The Powell Gambit

It's hard to know what to make of the new that Hillary Clinton is telling people she'd like to appoint Colin Powell to do something or other related to improving America's standing in the world. Powell's obviously a knowledgeable, experienced guy and I suppose it would make sense for a new President to talk to him and get his perspective on things. Maybe even send the message that it's not just Democrats who think the country's taken a totally messed-up course over the past few years.

But then again, if Clinton's looking to assuage people's doubts about her foreign policy judgment, this seems like a terrible way to do it. A lot of Clinton's pro-invasion advisors are too obscure for most people to recognize. But Powell was the public face of the Iraq sales pitch. He's also a man who did have enough independence from his commander-in-chief to undermine her husbands efforts to bring gay equality to the military when Bull Clinton was president and Powell was in uniform. But as Secretary of State he raised some skeptical questions about the war, heard some answers, and then not only hopped on the bandwagon, but used his leverage as someone with a reputation for skepticism to make the sales pitch all the more effective.

Comments

Does anyone get the feeling Hillary would just be a redux of BushII albeit slightly more competent and with a few less nutjobs filling in the holes?

Posted by steve duncan | November 28, 2007 7:51 AM

Matt: you might want to fix the "Bull Clinton" typo since I instantly thought of Bullshit--and I think you didn't mean any such thing.

Posted by d | November 28, 2007 7:52 AM

Does anyone get the feeling Hillary would just be a redux of BushII albeit slightly more competent and with a few less nutjobs filling in the holes?

The reason you get this feeling is because that's Clinton's sales pitch. For the umpteenth time: Hillary Clinton is not running for president as a liberal because she is not a liberal, and it's enormously frustrating to watch liberal pundits scratching their heads in wonderment every time she very clearly signals this.

Posted by Christmas | November 28, 2007 7:58 AM

Bull Clinton, hadn't heard that one before.

Powell will be forever compromised by his Iraq war salesmanship. I'm not suggesting he must inevitably become a political pariah, or that there's something wrong with appointing Republicans to positions in a Democratic administration where they might do some good, but I simply can't imagine any such position for Powell in a Democratic administration.

A few Republicans might still like him for his loyalty, but even for them Powell is really just a nostalgia trip, no? Don't see a role for him in their administration either. They probably all suspect that when he dies he'll allow some tell-all to be published about how he didn't agree with this or that, in the Gerald Ford fashion.

Posted by sweaty guy | November 28, 2007 7:59 AM

Sen. Clinton has bigger problems than Colin Powell. Her husband is getting killed in the papers and on cable TV for saying he was against the Iraq War from the outset (see Marc Ambinder's post). First the 'they're swift boating my wife' comments and now this.

Does anyone else think former President Clinton may have lost his fastball?

Posted by joejoejoe | November 28, 2007 8:06 AM

"Does anyone else think former President Clinton may have lost his fastball?"

You assume that Bill Clinton's agenda is more concerned with electing his wife President than with vindicating himself.

You're wrong in that assumption.

Posted by Petey | November 28, 2007 8:10 AM

Colin Powell was also the main reason we didn't go into Bosnia earlier, and stave off genuine genocide in time to save more lives. He gave Clinton enormous casualty estimates, refused to even consider the option of the Air Force taking out guns, a low-cost option to buy more time.

It wasn't until Powell was gone that Clinton got up the guts to go into that situation, in which, btw, no Americans were ever killed.

And someone remind me again how Clinton was such a great president. I never bought that, not after he didn't even expend enough political capital to sign off on gays in the military.

No more Clinton/Powell power games, please.

Posted by KathyF | November 28, 2007 8:16 AM

I'm not suggesting he must inevitably become a political pariah

If you're not, then I am. Toss him onto the list along with everyone else who paved the way for war.

Posted by Christmas | November 28, 2007 8:18 AM

I never quite understood the degree of Colin Powell worship I used to encounter, and I think a lot of HRC's crowd are permanently stuck in a historical moment where everyone still feels that Powell-mania.

I don't think that still exists, not least since he waved his bottle of Mrs. Dash at the UN.

Posted by El Cid | November 28, 2007 8:18 AM

What makes anyone think that Powell still has enough international credibility to improve America's standing in the world? Don't you think that folks around the world are as aware as we are of Powell's complicity in getting the US into Iraq? I can't imagine that folks in other countries don't see his UN presentation for the snow job that it was.

Posted by Kurzleg | November 28, 2007 8:26 AM

I can't imagine that folks in other countries don't see his UN presentation for the snow job that it was.

Not only do other countries see his UN presentation for the snow job that it was, they saw it as such at the time, which is a lot more than I can say for Americans, who seemed overwhelmingly convinced of the pressing need for war by a handful of mediocre Powerpoint slides.

Posted by Christmas | November 28, 2007 8:48 AM

Colin Powell lost his credibility when he went before the UN and spouted propaganda he knew wasn't true for the purpose of starting a war. In a sane world, that would have ended his prospects for future involvement in politics. That Matt thinks he shouldn't be a pariah is yet another indication that we don't live in a sane world.

