Colin Powell's Day of Infamy, Unacknowledged Five Years Later
David Fiderer, 03.20.2008
Powell pushed for war and put everyone on notice that he was acting in bad
faith, with a reckless disregard for the truth. Let's not forget.
The fifth anniversary of Colin Powell's day of infamy came and went,
virtually unnoticed. A month earlier, Editor & Publisher,
ThinkProgress.org,
and others commemorated the fifth anniversary of his speech to the U.N.
Security Council on Iraq's pur****ted WMD. Referencing this earlier date
plays into Powell's disinformation campaign, which he has pursued since
leaving office. By feigning a mea culpa about his speech on February 5,
2003, he hopes to distract everyone from the events of March 7, 2007, when
he and the rest of the world were put on notice that the case for war
against Iraq was a fraud.
When he wanted to whitewash his record last June, Powell went to an old
standby, Tim Russert on Meet the Press. Here was the day-after spin:
Meredith VIEIRA: "As Powell said to you yesterday, had he known in
February 2003 that there were no weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in
Iraq, there would have been no case to invade the country. So do you think
he now regrets the role that he played in that decision?"
RUSSERT: "Well, he has called it a blot on his career. But I thought his
comments yesterday were im****tant and candid. President Bush, Vice
President
Cheney said that they would have gone forward with the war because Saddam
Hussein is a bad man and had human rights violations and had the capacity
to
perhaps manufacture weapons of mass destruction, even in the absence of
not
finding WMD. A much different answer from General Powell yesterday."
Today,
June 11, 2007
Actually, Powell's doubletalk about the war's justification went all
over
the place, but his phony mea culpa came down to this:
"But the case that we took to the world and the case that we took to
the
American people rested not just in his human rights abuses or his cheating
on the Oil for Food program, it rested on the real and present danger of
weapons of mass destruction that he could use against his neighbors, or
terrorists could use against us. That was the precipitating issue in my
judgment, and it turned out those weapons were not there."
"And it turns out those weapons were not there," rewrites history with a
breathtaking shamelessness. Powell, the mainstream media, and just about
every politician and talking head who advocated war persist in ignoring
the
truth that they never acknowledged in the first place. On March 7, 2003,
ElBaradei and Blix told us in no uncertain terms that the was no evidence
of
WMD that posed a danger to Jordan, much less to the western world. They
inspectors had reviewed the pur****ted intelligence presented by Powell a
month earlier, and explained that it was not credible.
On March 7, 2003 Mohamed ElBaradei gave a sweeping repudiation of
Powell's
case, saying, "we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication
of
the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq." As for those notorious
aluminum tubes touted by Powell, ElBaradei said, "There is no indication
that Iraq has attempted to im****t aluminum tubes for use in centrifuge
enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have
encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuges out of the
aluminum tubes in question."
Hans Blix re****ted that there was no evidence to back up Powell's claims
of mobile weapons labs, underground chemical weapons facilities, or active
stockpiles of VX. The inspectors were still reviewing unmanned aerial
vehicles, which later turned out to be used for weather monitoring.
Of course, on March 7, 2003, we didn't know with certainty what Charles
Duelfer's re****t would later confirm - that Elbaradei and Blix were 100%
right and Powell's claims were 100% wrong.
But on that date Powell and the rest of the Administration rejected any
notion that they vet any of the latest on-the-ground intelligence which
might discredit their case for war. After Blix said the inspectors, would
need several months to complete their job, Powell ratcheted up his
doubletalk. "Others believe that just continuing the inspections, but they
never quite say how long," he said, playing to Fox News and insulting the
intelligence of everyone else in the room. "For months? How many months?
For
what purpose? With what additional inspectors?" Powell pushed for war and
put everyone on notice that he was acting in bad faith, with a reckless
disregard for the truth.
Let's not forget.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/colin-powells-day-of-inf_b_92592.html
From a distinguished service career in which he demonstrated the courage
to stand on principle against the atrocities of American troops at My Lai,
to a spineless chicken who cowered when faced with the unwelcome prospect
of
incurring the discontent of the worst national leader to exist since the
death of Stalin.
Contrary to MacArthur's assertion, the career of this "old soldier" will
not simply "fade away", but will continue to live on in the annals of
history as an example of how such ostensibly brave and honorable military
leaders tarnish their own careers with one inexplicable act of cowardice
upon which so much depends.
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