Posted on 09/30/2006 6:00:05 PM PDT by jmc1969
Colin L. Powell, in his last face-to-face meeting with President Bush before stepping down as secretary of state in January 2005, tried to impress upon him one last time the dangers he saw the United States facing in Iraq, according to a new Powell biography.
The insurgency was growing and the country was spiraling into sectarian bloodshed, Powell warned. Elections in Iraq would not solve the problems, and the president’s ability to act decisively was being crippled by divisions within his own administration, according to the account in “Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell” by Karen DeYoung, an associate editor at The Washington Post. Bush appeared disengaged, the book says, and brushed off Mr. Powell’s complaints about dysfunction in his government.
The book is among the latest accounts of the divisions within the administration as it hurtled toward war and stumbled through its aftermath.
The book provides an inside account of the preparation for Powell’s pivotal presentation before the United Nations six weeks before the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. Powell told DeYoung that he spent much of the five days he had to prepare for the presentation “trimming the garbage” that Cheney’s staff had provided by way of evidence of Iraq’s weapons programs and ties to Al-Qaeda.
Running throughout this book and other recent accounts are the chain of defeats and humiliations Powell suffered in service to Bush. Though Powell remained one of the most admired figures in America, it was not enough to immunize him against attacks.
“There are people who would like to take me down,” he is quoted as saying while motioning toward the White House during his last year in office. “It’s been the case since I was appointed. By take down, I mean, ‘keep him in his place.’ ”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Never forget, Powell willingly served in the Clinton Admin for 2 years.
Upon retiring he became an agent for the Arabs and made millions.
Whose side is he on? Foreign lobbyist, friends he put in key lobby positions, kisses Mad Albright on the cheek...
Whose side is he on?
A pity, really, because it turned out to be the truth. Only it wasn't us who broke it, we just picked up the pieces.
Phooey on this paper-pusher then, and phooey on him now.
Too bad he didn't try to warn Bush on Armitage!
I can remember when many Republicans were dreaming of a Powell Presidency...
Any spin offerred by the New York Times is highly suspect.
It's like Foley's thing happened last YEAR and it;s just NOW coming out.....no coincidence....Dems are out for BLOOD.
To Powell's defense, he never portrayed himself as a conservative, neo or otherwise.
It's war, no doubt about it.
"the country was spiraling into sectarian bloodshed"
I would really like to see if the book really says this.
Because there was no sectarian violence in January 2005. Zarqawi did two big suicide attacks on the Shia before Fallujah. After he got Fallujah as a base he concentrated on attacking US and Iraqi forces until he lost his base again.
But, it wasn't until May 2005 when Jaafari came to power and Allawi resigned that the Badr militia started butchering Sunnis at night. It was real quiet and the media ignored it in favor of al-Qaeda suicide bombings. But, when the Madhi Army got into it after Sammara the media covered it big time.
Because, the Madhi Army unlike the Badr are not quiet and they don't target Baathists. The Madhi Army goes into Sunni towns captures several dozen civilians and kills them.
i
Back in January 2005 there was almost no hint of Shia response to the Sunni attacks. They wouldn't have dared when Allawi was PM. Sadr and Hakim knew Allawi was gunning for their heads and was just looking for a reason.
Several years ago, many here wanted Powell to run for Prez.
I use that question all the time when liberal friends of mine bash Bush on the WOT? "So what's your plan? What would you do?" They never have an answer except, "I'd have done it differently." Sounds like Kerry, or any other vocal liberal moron. eh?
The man is a globalist without any loyalty to America. And a disgruntled bitter opportunist as well.
--They wouldn't have dared when Allawi was PM. Sadr and Hakim knew Allawi was gunning for their heads and was just looking for a reason.--
If worst comes to worst, Allawi would be my #1 choice
to be installed as P.M. via coup d'etat. That dude kicks @$$, and looks like Tony Soprano.
And may I add.......thankfully!
OK so let me get this right. We go into Iraq to stop an emerging threat that had the potential to cause millions of American deaths on our own soil. We depose the inhuman dictator Saddam Hussein that was action. Then seperate to that action a sectrarian uprising occurs which is directly supported by the same terrorists that took down the WTC and who are no supported by all forms of radical Islam Terrorist organizations who are supported by terror states Syria and Iran in a proxy war against the United States. So George W. Bush with a plan is trying to solve these issues and the Liberals just want to run away and hide from them? America is nuts if it elects the no plan Democrats.
Powell SAYS he left the military because of Clinton's DON'T ASK DON'T TELL......but the man is so full of it, we really don't know the truth.
That's how I remember it too.
Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest
So what does that mean? Is he saying they wouldn't listen to him because he was black?
Clinton returned the favor by leaking fatally damaging information about Powell's lies on Bosnia to Georgeanne Geyer in December 1995. This stopped Powell's incipient candidacy for the 1996 GOP presidential nomination in its tracks. I saw the whole thing happen.
Mrs. Powell's well justified fears of an assassination attempt on her husband, should he openly run for President, were the excuse Colin Powell used to claim he wasn't interested in running. The real reason was that President Clinton successfully blackmailed Powell with utterly damming evidence that Powell had violated several federal statutes, starting with 18 U.S.C. 1001 (the one Martha Stewart was convicted of).
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