Posted by KCinDC | November 28, 2007 8:51 AM

Powell is liked and trusted by the Villagers. The Broders of the world understand his plight. They know they would have done what Powell did if they were in the same position.

Having Powell on her side reassures the village elders that Clinton is a candidate that won't shake things up when she arrives.

Posted by owenz | November 28, 2007 9:05 AM

Perhaps it's affirmative action? I'm not suggesting Powell ever go anything for being black, but being of that rare race of high-ranking black Republicans might still be worth some teflon.

Posted by aleks | November 28, 2007 9:19 AM

Just when I was starting to feel comfortable with the idea of Hillary as president, she says something totally infuriating. If our country had any decency, not only would the people who perpetrated the Iraq war fraud on us be banished from politics, but they would be afraid to show their face in public.

As an aside, I once read Powell saying that he decided not to go into engineering when he was unable to visualize the shape you get when you intersect a cone with a plane at an angle. In other words, he's an idiot.

Posted by Jim W | November 28, 2007 10:41 AM

i'm with christmas: of course colin powell should be made a pariah.

i have long believed that the one way to have shortened the war in vietnam was for hubert humphrey to have resigned the vice presidency in december, 1967, and become the minnesotan running against the war (as opposed to mccarthy).

similarly, if there was any chance (and it was modest, admitedly) not to enter into the war in iraq, it would have been for powell to resign and make the case against the war.

since he supposedly was so seared by the vietnam experience, you would think he would have recognized the problem.

Posted by howard | November 28, 2007 10:45 AM

Colin Powell is a true mensch. Sorry, haters.

But here's what: The man got up in front of the UN and gave a speech using falsehoods extracted by torture (al-Libi) and from a total nutjob (Curveball) to justify what has become a strategic catastrophe for us and an existential catastrophe for Iraqis. It's over, Colin. Go teach somewhere, tell the youth of America what you learned from your mistakes so we might avoid them next time.

Needless to say, Hillary's huffing Broderian idiocies here....

Posted by elle loco | November 28, 2007 11:14 AM

This is exactly why Clinton is a terrible candidate. She has absolutely no judgement except in deciding what positions she should take to make herself look hawkish and "serious" to the Beltway folks. She is like Bush except she is too afraid to take a firm stand on anything. All she wants is to be president, just to be president, and will say whatever she thinks it takes to get there.

I mean think about it. HILLARY CLINTON LITERALLY WANTS TO USE A MEMBER OF THE THOROUGHLY DISCREDITED BUSH TEAM TO IMPROVE AMERICA'S STANDING IN THE WORLD.

That is not judgement, experience or "seriousness." That is the lowest form of triangulation.

OBAMA '08!

Posted by waka waka | November 28, 2007 11:17 AM

Having Powell on her side reassures the village elders that Clinton is a candidate that won't shake things up when she arrives.

Posted by owenz

And since she has favorability issues with the Villagers and not really with the country as a whole, that's who her campaign is playing to. She knows how much damage they can do when the long knives come out.

Plus, somebody who fell asleep in about 2003 and just now woke up is whispering that this is a great way to garner 'centrist' votes in the general election.

Posted by flory | November 28, 2007 11:35 AM

Again, this further demonstrates that DC politics has become that of a Royal Court, during the declining phase of a particular dynasty.

Within the context of court politics, actual reality, success, or failure count for much less than particular friendships, feuds, and intrigues. For various reasons, Powell is a successful courtier, and therefore his gigantic policy disasters aren't really much of a factor.

One problem is that the relationships and influence which govern the DC court don't really extend much to the other countries of the world, many of which have their own local courts.

Another problem is that reality actually exists whether you believe in it or not...

Posted by RKU | November 28, 2007 1:18 PM

Not the first time Powell covers multible asses:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

Posted by Judson | November 28, 2007 2:02 PM

"One problem is that the relationships and influence which govern the DC court don't really extend much to the other countries of the world, many of which have their own local courts."

This is why those other countries have to hire some serious lobbyins, Villagers in good standing.

"Another problem is that reality actually exists whether you believe in it or not..."

You are soooo naive!

Seriously, we are a power in decline and at some point we should face it.

Item: what kind of economic sanctions make sense if Russia and China announce Asian "Monroe Doctrine"? What kind of manufactoring goods or weapons we can prevent Iran from having? What kind of banking operations can we prevent if Bank of China has a different opinion?

Militarily, our edge will go in the same direction. We can still boast in comments that we can make a parking lot from Iran, but if we can do it while avoiding making a parking lot from our own highways is a trillion dollar question. You would think that the only remaining superpower would be spared such dilemmas, but as software designers say, "you can make it foolproof, but not damnfoolproof." We can always invent a war idea so idiotic that it would be actually hard to pull it off, all our weapons, bases, allies notwithstanding. And the idea is: piss off Russia while trying to isolate Iran, and mantaining rather testy relations with China, and pretty testy with India too.

