less explicable is why he continued in office after it was clear he had failed in his mission.
Mr Powell was a disturbing but unsackable influence. In this respect he was George W Bush’s very own Gordon Brown. But while Mr Brown can point to domestic achievement, Mr Powell’s scheming and sustained leaking produced little more than evidence of his own emasculation.
Mr Powell enjoyed the trappings of office without bearing the responsibility for policies he declined to support.
Saddled with a policy with which he did not agree, he had two options: resign with dignity or sell the president’s policy abroad with conviction. He did neither.
Mr Powell travelled only half as much as his most recent predecessors. We can only speculate whether more intensive efforts from the secretary of state would have secured an agreement to allow US troops to enter Iraq via Turkey, ensuring that no "Sunni Triangle" north of Baghdad would have been allowed to exist unmolested by coalition troops. What we do know is that Mr Powell refused even to go to Ankara to make his president’s case in person.
Worse, his lack of loyalty compromised his department and his president. Whatever her other faults - and she was not a commanding national security adviser - anyone meeting Condoleezza Rice knows they are speaking to someone with the ear of the president and hearing what Mr Bush wants them to hear. That clarity will be valuable.
It was typical, as we know from Bob Woodwards’ book Plan of Attack, that Mr Powell should feel personally affronted when Dominique de Villepin sabotaged the secretary of state’s efforts to win support for a second United Nations resolution prior to the invasion of Iraq. Mr Powell seemed more concerned by the blow to his pride than by the setback for US and British policy.
More importantly, Mr Powell’s departure is evidence that the president is now his own man. In 2000 much was made of the stability that wise old heads such as Mr Powell, Ms Rice and Dick Cheney would bring to a president startlingly ill-informed about the rest of the world.
Four years on, for better or for worse, the president’s authority and vision, compromised by Mr Powell, reign unchallenged. It’s also something to be welcomed since, for all his popularity, Mr Powell has shown few signs of the scope or substance of the president’s vision. In this instance, the pupil has outstripped his tutor.
"Four years on, for better or for worse, the president’s authority and vision, compromised by Mr Powell, reign unchallenged. It’s also something to be welcomed since, for all his popularity, Mr Powell has shown few signs of the scope or substance of the president’s vision. In this instance, the pupil has outstripped his tutor."
Well put, don't you agree?
Thanks for your service, General, but no thanks.
I wouldn't blame Powell for the diplomatic failures because quite a few of them were rooted in a latent anti-Americanism, fed mostly by a fear of a re-exertion of American power in the world, distinct and separate from the special interests of the members of the security council.
In other words, the slack diplomacy of the Clinton era, his unofficial "global test", among other things led to extremely hostile conditions at the UN and on the global stage.
I expect Rice to be met with the same hostility.
That said, I do agree that Powell was not hard enough on his department, to shake them down and drum out the dissenters, and the liberals who have worked against Bush from day one. But there's a good reason for that. Shaking down the department at the same time having to deal with diplomatic crisis after crisis....? I can only feel sorry for Powell in that respect, he didn't catch any breaks in an already hard job.
Now, how do we get Bush to send Giuliani to work for Rice? I want to see him made an ambassador, specifically to the United Nations. He might be able to assist in her shake down of the dept.
Teflon only in the media.
Powell was a true professional, and for that he has my respect, except for his views.
I have never read one criticism of Powell from the MSM, who bash Bush on foreign policy daily. I never hear a DUmbocrat criticize him either, yet it was his department.
I just pray he doesn't write a Bush bashing book like other disloyal members of the Bush Administration have. My guess is he won't.
Albright ran all over the world making sure everyone was annoyed.
I think Powell brought an important perspective to the counsels of the President, i.e., that of how to handle things diplomatically, if the President chooses that in an instance. Where I do fault Powell is that he did not like to travel and was not a more vigorous advocate for the President's policies. In the first Gulf War, Baker was travelling up and down Europe and the Middle East to get support for the war, but Powell just didn't seem to put a lot of effort into selling the President's policies. Now given the anti-American lunacy that seems to have taken over in Europe, perhaps there really was nothing he could do to help bring them on board. But maybe he could have tried a bit harder?
IMO, Powell's advice to Pres. GH Bush to stop Gulf War 1 and negotiate with Saddam was wrong, wrong, wrong anyway it is sliced and we are paying a huge price for his "advice" now. That is his legacy, along with the roque State Dep't it is the mark of a weak leader. Goodbye Powell you were marginal as SoS and a disaster as mentioned above. Did something right, don't try to foist the blame on others.
Actually, I expect her to be met with considerably more hostility.
The Left and our other enemies were able to take solace in the belief that even though Powell was nominally implementing the President's policies, he didn't really believe in them himself.
Dr. Rice will get no such benefit.
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