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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
A great man has passed on...
WASHINGTON — Colin Powell, the retired four-star general who became the country's first Black secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died Monday due to complications from Covid-19, his family said in a statement on Facebook. (NBC News)
I remain a life-long admirer of Colin Powell. The man's record of bravery and patriotic service to his nation in many roles is unquestionable. Getting caught up in the Cheney-Bush gang's WMD jiggery pokery brought an ignominious end to his national service, culminating in unindicted coconspirator Andy Card demanding his resignation after Powell told congress the truth about Cheney-Bush's manufactured Iraq intelligence.
I remain a life-long admirer of Colin Powell. The man's record of bravery and patriotic service to his nation in many roles is unquestionable. Getting caught up in the Cheney-Bush gang's WMD jiggery pokery brought an ignominious end to his national service, culminating in unindicted coconspirator Andy Card demanding his resignation after Powell told congress the truth about Cheney-Bush's manufactured Iraq intelligence.
He went on to reject the GOP establishment and endorse Barack Obama for president. This, combined with his death from covid despite being vaccinated has goaded some low-level dingbats and high-profile vulgar blowhards on the right into making snide, stupid and low-class comments. Fie on them all.
Mission accomplished, General Powell. May you rest in God's peace.
From My Lai to Iraq there wasn't a lie he wouldn't tell to further his career.
ReplyDeleteGood riddance.
He went on to reject the GOP establishment and endorse Barack Obama for president.
ReplyDeleteI wondered at the time -- and still wonder to this day -- if General Powell's support of Obama was so much a rejection of the GOPe as rather voting identity politics. The voting of identity politics was the reason that my dear friends M&C, a black couple whom I consider family and who consider me as family supported BHO. They weren't Dems until BHO came along.
Ah, well. I admit that I don't know all that much about General Powell.
In any case, our invasion of Iraq was unwise in that the country, a false nation state in the first place, splintered even worse than it was previous to our invasion.
I wonder if he felt betrayed by W and the establishment. Powell was a made man in the establishment. Until he wasn't. Being in the Army during periods of war is tough, but politics deals its own brand of cruelty.
DeleteSF,
DeleteI wonder if he felt betrayed by W and the establishment.
Maybe. But he also supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.
She was the establishment choice. Powell was a creature of the establishment, and although I dislike the establishment, being a member of the establishment does not immediately damn someone in my opinion.
DeleteSounds like this post will spark some good conversation, as I Hope it would.
Benedict Arnold was a hero.
DeleteUntil he wasn't.
That may seem harsh, but anyone who supports Obama, Clinton and Biden deserves derision.
You equate betraying the Republican party with betraying the United States?
DeleteInteresting
I can see how a moderate republican could judge Sarah Palin to be a more dangerous candidate than Obama.
DeleteNo, I equate supporting Obama, Clinton and Biden with betraying the United States. Don't you?
DeleteJez, Sarah was not the candidate.
DeleteLeaving one's political party - or more accurately - having one's party leave them....is betrayal?
DeleteI find that fascinating.
Ed, no. I do not
DeleteShe was on the ticket, and the prospect of McCain dying in his term was a very present one.
DeleteDeja vu all over again...
DeleteEd,
DeleteI agree with you (your comment @ 12:04 PM).
Certainly not gracious of me, but there you have it!
CI: In my response to SF, I clearly pointed out that it wasn't a betrayal of his party, but his country, to support those criminal fascists. I'm surprised you and SF do not agree, but it's a free country. Mostly. So far.
DeleteEd - My response was to SF.
DeleteEd, I profoundly disagree with those Democrats you mentioned, and there is no way I would vote for any Democrat at this time, but I do not believe those voting for them are betraying their nation.
DeleteHaving held all the positions he did, and years in government working in various administrations, he knew a whole lot of "jiggery pokery" - he chose one to hang his hat on and managed to find a way to diss Trump who really had not done one thing to him as I am sure others had done, and find a way to support Biden. Anyone else recall Geraldine Ferraro? All is forgiven in death.
ReplyDeleteAs AOW, I don't know enough about him as I am sure those of military persuasion do, but I have a problem with Sainthood upon death. One person's opinion.
I also dislike the saint hood in death, as you call it. Especially when an opposing party does it to rub it in the face of their opponents.
DeleteThe larger question is, can we dispassionately look at someone's life, without the ideological and party lenses, and provide an honest assessment.
Point taken SF
DeleteHaving studied the My Lai investigation as a professional project, and personally participated in the WMD charade; I absolve Powell for the former but hold him culpable [to an extent] for the latter.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, he was a solid soldier and I thought he would have been a capable elected representative [I have a Powell for President button from back in the day]. he was part of a cadre of senior officers and policy makers that were instrumental in bringing the Armed Forces out of the morass of Vietnam, and set the conditions for success that ultimately resulted in the outcome of Operations Desert Shield & Desert Storm.
Well stated
DeleteFarmer recently posted a good video about thos ops, what do you think? https://farmersletters.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-gulf-war-did-not-take-place.html
DeleteI'm not inclined towards YouTube videos in lieu of written discourse, but if it's based on the essays of Jean Baudrillard....it's an interesting thought experiment, I guess.
Deletemaybe not for those who were there, but more for those who watched it via cable news.
I wouldn't give to much credit to the generals who got us "out" of Vietnam... for they learned nothing from it when exiting Afghanistan (at least as far as it applied to civilian supporters or CIA operatives left behind).