On domestic front, pretty soon we will owe our credit card balances to Gulf Arabs. (Or did it happen already? Ooops.)

RKU: for a good analogy to a capital having parochial perspectives and global influence read the history of Jughurtine war.

Posted by piotr | November 28, 2007 2:14 PM

It's actually pretty funny. I'm friendly with Bill Odom, the Reagan NSA head who'd been writing his "American Empire" book during the late 1990s, which argued that based upon a whole range of military, economic, and cultural parameters, America's power in the world was incomparably greater than that of any previous dominant world power, so much so that it was almost impossible to imagine America losing heavy world dominance for many decades.

But our esteemed current Leader totally proved him wrong (as he freely admits) in just a handful of years.

Some people can really do the "impossible."

Posted by RKU | November 28, 2007 2:25 PM

Seriosuly - is this photoshopped? I've never seen a whiter dude, ever.

Posted by ruth gordon | November 28, 2007 2:43 PM

My understanding is that Colin Powell lost credibility when he covered up for the My Lai massacre back in Vietnam.

I always knew he was a tool of the Pentagon and the state.

Why didn't you?

Just because he's decided he doesn't want to go down in history as the moron who gave a speech full of bullshit at the UN that caused a war that got over 3,000 of his former comrades killed for no reason doesn't mean he's suddenly become a hero.

If he had any real honesty, he'd have never been Secretary of State - or any other job title - under Bush.

And experience? At what? Bullshitting?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | November 28, 2007 7:23 PM

Colin Powell was an honorable man who joined a morally corrupt administration. He was smart enough to ask the tough questions during the lead up to the war because of his military intelligence experience during the first Gulf War. He had the expertise to oversee the planning for the Iraq War and the respect of Pentagon insiders to point of gaping holes in the occupation plans. But, he was silenced when Americans most needed an honest assessment of the risks involved in establishing a doctrine of pre-emptive war after 9/11.

The international community is painfully aware that Colin Powell was sent to the UN because he had the respect of the world community as an honest, decent man.

The dignity and respect earned by Colin Powell in uniform was stripped away by Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

Colin Powell remains an great American "Officer and Gentleman". If he throws his weight behind Hillary Clinton, he will lose his soul.

Posted by Michaele | November 29, 2007 1:19 PM

Colin Powell was an honorable man who joined a morally corrupt administration. He was smart enough to ask the tough questions during the lead up to the war because of his military intelligence experience during the first Gulf War. He had the expertise to oversee the planning for the Iraq War and the respect of Pentagon insiders to point of gaping holes in the occupation plans. But, he was silenced when Americans most needed an honest assessment of the risks involved in establishing a doctrine of pre-emptive war after 9/11.

The international community is painfully aware that Colin Powell was sent to the UN because he had the respect of the world community as an honest, decent man.

The dignity and respect earned by Colin Powell in uniform was stripped away by Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

Colin Powell remains an great American "Officer and Gentleman". If he throws his weight behind Hillary Clinton, he will lose his soul.

Posted by Michaele | November 29, 2007 1:20 PM

Colin Powell, it’s time to speak now or forever hold your peace.

You decried the way that “the sons of the powerful and well placed…managed to wangle slots into Reserve and Guard Units"[1] and then you went on to serve one of these sons as his Secretary of State.

You criticized the LBJ administrations prosecution of the Vietnam War with “Back home, the administration was trying to conduct the war with as little inconvenience to the country as possible…. Taxes to finance the war had not been raised. Better-off kids beat the draft with college deferments."[2] And now you sit silently while the Bush administration does the same.

You said of the downing of the KAL 007 flight: “Don’t be stampeded by first reports, Don’t let your judgments run ahead of your facts. And, even with supposed facts in hand, question them if they do not add up. Something deeper and wiser than bits of data inform our instincts. I also learned that it is best to get the facts out as soon as possible, even when new facts contradict the old. Untidy truth is better than smooth lies…."[3] But you told the world that we knew of WMD’s in Iraq. Perhaps you were misinformed by the intelligence briefings but you also wrote: “The lesson about experts had been reaffirmed. Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their backyard. Just as important, never neglect details, even to the point of being a pest."[4]

“If I never have to parachute again, that will be fine with me, yet there was never any doubt in my mind that I would do what had to be done."[5] Well Mr. Powell, it’s time to do what has to be done. You have a chance to make a difference today, this week, “Stuff happens. And a leader’s just got to start all over again."[6] So start over. If you have truth to speak, speak it now, before another day of Bush Administration's deception so it can make a difference. You’ve had plenty to say, after the fact, about Vietnam and other world events, but saving the truth for My American Journey Part II isn’t good enough. You owe the soldiers, those you helped place in harms way, the untidy truth. Today.

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

[1] Colin Powell, My American Journey, Ballantine Books, 1995, p 144
[2] Ibid, p 128
[3] Ibid, p 274
[4] Ibid, p 106
[5] Ibid, p 42
[6] Ibid, p 51

Posted by Ron | December 10, 2007 11:54 AM