Colin Powell, a principal architect of the US invasion of Iraq, a campaign of armed aggression that killed hundreds of thousands, was beloved by many for his thoughtful and deliberative vibe.
jacobinmag.com
i disagree with the provocative tone of this article, but here are some excerpts:
Colin Powell, a principal architect of the US invasion of Iraq, a campaign of armed aggression that killed hundreds of thousands, was beloved by many for his thoughtful and deliberative vibe
some of those in the Bush administration who were most responsible for starting the Iraq War were obvious sickos — the kind of operatives who can make bloodthirsty policy in a democracy, but could probably never get elected to anything because their public statements cause decent humans to cringe in horror.
Powell, who served in the army for thirty-five years and was national security adviser to Ronald Reagan, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W Bush, and George W. Bush’s secretary of state, was so popular that people in both parties begged him to run for president for decades. Powell has also been celebrated by liberals because, even though he served in Republican administrations, he welcomed the presidency of Barack Obama as “transformative” and opposed Donald Trump, correctly believing him a dangerous racist.
All this is true, but Powell presided over — and used his tremendous credibility to legitimate — a war that he almost certainly knew was wrong. As a result, about half a million people died.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Powell privately opposed invading Iraq, warning that doing so would destabilize the region and distract the United States from fighting terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Powell was isolated from the warmongers in the Bush White House, and often excluded from their meetings, because they knew he wasn’t a true believer in their war. He said in 2011 that the war would be a “blot on his record.”
He’s right. Because Powell was who he was, his speech at the United Nations persuaded many — probably millions — of Americans to support the war. A large section of the DC commentariat who had been ambivalent about the war capitulated in the wake of the speech. Data from several different studies showed that 10 percent of Americans, after seeing Powell’s speech, were moved from opposition to support for the Iraq War. The effect was strongest among Democrats. The speech also caused a 30 percent jump in the number of people who falsely believed that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Iraqis are not mourning Colin Powell. Many, however, are mourning family, friends and neighbors who died as a direct result of Powell’s lapse of integrity. “He lied, lied and lied,” an Iraqi writer and mother of two told the Associated Press today. “He lied, and we are the ones who got stuck with never-ending wars.” Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who famously threw a shoe at President Bush during a 2008 news conference, tweeted that he was sad that Powell had died without being tried for his war crimes against the Iraqi people.
In his way, Colin Powell was actually worse than Donald Rumsfeld. He made it appear that even the most murderous and indefensible decisions of our elites, however distressing, are reasonable and inevitable, the result of sober deliberation. He made the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians look justified. He enjoyed the trust of millions, yet he lied. I’m inclined to agree with al-Zaidi: The only sad thing about Colin Powell’s death is that he’ll never be punished for his crimes
www.wgauradio.com
