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Colin Powell (file)
By the time then Secretary of State Colin Powell gave his now, to use his word, "infamous" 2003 speech at the United Nations about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Powell says war with Iraq was inevitable. That assertion is being made by former Secretary Powell in his new book, "It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership," to be released on May 22.
The Huffington Post quotes Powell's book in which Powell writes: "By then, the President did not think war could be avoided. He had crossed the line in his own mind, even though the NSC [National Security Council] had never met — and never would meet — to discuss the decision."
The Huffington Post's report continues:
Bush insisted in his own 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," that the invasion was something he came to support only reluctantly and after a long period of reflection. During his book tour, he even cast himself as “a dissenting voice” in the run-up to war. "I didn't wanna use force,” he said.
But Powell supports the increasingly well-documented conclusion that there was actually no decision-making point — or decision-making process — during the events between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, which had nothing to do with those attacks.
Former Secretary Powell's remarks echo the sentiments made in 2007 by former CIA chief George Tenet who said President Bush was quick to make up his mind that the United States would go to war in Iraq.
Powell's new book, however, certainly seems to go further than these remarks Secretary Powell made to Tim Russert on Meet the Press in 2007.
NBC News/YouTube
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I have watched as Colin Powell has struggled since 2003 to justify his position. But at that moment, speaking before the U.N., his credibility as well as his political future went out the window. It is my personal belief that Bush and Cheney played him for a chump, and Powell was nothing more to them then their whipping boy to take the political heat and backlash.
How much heat can he take? Only the President can send troops to war. He was only one of the many tools used to push the big lie. The truth is slowly rising and one day we'll all accept that the war, like all wars, is about money and resources (oil).
It is difficult to believe that information about Iraqi nuclear status at the time of 9/11 and the long-time monitoring of Iraq, including German intelligence, would indicate terrorists working in Iraqi and building nuclear weapons. It appears that the United States, with facts on the table, continued to spin the myth and actually drew a scenario that terrorists worked with the Iraqi Government which turned out to be false. A Government with a strong interest and relationship with countries in that region, including the Saudi Government and Pakistan, long assisting Pakistan with all of the risk, is unlikely to be ignorant about the real nuclear threats in that region, including Iraq. Our govenment lied in my opinion; they continue to justify their lie and I do not believe Colin Powell.
We went, we saw, we conquored.
Saddam Hussien that rogue military dictator was ousted, hunted down along with his band of murderous dogs, captured, and turned over to a democratic Iraqi government and subsequently they tried him and convicted him and executed him. No more trouble out of that formerly dangerous nation in the heart of the Arabic Penisulla. Story over!
The Bush administration trained the Iraqi military, trained the police, along with other Allied nations support of troops and material and wealth, and the fledgling democratic government in Iraq is secure. And the people of Iraq free of the despotic rule.
And the terms of the withdrawal of the US and Allied forces were negotiated and agreeded to during the Bush Administration, it was simply left to the Obama Administration to live up to them as agreed to during his administation. Which he did.
How do you say SUCCESS?
Didn't Dick Cheney insist that Iraqi oil was going to "pay for" the war?
Then why did we get stuck with the check? And as Bill Maher noted, in the world of realpolitick, having Sadaam Hussein as a buffer against Iraq might not have been a bad thing...
Grandpa got his Etch-a-Sketch and apparently, a testosterone shot... Here's anaother conservative voice attacking the President for what Grandpa is insisting was a no-brainer (the only no-brainer, of course, was Bush 43).
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48563
President Obama pulled our forces out of Iraq knowing full well that that country wasn’t stable enough to avoid possible civil war and/or the emergence of a Shiite Saddam Hussein. History will judge this as one of Obama’s worst foreign policy decisions.
Me, I'm with General Powell. Bush broke Iran. He owns it...
If Bush owns it, why isn't he paying for it?
Obama is right US spent way too much time and suffering in Iraq Let them fight for their own damn country . Iraq war was NO 'Success' Death - soldiers maimed- wasted trillions-damaged our reputation - and for what ? The War Profiteers . Some folks still refuse to admit what a global disaster Bush admin was led to Worst crash in 80 yrs- corp unfunded cuts-debt- jobs overseas w/ big Bush tax breaks to boot. Bush even tried to give control of our US ports to DUBAI !! Powell was sacrificed to save Bush & Cheney 'ass . Dismal failures- lies- greed
To me, Colin Powell made a very succinct and dramatic explanation - with the charts and diagrams - that contrary to my personal belief that after 12 years of extremely hard sanctions - AND the evidence that Hans Blix could not find anywhere - that I'm not so smart - and there must be something about Iraq that I couldnt possibly know - well... I found out there was something I didnt know. That GWB and his little Dickey boy would stoop to anything to have their way. Wait a while longer - the way they spin things, and their henchmen write text books - in 10 years kids in Texas will read that there actually WERE WMDs found in Iraq and bush himself landed an airplane in the battlefield to take them out.
And to say that Saddam Hussein is no longer in charge of this country - and we did a good thing to take him out? SO the HELL WHAT. How many despots are there now in Burma, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, on and on and on... ? What about China and Russia? why is it okay to do it one hapless buffoon and not all of them? Because he has oil?
Now, we spent a Trillion$ there - and just finished building a $1 embassy - that will soon stand empty as they will not allow us to stay. Nice CostBenefit analysis done there, republicans.
Seems as I rememberit, Bristish, French, Italian, and Danish inteligence services along with Jordan's and Saudia Arabia's and Quatar's all believed Hussien was actively attempting to reconstitute chemical and bilogical weapons, and seeking assistance and the materials to do what Iran and North Korea are doing now, attempting to become a neuclear armed power.
