Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism
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
(53,475 posts)bluesbassman
(19,371 posts)The evidence, or lack there of, was plain for EVERYBODY to see. You were a toadie Colin, plain and simple. Live with it.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)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
(2,805 posts)tblue37
(65,336 posts)"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
(8,646 posts)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
(30,404 posts)At least he admits his mistakes even though it took him a while.
He was USED by the BUSHES.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)It's pleasing to see the Republican Party steadily losing voters, after everything they've put the country through.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)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
(10,998 posts)Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)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
(90,762 posts)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
(39,665 posts)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
(398 posts)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
(3,655 posts)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
(48,955 posts)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
(22,974 posts)should be his moniker forever.
sendero
(28,552 posts).... 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
(6,295 posts)"...My instincts failed me."
....he's still lying....
matt819
(10,749 posts)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
(14,180 posts)the glory days of My Lai.
What a pathetic lickspittle.
SomeGuyInEagan
(1,515 posts)That is all.
saras
(6,670 posts)Javaman
(62,521 posts)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
(61 posts)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!