In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence . . . [b]ut many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.. . . The administration, this time relying on Gen. David Petraeus to play the Colin Powell role, has had remarkable success creating the perception that the “surge” is succeeding, even though there’s not a shred of verifiable evidence to suggest that it is.
. . . [T]he usual suspects [say], General Petraeus is a fine, upstanding officer who wouldn’t participate in a campaign of deception — apparently forgetting that they said the same thing about Mr. Powell.
. . . So here we go again. It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years. And those who cannot learn from history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.
I don’t get Times Select. I read this on Talk Left. But, what an excellent point! Last night, after watching the Cheney video [below], I had a Youtube moment and watched video of the 9/11 attacks [I didn’t post them because I think one should be able to choose about when to revisit that day]. One of them had a sequence with Powell’s speech to the U.N. and his comments afterwards – things he said that I expect he would like to retract. But Krugman makes an excellent point. Here we go again – rolling out a respected General we might believe, because the Bush/Cheney currency has lost all value. Every thing is a trick!
Put the numbers up there in black and white and let us make our own decisions. No more theater. No more lies…
Where is Colin Powell now? He could get us out of a war that he helped get us into by telling Americans the truth. His name will forever be linked to the Iraq war no matter what he does but his conscience would be cleared by getting our soldiers out of the hell hole called Iraq. He could work with the UN to gather other nations to prepare Iraq for peace. It is in the interest of the world to stop this terrible civil war.
I agree! I was just sitting down to write about that…