An e-mail makes the valid point that Powell was fed some bad information by CIA jerk Morell: “Doesn’t the Secretary get a pass when Michael Morell (CIA) admitted and apologized for feeding him bad information?” The writer added: “Probably working for GWB and the VP without the ability to influence their decisions was reason enough to resign.”
I’d put it like this. I won’t give Powell a pass because he had access to so much else. Even I as a total outsider knew that a propaganda campaign was being staged at the time, with carefully timed stories with colorful characteristics (yellowcake, mushroom clouds). Powell knew that Iraq was no military threat to us. He knew that any connection to 9/11 was almost non-existent. A slight connection was concocted about one terrorist making some sort of alleged connection to some security guy of Hussein’s. Plus Powell knew some of the more dire consequences or should have. He was simply habitually a yes-man and organization-man. Part of him knew better, judging from a few of his subsequent comments about neocons, but he waffled.
Powell just could not rise above being an obedient and deferential general, even though his position was no longer a military one. He looked upon himself as obedient advisor to the president rather than as an independent voice in government. That’s one lesson out of this. People don’t rise in government unless they’re yes-men to begin with, as another e-mailer reminded me. Ordinarily, the department secretaries, however, like power and like to use it and they take hold of their fiefdoms. Powell as a military man seems not to have had as much of this civilian appetite. He went more with the flow or the consensus or the higher power.
At the time I viewed him as one of the few people with the position and reputation to stop the war. I didn’t expect him to, but I hoped for it. My view today reflects my disappointment at the outcome and the whole absolutely horrible Iraq affair which is still costing lives today.
The whole military response to 9/11 has been an utter disaster. The costs have been astronomical. They are orders of magnitude in excess of all the lives lost on 9/11. For whom a disaster? For Iraqis. For those of us who treasure peace, justice, human life and rational behavior, George W. Bush chose an utterly senseless course of action. For those who like war, slaughter, creating misery, making war profits and getting military promotions and pensions, Bush did the right thing. And for people who like to lash out in revenge against anyone, even those who had nothing to do with a crime, Bush did the right thing. The lives lost on 9/11 could never be restored by attacking Iraq. Future terrorism acts could not be averted or prevented by attacking Iraq. In fact, in one way or another the consequence has been their augmentation.
9:14 am on September 15, 2016
