Today, a friend sent me a slanderous attack against Secretary Powell by Trump. He asked me to post it on BMG. Here is my response :
I will not post the lies of that traitorous coward. General Powell was a patriot and hero to every son and daughter of liberty. His critical endorsement of Obama in ’08 and Biden in ’20 saved our democracy.
Please share widely!
Powell’s lies at the U.N. got about a million Iraqis killed.
I haven’t seen evidence that Mr. Powell knew that the information he relied on was manufactured and false.
I share your revulsion to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It would be easier for me to forgive or condemn Mr. Powell if the Democrats had forced a complete, thorough, and hard-nosed investigation into the web of GOP lies that led to not only the invasion but also the reprehensible crimes against humanity that the same players ordered from the White House.
One reason why the Nazi era of Germany has been so effectively repudiated by subsequent generations of Germans is that the Nuremberg trials (and other similar actions) put reams of hard and incontrovertible evidence into the public domain.
America never did that after our immoral war in Iraq, and the entire world — including America — is paying the price now.
I suspect that it will be decades before historians learn and reveal the ultimate truth about Mr. Powell. I, for one, am VERY glad that he never ran for President because his decision to withdraw from public service meant that the ambiguity about his role in the 2003 invasion was inconsequential.
In my view, it is too early to either condemn or anoint Mr. Powell.
Not the right time.
“Not the right time.” same excuse you used for Christopher Columbus.
You’re right – not immediately upon one’s passing and not when the point is to acknowledge contributions to history.
It may not be appropriate to harshly criticize public figures days after their passing. It is also not appropriate to mythologize or beatify them when the historical record is at best ambiguous.
To the extent that Mr. Powell knew that the information being supplied him was false — or to the extent that he should have known and didn’t verify — he is complicit in an illegal invasion. Each participant who manufactured that false information should have been investigated, prosecuted, and convicted for their behavior. None were.
I would prefer an America where the passing of a public figure like Mr. Powell is a mostly private affair attended by family and friends. I would prefer a media that resisted the temptation to offer smarmy feel-good and utterly false mythology in order to pander to Americans who only pay attention to material that reinforces their existing opinion.
I offer the late Steve Jobs as an example of a figure who has been falsely mythologized by our culture. I knew, admired, and liked him. He was amazingly good at what he did. He was also deeply flawed as both a person and as an executive.
Sooner or later Bill Gates will pass on. I expect there will be similar outpourings of accolades about what a heroic and marvelous figure he was — how much he contributed to humanity, and so on. That stuff is just nauseating to me.
Colin Powell has died. May he rest in peace.
I recall the reaction to Steve Jobs’s death a bit over the top in the media. Certainly it was a story, but I’m not sure it merited the wall-to-wall, cancel-everything-else coverage on the level I would expect with the passing of a President.
Indeed.
In my view, the passing of Colin Powell merits even less attention.
Howard Zinn said: “‘There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”