I guess in your hind sight your are much wiser than all the parties back then, including Colin Powell who as I remember spent his first years after leaving the Bush Administration running around the country as a one of a group of slick "motivational" speakers, something he showed promise at as a Military leader and United Nations Ambassador.
Nuff said!
Grandpa Fuzz on another clip claims he didn't hear about Don King and Karl Rove using gay marriage as a wedge issue to motivate African American voters in Ohio. Then in one of the worst chicken@!$%# pieces of rhetoric I've ever seen, he tried to make a bit of humor saying he'd never heard about Bush running on a gay marriage platform.
Hard to tell whether he's really stupid or just pretends to be here...
Now everyone else saw the movie Fair Game, but I'll bet Grandpa hasn't...
And his racism is showing with that smear of General Powell; he put on a demonstration of his bigotry with his Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman howlings...
And oh my. I seem to have missed something. I don't recall Colin Powell ever being United Nations Ambassador... And per Wiki...
However, Britain's Channel 4 News reported soon afterwards that a UK Intelligence dossier that Powell had referred to as a "fine paper" during his presentation had been based on old material and plagiarized an essay by American graduate student Ibrahim Al-Marahshi. [footnoted] A 2004 report by the Iraq Survey Group concluded that the evidence that Powell offered to support the allegation that the Iraqi government possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) was inaccurate.
State Department analysts had found dozens of factual problems in drafts of the speech. Some of the claims were taken out, but others were left in, such as claims based on the yellowcake forgery. The administration came under fire for having acted on faulty intelligence, particularly what was single-sourced to the informant known as Curveball. Powell later recounted how Vice President Cick Cheney had joked with him before he gave the speech, telling him, "You've got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points."
Felted again, Grandpa. You and your prevarications would be much better suited to FAUX Noise, but I can understand your not wanting to hang around them. They're too much like you are.
What smear of General Powell, the complement on his motivational skills? How did that have anything to do with race? Oh, I see. Colin Powell is a Afro American, so any opinion that differs with the liberal view is automatically "racist"?
And exactly what were my "bigotry" character failings of my posts warning of the racebaiting tactics of the liberal media whipping up a furor about George Zimmerman and his defense against the charges brought against him? The distortions of reporting and commentary that have left this lingering picture of "a 12 year old black child gunned down walking home with an ice tea and Skittles in his child like hands by a white cold blooded killer"? When MSNBC revisits this case, as they will, we will still be treated to that actual picture of a 12 year old child, and some showing him much younger I will bet. And it will all be very difficult to explain and head off the trouble coming when (not if) George Zimmerman is aquitted of the charges of 2nd degree murder.
In his appearance before the United Nations, Colin Powell assumed the role of the United States Ambassador to the UN for the express purpose of delivering his motivational presentation for going to war with the rogue military despot Saddam Hussien. Of course he wasn't the official Ambassador to the UN, more "King of the Day" so to speak.
And i've noticed that you have returned to your old habit of trolling through the posts to find my comments, and immediately disparage them with insulting coments of your own. Is that your life's goal, to follow in my wake, cab driver?
Go read what everyone else is saying about my replies. They like them. When you're not an outright liar, you're quibbling. You must've been a lousy soldier; the whole parade was always out of step but you.
You claimed Powell was Ambassador to the United Nations, and he wasn't. And you're not even man enough to acknowledge the error. 'Nuff said, and I note you ignored the proof I provided that the whole idea of WMD's was ginned up by the Cheney Administration and an utterly weak puppet president with a God complex. You seem to prefer your badly fabricated fiction.
Simple reality for the reality challenged, and if you were so certain of your claims, you wouldn't be so hostile about them and try to shout down your critics.
As for the paranoia of me following you, I was visiting this site long before you, and it would be nice to be able check the comments without having to step around your manure piles.
Seems suspicious that you only comment in followup to something I've put forth.
Try doing something other.
Only time I had trouble keeping step in a parade was when prior to a Memorial Day Parade i served in while in uniform we were lined up at the bar of the local American Legion in Redbank, NJ and provided with shots and beers for our breakfast. But you would know a lot about that, having spent at least a recent decade drunk on your arse in the gutter, cab driver. And I lived through the Bush Administration run up to the 2nd Gulf War sober, so I don't have to rely on java fueled late nite google sessions looking for leftist revisionists blogs to gain my information of how it went down.
And this is a surprise to who?????
Bush- likely mostly Cheney ' made up their mind to attack Iraq' no matter what. They used lies and fear tactics to do so ( mushroom cloud- smoking gun - possible WMD attack from Iraq ) Corp run Media never questioned Bush The American people were duped Iraq war killed maimed & wasted trillions . Made Cheneys Halliburton Blackwater -weapons makers massive profits. Blood money
Let's not forget how we were told how grateful the Iraqis were going to be and how we would be getting inexpensive oil from them as a show of gratitude for what we did to save them from the tyrant and his sons. Aren't low gas prices great?
Would you prefer Canadian Oil? Then write your Congressman and Senator, and tell him or her to put the pressure on the Obama Administration to approve the whole of the Keystone Pipeline Project left hanging slowly twisting in the winds of environmental hysteria.
Grandpa has his shell game in full operation again. The fact that this country is exporting oil is lost on him. The fact that the Keystone Pipeline amounts to this country doing the bidding of a Canadian company doesn't register, damn any possible environmental consequences or reasonable safeguards and regulations. Check the news here, Sonny Fuzz. We had a broken oil pipeline in the valley, and it was a lousy mess.
Now what about all the funds/deficit spending this country spent on the war in Iraq? You've hyped your economic expertise, but then you run back to your hidey hole when someone tries to bring the subject up...
Some things are worth paying for.
Cradle to grave security (like Julia's) based on borrowed funds robs the future generations, and steals a sense of self worth from the coddled.
Bad teeth!!! Yuk