The Moment When Colin Powell Squandered His Spectacular Career

[OAITW r.2.0]

Pretty much how I view Colin Powell and his career trajectory. A good read.

Born in Harlem to Jamaican parents, a classic tale of a working-class kid pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, Powell joined the Army, fought in Vietnam as a grunt, rose through the ranks to corps commander, then, after a stint as President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser, was named by President George H.W. Bush to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

...

During that time, he also enunciated what came to be called the “Powell doctrine,” a view that the U.S. should go to war only if the political objectives are vital and defined, if military force can achieve those objectives at an acceptable cost, if all nonviolent means have failed—and then, if war is necessary, that we should go to war only with overwhelming force. The doctrine amounted to a critique of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam—both its flawed rationale and its piecemeal tactics—and has influenced the debate on the proper role of military force ever since.

...

When the Republicans won again in 2000, President George W. Bush named Powell secretary of state, to unanimous acclaim, in what seemed the pinnacle of his rise—but it proved to be the start of his downfall. Taking office with an air of confidence, assuming that he could rule the realm of foreign policy through his clout and popularity, he soon found himself—to his initial surprise—outmaneuvered, on one major issue after another, by the tag team of Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had been friends and colleagues dating back to the Nixon administration.

...

Whenever Powell tried to initiate any form of arms control, his undersecretary of state, John Bolton, who had been installed in the job as a spy for Cheney, did his best to sabotage the move. On the few occasions when Powell won a debate in the National Security Council, Cheney would go talk with Bush privately—and usually get the decision reversed.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/colin-powell-dies-iraq-war-bush-outmaneuvered.html?utm_source=digg

[underpants]

1. He could have been President at least their nominee

but he deferred in 2000 and the rest is Dick Cheney’s evil world view as the saying goes.

[madinmaryland]

5. That would have been an interesting contest, Gore and Powell.

The what if’s abound with that one.

[PSPS]

2. Fred's off a few decades and he's old enough (67) to know better.

[UTUSN]

3. There was just *one* moment?!

[underpants]

6. 3

My Lai
Iran Contra
February 5, 2003 at the UN.

By all accounts he was a good guy but I’m sorry - 3 strikes and your out.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. He served Republican administration's well.

I guess My Lai/Iran Contra were events that propelled him forward in Republican MIC circles. And really, he torched his reputation with the Iraqi WMD fiasco. He should have resigned and kept a lot of his integrity intact.

[underpants]

11. My Lai was his big leap with the Army brass

as I understand it

[Hortensis]

4. No Republican came through this era without any capacity for greatness,

and his integrity, at very least badly damaged. Likely, if people like Powell had foreseen that going in, what was happening to the right and that they would not be able to counter the GOP's descent into depravity, they would have chosen differently.

Today's RW leadership is the right and inevitable place for so many drawn to it (who could imagine McCarthy and Giuliani, dozens of others, anywhere else?), but not Powell.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. As the saying goes...

"You made your bed. Now lie in it."

[Hortensis]

13. Umhm. His entire political career took place during

the decline of the Republican Party, including in the WH as a security adviser during the Reagan national security scandals, and he made his choices. I looked yesterday, and he actually declared as a Republican after that, during Clinton's presidency as the Republicans abandoned any remaining service to the electorate and committed to all-out, ruthlessly unprincipled partisan war.

[inwiththenew]

7. There is a certain irony in the guy who devoted his military career to preventing another Vietnam

go on to be the linchpin in the biggest military and foreign policy blunder since Vietnam. Pissed away his entire legacy for Dubya and Cheney. I hope it was worth it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

9. Point well taken.

Welcome aboard!

[Sibelius Fan]

12. Imagine if Powell had refused to lie for Cheney/bush at the UN, had resigned in protest

and had told the world exactly why he did what he did.

Imagine the world we would live in today.

[WarGamer]

14. Right here