Reuters: Powells Says U.S. 'Too Loud' Over Iraq (Stern Interview)

[Hissyspit]

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-03-30T110212Z_01_N30631188_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-USA-EUROPE-POWELL-DC.XML

Powell Says U.S. Was 'Too Loud' Over Iraq -Magazine
Wed Mar 30, 2005 06:02 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States made errors in presenting its case for war against Iraq, but Saddam Hussein had to be removed, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told a German magazine.
"We were sometimes too loud, too direct, perhaps we made too much noise," Powell told Stern magazine in an interview released on Wednesday. "That certainly shocked the Europeans sometimes."

He said terms like "Old Europe," the expression coined by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to describe countries such as France and Germany which opposed the war, had not helped ease European concerns about Washington's policies.

But he said that despite the problems facing U.S. troops in Iraq, it was better that Saddam Hussein was no longer in power.

MORE

[Spinzonner]

1. Poor, Pathetic, Powell

Sold out his own doctrine and his fellow soldiers for a lousy few crumbs of fame.

[jpgray]

2. Perhaps it was the BS and bullying? (nt)

[Inland]

11. I can't tell if

that's what he meant or that's what he is ignoring.

Is that a sign of a good diplomat, that it seems like he is apologizing but maybe he isn't?

[Solly Mack]

3. Sounds like he's still getting a paycheck....

[FloridaPat]

4. Why? They never give explicit reasons why this logic is valid.

He didn't gas his own people. The mass graves were a result of US talking rebels into trying to take over the government and promising to back them and then backing out. They weren't a threat except for selling the oil in Euros. And we're doing everything evil there that Sadam has been accused of.

And since this guy was so terrible, what happened to his trial? Haven't heard a word about that in a long time.

[trapper914]

9. Not to defend the Neo-Cons...

but I believe he gassed about 5000 people in Halabja in the late 80's with the fully blessing of the republican administration. Al Gore sponsored a Senate Resolution spelling out sanctions for Iraq. It passed through Congress and was vetoed. The next year, Bush I gave Saddam a billion in loan guarantees.

[jayfish]

10. Your Belief Is Incorrect.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/02/08_gassing.html

<SNIP>
However, recently Stephen Pelletiere wrote in the New York Times that Iran, not Iraq, gassed the Kurds of Halabja.

This much about the gassing at Halabja we undoubtedly know: it came about in the course of a battle between Iraqis and Iranians. Iraq used chemical weapons to try to kill Iranians who had seized the town, which is in northern Iraq not far from the Iranian border. The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange. But they were not Iraq's main target.

And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.

The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent - that is, a cyanide-based gas - which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.
</SNIP>


Jay

[renaissanceguy]

17. With our media friends, who needs the truth?

It's sad this war and everything in this country has come down to catchy, key phrases. No logic whatsoever.



http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/481947

[MaineDem]

5. He'd have more "cred" if he had resigned

How he has the gall to say all this now is beyond my comprehension.

He should have been saying this two years ago instead of doing that dog and pony show at the UN.

Pathetic!

[Hissyspit]

6. Could not find an online English version of Stern for full interview n/t

[fasttense]

7. He certainly ruined his career by hitching his wagon to a bunch of

Idiots.

[MiniMe]

8. He left out too arrogant. n/t

[moondust]

12. He still doesn't get it.

Maybe George could recommend a community college for retraining.

[Hissyspit]

13. Powell, not Powells, of course n/t

[shantipriya]

14. Powell

Too loud? what does that mean?
How about too arrogant and full of lies,falsehoods and disinformation!

[peacebird]

15. How - precisely - are we better off now?

How much of a threat was Saddam Hussein to the interests of the US? Was his "threat" really worth mortgaging our country? Are the 1500 plus dead soldiers better off now that Saddam is out? What about the 100,000 plus dead Iraqi's? What about the LIVING Iraqi's? Better off now?

Just asking...

[FloridaPat]

16. Depends on who "we" is. If "we" is a defense contractor, "we are better

off". If "we" are the neocons and the repubs - "we are better off". Those of us left with the bills are not better off.

[Moderator]

18. kick to combine

[Canuck55]

19. Powell criticises Bush on Iraq

Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
April 01, 2005

FORMER US secretary of state Colin Powell claims he is "furious and angry" about being misinformed over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and has criticised George W.Bush and Donald Rumsfeld for their clumsy rhetoric in the lead-up to the war.

In a candid magazine interview, Mr Powell hinted that his infamous testimony to the UN Security Council in February 2003, when he built the case for the coalition invasion of Iraq, left him a political lame duck.

"Hundreds of millions followed it on television," Mr Powell said of his testimony. "I will always be the one who presented it.

"I have to live with that."

-------------------------------------

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12718206%255E2703,00.html

[GAspnes]

20. TLTL (n/t)

[Mari333]

21. Cry me a fucking River Colin!!

Thousands of families HAVE TO LIVE WITH THEIR LOVED ONES DEAD AND WOUNDED because of your whorish ass kissing and sucking the teat of the Bush administration lies
Rot in the hell of your own conscience. No pity for you, buddy.

[Jack The Tab]

22. Oh please shut the f*ck up Colin...

Who is going to belive your righteous indignation now?

You threw the papers down in your office when you were told to go give that presentation to the U.N. - You are quoted as calling it "Bullshit"

So a big F.U. for even trying to rehabilitate your image on the backs of 1500 dead soldiers who died because you couldn't stand up for principals that people once believed you had.

[iamjoy]

23. Oh, Give Me A Break

:nopity:

Obviously you weren't too "furious and angry" because you still helped get the liars another 4 years with no accountability for their actions.

[tridim]

24. Powell is in CYA mode

We knew the WMD stuff was BS almost from the start, why didn't Powell? Apparently, he's not as smart as people give him credit.

[GOTV]

25. Yes you do

"I have to live with that."

Yes you do

And I for one, hope your credibility never recovers

[Zerex71]

28. Too bad!

Don't bite the hand that feeds you, Colin.

Quote from Powell in the latest issue of The Utne Reader:

"I'm running out of villains...I'm down to Castro and Kim Il Sung". This was from around the time of GW1.

[RaRa]

26. God, the arrogance

Only the Iraqi people have the right to say whether it's better that Hussein is gone, given he was never a threat to us.

[UpInArms]

27. Colon Polyps is a cancer of

the worst kind.

No mea culpas will ever wipe the blood from his hands.

I can only hope that he rots in a cell in the Hague.