DeleteCredit is given where it is due.
DeleteColin Powell could have been President of the US if he had wanted to run for it. The toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was set US policy in 1998, when the Clinton administration first listed Iraq as a backer of Al Qaeda in Osama Bin Laden's federal indictments.
ReplyDeleteWhen the avalanche started (9/11) it was too late for the pebbles to vote.
The American Conservative Union came out at the time very forcefully against a Colin Powell GOP candidacy.
DeleteWell, yeah. Powell was a social moderate. Back then, the thought of voting for a Republican didn't make me vomit in my mouth immediately, so I may have even voted for him, holding my nose or not. The Republican Party has changed, for the worse, over the last 25 years and especially the most recent five years. The burping turd bubble at the top of the septic tank runoff that the Republican Party has become, Donald Trump, isn't worthy enough to be in the same room much less the same conversation as Colin Powell, yet there he is, reminding us why the Republican Party can't even push an agenda to change light bulbs in the Capitol commissary anymore and why that's a good thing. Yeah, fie on that dumpster fire indeed
DeleteGiven the chance to replace Bill Clinton with Colin Powell in the 1996 election might have course-corrected the last 25 years of American history. Would 9/11 have even happened if a President Powell was on deck to greenlight the assassination of Osama bin Laden in 1998 when our special ops guys had him in crosshairs awaiting permission to fire?
A missed opportunity, and perhaps an object lesson for Republicans. You don't have to be laughably pathetic on purpose, much less on stilts.
This is why people need to be more circumspect before screaming RINO! at everyone not exactly like Reagan (government and the national debt grew under his presidency, btw)
DeleteThe real problem with the RNC was that it couldn't accomomdate the views of a Pat Buchanan after his failed '96 presidential run. From that point on the RNC was "Democrat Lite". That's when the RINO tag gained its real currency.
Delete...and much as I hate to admit it, the mistakes in the direction of the party BEGAN with Reagan and the "financialization" of the American economy globally.
DeleteA “RINO” is a “Republican In Name Only.” The Republican party is symbolized by the elephant; RINO is symbolized by the rhino. A RINO is someone who is a registered Republican but who holds liberal views, such as supporting bigger government spending on more government programs.
DeleteTHe term “Republican in name only” was used in the 1920s and the 1950s, then in the Ronald Reagan-era 1980s. The term “RINO” appears in print in December 1992 in an article from Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1993, Los Angeles (CA) conservative activist Celeste Greig handed out “RINO” buttons to protest Richard Riordan, who was elected Los Angeles mayor from 1993-2001. It is not known if Greig coined the term “RINO,” but she helped popularize it.
A 2009 alternative for the term “RINO” is “DIABLO" (Democrat In All But Label Only). A popular joke is “What do you get when you cross an elephant with a RINO?”
“DINO" (Democrat In Name Only) is a later, related term and has been cited in print since 1995.
FJ,
Deletemuch as I hate to admit it, the mistakes in the direction of the party BEGAN with Reagan and the "financialization" of the American economy globally
I don't disagree. But there was also Nixon's open hand to China.
Opening our markets to China in the hope that they'd become more like us instead of what actually happened (our government became more like them) was certainly one more mistake in a long list of Nixon mistakes (going off the gold standard being the worst).
DeleteMeanwhile, in Nevada... ;)
In 1996, did Pat Buchanan represent a wing of the Republican Party or just a non-essential tail feather? He barely got more convention delegates than Steve Forbes. Bob Dole routed both of them, by a lot. It wasn't even close. This is probably due to the universal inability to distinguish Buchanan's Old Right social paternalism from an extreme far left wing Seattle WTO protester.
DeleteAll I can say is if the RNC had accommodated Pat, instead of freezing him out, there never would have been a Donald Trump or RNC breakup. He was the representative for the "tea party" and the bulwark against a Ross Perot/Independent movement.
Delete:P
DeleteBuchanan's running mate in the Reform Party was a self-confessed Communist.
DeleteBe serious.
If the 1996 Republican National Convention were scaled down to be held at a Waffle House, you couldn't find enough Buchanan supporters to fill one of the booth tables.
DeleteHow do you "freeze out" the non-existent?
Ask the 72 million that voted for Trump.
DeleteI try to keep my distance from weirdos. ;)
DeleteBut Trump won 74 million votes, not 72 million. Still very shy of Biden's 81 million and 51.3% of the vote and electoral college landslide.
If anyone is "frozen out," it's people in the 1.8% like me that didn't vote for either of the two shit sandwiches.
Circling back to 1996 it's doubtful Buchanan would have won Republican dominated St. Charles County in his home state of Missouri, much less put up numbers on the Electoral College scoreboard against Clinton. Bob Dole trounced all comers in the primaries. Buchanan who? That guy that pretended to be the voice from the right on CNN's Crossfire so Michael Kinsley could stomp mudholes in a strawman every week? That guy?
Yeah, the guy who got 23% of the milquetoast "Republican" and 100% of the Reagan Conservative" vote in the 1992 Republican Presidential Primary.
DeleteI too wore the Americal Division patch on my shoulder, and was proud to identify with Powell.
ReplyDeleteUntil he started leading in the wrong direction. Could he have made a difference if he hadn't strayed? Of course.
What a shame we'll remember a good man this way.