Posted on 11/22/2004 12:47:15 PM PST by demlosers
WASHINGTON -- The resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell sends a bad signal to the rest of the world.
It means that right-wing ideologues who believe in pre-emptive war and who ignore international treaties will be in charge of U.S. foreign policy during President Bush's second term.
The president apparently believes that his election victory is a mandate for his ill-advised "might-is-right" foreign policy.
Considering the Iraqi quagmire, I doubt that is what the voters had in mind. If he pursues that track over the next four years, the United States will be even more alienated from friends and allies. And bankrupt, too.
In selecting National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as Powell's successor, Bush will have the State Department under his thumb. She is almost part of the president's personal family. You won't catch her out of the loop or freelancing.
Diplomacy is not her strong suit, and she lacks Powell's stature and experience in statesmanship. This is a hard-liner.
It's been widely reported that Rice would have preferred to be secretary of defense. Picture that. Giving orders to the Pentagon brass.
Powell had misgivings about invading Iraq. But Dr. Rice, as her staff reverentially refers to her (Bush calls her "Condi"), had no reservations. She became a key part of the Bush administration's marketing team in the months before the war when she and others set out to convince Americans that attacking Iraq was in their best interest.
Her fervor about the Iraqi threat led her once to warn ominously about "mushroom clouds."
Powell gave the first Bush administration a look of some moderation and conciliation. But from the outset, it was clear to other nations that he was outgunned and outmanned by the neo-conservatives in the White House and the Pentagon.
He clashed with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, both of whom had the president's ear. They appealed more to Bush's "High Noon" self-image and zeal for war with Iraq.
Powell had served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under former President Bush. And Powell gave his name to the doctrine that military action should be commenced only with overwhelming force, a strong coalition of allies and an exit strategy.
That proved to be a winning formula in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, and Powell could not understand why that blueprint was not applied again in the current conflict.
Powell will be remembered for his tour de force appearance in February 2003 before the U.N. Security Council when he made the U.S. case for strong action against Iraq. During his mesmerizing 90-minute presentation, Powell held up samples of toxins of which he claimed Saddam Hussein had tons and would use in biological and chemical warfare. He helped convince the country that Iraq was a major threat.
Despite some later slippage in his credibility, his popularity is intact.
Powell's softer approach to world affairs sometimes clashed with the administration's hawks. Early on, he tried to work with South Korea on a more conciliatory policy toward North Korea, but Bush rejected his approach. He also may have made more headway on Middle East policy had he been given a free hand.
Powell went into the State Department with the thought that the job entailed peacemaking. Wrong.
More and more, Powell found himself powerless and required to sell policies that he did not wholeheartedly support. Even for Powell, always known as a "good soldier," it must have been frustrating to be thwarted by those who were pushing a different hard-edged agenda.
Government officials who reach the pinnacle often run into an ethical dilemma: Should they throw in the towel or accept a policy they oppose? Powell inevitably chose the latter option, though news accounts often appeared with anonymous officials telling how much he disagreed with the White House or the Pentagon on various issues.
Now, with Powell gone, the president will be surrounded by those who tell him only what he wants to hear.
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com. Copyright 2004 Hearst Newspapers.
Thomas long had the honored position in the White House press room because she was the “dean of the White House press corps.” She has maintained that position of honor despite the fact that she is no longer masquerading as a reporter, but is now officially a columnist. Bush should have her moved to the back of the room and order that she never be called on.
Wrong, bag lady. More efficient implementation of GWB's policies is exactly what voters wanted, and are getting.
BUSH - BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
This garbage from the DUCHESS of Reporting who doesn't KNOW a single human being who voted for George Bush. Guess she likes being around ONLY those who are LIKE MINDED.
That's right, Helen. No more Mr. Nice Guy. You might as well just drown your sorrows in a bottle of gin, because we are in charge now. Ta-ta.
Nope. Daughter!
Question for ya..give me ONE difference between Helen Thomas and Maureen Dowd?
Four years?
Helen Thomas is prettier and has a better bod?
Newsmax.com 11-22-4
President Bush's decision to nominate Condoleezza Rice received widespread praise from both Democrats and Republicans.
But longtime White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas, now a syndicated columnist with Hearst, had nothing but contempt for Rice's nomination. The feisty 84-year-old reporter who started at the White House during the Kennedy administration had some unkind words to describe Bush and Condi.
NewsMax bumped into Thomas in the lobby of New York's Waldorf-Astoria as she waited for a lunch date. Asked about the election result, the sharp-tongued reporter simply put her hand on her face and said, "My God, the man is a fascist -- a fascist, I tell you."
She warned that Bush's victory will mean one thing: more war. She expects Iran to be next.
But surely Thomas, a female reporter who succeeded decades ago in a "man's world," had some empathy about Condi's appointment.
As we suggested the notion, a look of horror came over Thomas' face.
"I tell you, the women is a monster, a monster, a monster," she kept saying.
Asked why she was so angry with Condi, Thomas explained that the national security adviser had lied about the Iraq war and "thousands had died."
Thomas, to her credit, has asked tough questions of both Democrat and Republican presidents during her long tenure in the White House press corps, but some of her anger seemed more personal.
For decades, Thomas held the privileged front-row seat in the pressroom and usually got to ask the first question. Now she says she is back in the last row and "Bush is afraid to take my questions."
Fair enough, but the venom for Condi?
When NewsMax referred to some of Condi's positive achievements, Thomas kept interjecting "monster" to describe her. "The lady is a goddamn liar," Thomas said, adding that such prevaricators were commonplace in the Bush White House.
Nor was Thomas impressed that Condi, an African-American woman, had risen from segregated Alabama to become the most powerful woman in the nation.
Thomas rejected that, too, claiming that Condi's family had opposed Dr. Martin Luther King and that she and her folks had not supported the civil rights movement. In fact, Thomas then made the bizarre claim that Condi's family wouldn't even patronize black-owned stores.
Thomas had little substantiation for any of these allegations.
Nor for some very vague allegations about the Bush family, which she said would "stop at nothing" to deal with its enemies.
Michael Moore, please call Helen Thomas. She is ready to help with your next movie!
http://newsmax.com/
Oh come on now... Maureen is several inches taller.
helen thomas is racist and sexist.
we have a winnah....
This woman is sad. I hate to see dementia overcome a person in public.
"ideologues who believe in pre-emptive war and who ignore international treaties will be in charge of U.S. foreign policy"
Sounds a lot like the Clinton administration ala Bosnia. Was Helen concerned then??
Congressman Billybob
Hey Helen . . . shove it.
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