I have never believed that the “Powell doctrine” was much other than institutional sand-bagging and a morale killer to boot.
Powell was never much better than Wesley Clark, he just got better press and we can guess why.
I am waiting for Powell to join Oprah and endorse Obama. Powell has appointed himself as “the final word” on the war. The active duty generals serving are the ones that KNOW and count...not the Webbs and Powells!
Well, wait a second. I'm not a big Powell fan (especially since he was one of the characters that knew Armitage was the leaker, not Libby, and he sat on it), but has it been determined that Powell stopped the drive into Baghdad back then? As I understand it, the UN resolution was "removal of Iraq from Kuwait", and that was GHWB's call, not Powell's.
And yeah, it would have been better in hindsight if we would have taken care of business back then, with 500,000 boots on the ground.