John Kerry and Colin Powell
This is another plug for my favorite website, www.consortiumnews.com. The site currently features a brilliant piece by Robert Parry analyzing the career of Colin Powell. I will not try to summarize Parry's article; the title of the piece, "Colin Powell: Failed Opportunist," pretty much says it all about Parry's conclusions. Suffice to say, the article is comprehensive and devastating in its dissection of Powell's highly-fictionalized public persona.
What I found most striking in Parry's article is the following observation:
"Another amazing aspect of Powell's life story was his Forrest Gump-like quality to show up in frame after frame in turning-point moments in recent American history, except in Powell's case, he almost never did the right thing."
Parry describes Powell's role in so many of the crucial events of our times, a role that invariably placed Powell on the wrong side of the issue. In Vietnam, Powell had an opportunity to bring about the early disclosure of the My Lai massacre; instead he covered it up. He was in on the ground floor of the Iran-Contra affair; instead of blowing the whistle, he covered up for superiors such as Caspar Weinberger. He was heavily involved in the Central American policies of the Reagan Administration; he covered up atrocities committed by American allies. He had an opportunity to minimize some of the carnage perpetrated against Iraqis in the first Gulf War; instead he double-crossed Gen. Schwarzkopf (who sought to avoid a ground war in Iraq) in order to curry favor with the hawkish zeitgeist of the first Bush Administration. And, as we all know most recently, he had an opportunity to take a stand against the current disastrous policies in Iraq; instead he legitimized Bush's actions by presenting fabricated evidence to the UN, either knowingly or at best in reckless disregard for the truth.
What is most striking about this catalogue of Powell's consistent pattern of placing personal advancement before doing the right thing, is the fact that John Kerry was very much on the scene during the same crucial junctures in recent history. And how differently did Kerry behave! Instead of sweeping Vietnam atrocities under the rug, as Powell persistently tried to do, Kerry courageously came home and told the truth; that courage came back to haunt him in this campaign. As previously described in this blog, Kerry was in the forefront in alerting the public to the lawlessness of the Reagan Administration's Central America policies and was among the first to unravel the facts of the Iran-Contra affair. Kerry took a courageous stand against the necessity of the first Gulf War, another act of courage that cost him in this election. And as I have also described in previous blogs, Kerry consistently pressed for a rational policy in the current Iraq debacle, a reasoned approach that merely subjected him to derision by the Republicans and their media allies as a "flip flopper."
More than anything else, this recent election fills me with sadness -- even more sadness than anger. What an opportunity America squandered! We had a chance to select a truly great President, a man who consistently stood for what was right throughout all of the turning points of our recent history. Instead, we are the mercy of shallow opportunists.
What I found most striking in Parry's article is the following observation:
"Another amazing aspect of Powell's life story was his Forrest Gump-like quality to show up in frame after frame in turning-point moments in recent American history, except in Powell's case, he almost never did the right thing."
Parry describes Powell's role in so many of the crucial events of our times, a role that invariably placed Powell on the wrong side of the issue. In Vietnam, Powell had an opportunity to bring about the early disclosure of the My Lai massacre; instead he covered it up. He was in on the ground floor of the Iran-Contra affair; instead of blowing the whistle, he covered up for superiors such as Caspar Weinberger. He was heavily involved in the Central American policies of the Reagan Administration; he covered up atrocities committed by American allies. He had an opportunity to minimize some of the carnage perpetrated against Iraqis in the first Gulf War; instead he double-crossed Gen. Schwarzkopf (who sought to avoid a ground war in Iraq) in order to curry favor with the hawkish zeitgeist of the first Bush Administration. And, as we all know most recently, he had an opportunity to take a stand against the current disastrous policies in Iraq; instead he legitimized Bush's actions by presenting fabricated evidence to the UN, either knowingly or at best in reckless disregard for the truth.
What is most striking about this catalogue of Powell's consistent pattern of placing personal advancement before doing the right thing, is the fact that John Kerry was very much on the scene during the same crucial junctures in recent history. And how differently did Kerry behave! Instead of sweeping Vietnam atrocities under the rug, as Powell persistently tried to do, Kerry courageously came home and told the truth; that courage came back to haunt him in this campaign. As previously described in this blog, Kerry was in the forefront in alerting the public to the lawlessness of the Reagan Administration's Central America policies and was among the first to unravel the facts of the Iran-Contra affair. Kerry took a courageous stand against the necessity of the first Gulf War, another act of courage that cost him in this election. And as I have also described in previous blogs, Kerry consistently pressed for a rational policy in the current Iraq debacle, a reasoned approach that merely subjected him to derision by the Republicans and their media allies as a "flip flopper."
More than anything else, this recent election fills me with sadness -- even more sadness than anger. What an opportunity America squandered! We had a chance to select a truly great President, a man who consistently stood for what was right throughout all of the turning points of our recent history. Instead, we are the mercy of shallow opportunists.
posted by democratic core at 7:32 PM
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