Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism

[kpete]

Source: Bloomberg

Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism

Colin Powell says his erroneous address to the United Nations about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction provides a lesson to business leaders on the importance of staying skeptical and following their intuition.

“Yes, a blot, a failure will always be attached to me and my UN presentation,” the former U.S. secretary of state writes in a new book of leadership parables that draws frequently on his Iraq war experience. “I am mad mostly at myself for not having smelled the problem. My instincts failed me.”


Powell, 75, laments that no intelligence officials had the “courage” to warn that he was given false information that Iraq had such weapons during preparations for his February 2003 speech before the U.S. invasion the following month. Regrets are sprinkled through “It Worked For Me,” along with lessons gleaned from a career that carried him from foxholes in Vietnam to senior positions at the Pentagon and the State Department.

In uncorrected page proofs of the book scheduled to be published May 22 and written with Tony Koltz, Powell advises on the virtues of kindness for a leader and a balanced life that shuns an obsession with work. He recommends taking care of and getting to know the “troops,” citing State Department garage attendants he paid a surprise visit and impromptu chats with employees.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/colin-powell-says-iraq-blot-teaches-need-for-skepticism.html

[Scuba]

1. Sorry Colin, you should have done your job, not just tried to "smell" the problem.

[bluesbassman]

2. And don't try to lay it off on intelligence officials who "lacked courage".

The evidence, or lack there of, was plain for EVERYBODY to see. You were a toadie Colin, plain and simple. Live with it.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

3. I'm nobody special, and I knew damn well the UN presentation was a farce

So did lots of other people around here. He's sounding Condaleeza-esque with his "who could have known" routine. He knew better at the time. He is lying.

[gvstn]

7. +1000

[tblue37]

12. He actually threw the papers up in the air and snarled,

"This is bullsh**!" But then he let himself be talked into giving the presentation anyway.

He was always an opportunist. That is why he nudged his career along by helping to cover up the My Lai massacre.

His nasty little son Michael learned his careerist/opportunist values at Daddy's knee and then put them into practice as Bush II's toadying little FCC Chairman.

[laundry_queen]

23. No kidding.

I was some pregnant lady with 2 toddlers, sitting in Canada browsing the "internets" and I fucking figured it out. I figured it out the minute I heard "Iraq" after 9/11. This "how could I have known" bullshit is SO old. He's just trying to re-write history with the lot of them. They were either so stupid as to be totally incompetent and should have been promptly fired, or they were complicit. Or both - I would not rule out both.

[goclark]

4. I bet he will not be voting Republican now

At least he admits his mistakes even though it took him a while.

He was USED by the BUSHES.

[Jamaal510]

8. I remember that he voted for our side back in 2008.

It's pleasing to see the Republican Party steadily losing voters, after everything they've put the country through.

[SDjack]

5. Pathetic. Powell used the American social systems to advance from poverty to

US Sec. of State. He thanks America by becoming a Republican and aiding and abetting in their elimination of the social systems that he used, and in the end, he failed by serving the GOP instead of America.

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. The murder of a million innocent people is a "BLOT", seriously?!

[Politicalboi]

9. Come on everybody

Give him a break. He was after all the Secretary of State. How would he know how to tell the truth about WMD's. After all, some here accept that the Pentagon got hit on 9/11, and don't expect ANY explanation of how our biggest defense building got hit by a passenger plane after having 40 minutes notice to arm themselves. Why should this be ANY different? It was all a mistake, and we shouldn't blame ANYONE. Now, go shopping.

[Solly Mack]

10. A "blot"? A "blot"? That piece of shit lets himself (and the others) off easy. (no surprise)

How courageous of him! Since he speaks on the courage of others...

Yes. Let us not hold anyone accountable for war crimes or crimes against humanity or breaking the peace. Let us not hold anyone accountable for the abuses of power and the traitorous lies told to break that peace.

Goodness, no! Let us instead call it all a teaching moment.

Fucking coward. Again...no surprise.

Fuck Powell.

[Robb]

11. Fuck that guy. Seriously.

I'll say what I've said before: You get off the hook if you cure cancer, otherwise my "fuck you" dated February 2003 still stands.

"Blot." Fuck you, Powell. You enabled the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. "Blot" that up.

[usrname]

13. Colin, it wasn't a blot or a botched instinct

It was you kowtowing to your handlers. You know, and I know you know, that what you presented was complete BS and was done just to gin up the war on Iraq. You kowtowed to your superiors instead of holding the higher ground and resisting.

What you taught is how to lose a spine. And I'm sorry America lost an otherwise great leader in you.

[Mnpaul]

14. What a piece of crap

We did have skepticism. The Democrats suspected that "curveball" was lying and wanted the FBI to investigate further. The Republicans would have no part of it.

This POC lied about free fire zones in Vietnam

This POC lied about Iran/Contra

This POC lied to send us into Iraq.

And he is still lying.

[salin]

15. I believe that there was a press report, Colin, before your presentation to the UN

that poked all sorts of holes through all of the 'evidence.' Trying to recall the publication. Regardless - the information was out there, and somehow you and the people working for you either weren't doing your homework, or chose to be willfully ignorant, or worse were willfully compliant per forwarding (and giving credibility) to the lies.

[tabasco]

16. Ol' Piece Of Shit Powell

should be his moniker forever.

[sendero]

17. I call bullshit.

.... you knew, I knew, everyone with two fucking brain cells knew this was all bullshit.

Fuck you and your revisionist history. Your interview on NPR is the reason I realized they had gone to the dark side and stopped sending them money.

The idea you did not know is ludicrous.

[unkachuck]

18. ....do you believe this guy?

"...My instincts failed me."

....he's still lying....

[matt819]

19. Sadly, he's still dancing around the issue and keeping the Bushies clean

Anyone with half a brain would have known his presentation was bogus. To use his word, it didn't pass the smell test, and that was for people without access to the intelligence.

He had access to the intelligence - all the intelligence. He was Secretary of State, and before that he was a top-notch 4-star general. No one's fool. He had to have known, or at the very least suspected, that it was bogus. And, yet. . . the rest is history.

What is disappointing is that he doesn't have the cojones to place the blame where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of bush, cheney, and rumsfeld. Why is he protecting them still?

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Colin Powell, enabler and cover-upper of atrocities ever since

the glory days of My Lai.

What a pathetic lickspittle.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

21. Shut the fuck up, you WAR CRIMINAL!

That is all.

[saras]

22. None dare call it conspiracy - because they're too pig-ignorant to breathe at the same time

[Javaman]

24. "My instincts failed me.” You showed cartoons of "mobile" labs. no "instincts" are required

to see through that bullshit. your fucking presentation to the UN helped cause the deaths of over 5000 US soldiers and countless thousands if not millions of Iraqis.

fuck you, ass for name.

what a colossal prick.

[ArtiChoke]

25. Cartoons!

This asshole used fucking cartoon trucks to bolster his UN lies! Anyone with an objective eye knew they were lies. If he had an ounce of integrity he might have become the first Black US president but he proved himself the career toady in 2000. What a touch-hole. Is he dying? Why try to polish your turd of a career now? Just go away!