In the current GQ, Colin Powell speaks up about a number of topics relevent to his own life’s history – not the least of which is racism. But, I think what he has to say about the so-called War on Terror is most interesting.
What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?
I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there—ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.
We are taking too much counsel of our fears.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But let’s welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let’s make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let’s make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let’s also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.
Let’s show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That’s why I want to see Guantánamo closed. It’s so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we’re worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.
But, then, Republicans like Powell aren’t in charge of the Republican Party. And Democrats aren’t in charge of anything.
Nice photo. Needn’t worry about Bush or Cheney showing up in the vicinity.
I respected Powell until he carried Bush’s water. Its that part of (lack of) character in the best of them that makes our politics the corrupt cess pool it is today. He’s no hero.
– – – – and if he means all that good stuff is the way to defeat terrorism, we can start be reestablishing those very same things in the GOUSA!!
So what he’s saying is he would fight terrorism by helping the downtrodden and disenfranchised. Instead of, say, locking them up in torture camps or waiting until they turn into terrorism and then killing them along with their families.
What a radical.
The greatest threat we face are public officials who lie and dissemble facts to coerce the populace into supporting activities which hurt our country and destabilize the world. Know anybody like that Mr. Powell?
Al Gore and Colin Powell as a team. Quality and ability and sobriety.
When the war crimes tribunals start, I expect Colon Powel will be one fo the few to get life in prison instead of hanged.
It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.
I cannot think of a valid argument against that. He’s absolutely right, and that’s why its such a shame that his expert military voice was marginalized by the Bush administration… an administration so stunningly devoid of actual military experience.
However:
But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves.
I suppose one can argue that he’s right, but as I see it, a bunch of Saudi Arabian Nationals hijacked four planes and murdered over 3000 Americans, and devastated the greatest American city… and the result is that we are barely hanging on to a free society, and face the very real possibility that we’ll lose this nation soon.
The fearmongers in America are far greater enemies to our nation, and truly are traitors to our country, than any terrorist can ever hope to be.
I want him to be president more than anyone running.
Too bad all the BS , corruption, and political jockeying have soured him and his family on politics – probably for life.
He’s probably the most level-headed person to pass through DC in the last 30 years who wasn’t a tourist.
It’s like one of those feature sets – Obama hasn’t been assassinated (yet); so, maybe Powell’s wife will relent in her fears for her husband’s life and support his return to politics.
What a frackin’ culture. The Romans had nothing on 21st Century America. Especially the dodos with their heads stuck in the 19th Century.
Until he got mixed up with that gang that couldn’t shoot straight, he had my vote.
#5 “Al Gore and Colin Powell as a team. Quality and ability and sobriety. ”
So what does Gore bring to the team?
“But can they (terrorists) change us? No. Only we can change ourselves.”
That’s right, we always wanted to take off our shoes, wait in line for 2 hours and not take water or toiletries on a plane and surrender our freedoms with patriot acts – DAMN them for even trying to change that!!
Cheers
Has the US become an extended episode of Family Guy?
Why not just get Seth MacFarland for president?
Cheers
“It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.” — How profound! To bad Marshall already won a Nobel Peace Prize for that idea and Thomas P.M. Barnett already wrote two books on this exact subject several years ago. Last week Christopher Hitchens was on In Depth on C-Span 2 and said that Colin Powell is the most overrated man in recent history, and this unoriginal quote certainly supports that idea.
Sure it’s easy for him to say this now…but when he had the opportunity to make suggestions, to help shape our policy, he did nothing. He went before the U.N. and knowingly lied about Iraq’s WMD capabilities to sell a war and to be Bush’s lapdog.
No, I don’t find him a sympathetic or heroic figure at all. He’s like every one of these politicians who come out after the fact and try to be noble. He had his chance and he looked the other way.
I liked Gore these past couple of years better than in 2000. I like Powel now better than when he was in the Bush administration. Why can’t these politicos (both sides of the aisle) talk the talk in office? What pod do they crawl out of once they are elected? *sigh*
#11 – “So what does Gore bring to the team?”
Answer: Comedy relief.
#15 – Sure it’s easy for him to say this now…but when he had the opportunity to make suggestions, to help shape our policy, he did nothing.
I respectfully submit that you have no clue what he did. He was the voice of dissent in the administration, which is why he isn’t there now. But this man is a soldier, and one of the finest. He does not speak publicly against his superiors.
(And when I use the word “superiors” I mean to use it only technically)
#17 – You mean “comic” relief. I’m not sure what comedy relief would mean… But as Gore has an IQ of 3 billion and a proven track record of leadership ability, I would happily support him. I know you hate turning off lights in rooms you aren’t using, but you know Gore isn’t a simpleton and its just disingenuous to say otherwise.
>>but when he had the opportunity to make suggestions,
>>to help shape our policy, he did nothing.
He tried, God love him, he tried. But in Little King Georgie’s court of jesters, you either go with the program of President Cheney/ Rove, or get your ass out.
Once he realized that intelligence, reason, competence, and honesty were worth absolutely $0.00 to Dumbya’s handlers, that’s just what he did. Got his ass out. The Little King’s empire is so encrusted in dishonesty, laughable incompetence, and idiocy that there’s just no way to “do” anything, other than wait with bated breath for 2008.
#18 3 billion IQ. While this story in the Washing Post does say he had a higher than average IQ it also says his grades didn’t show it.
http://tinyurl.com/dy6c4
And what leadership experience are you talking about?
#18 – No he’s not really a simpleton – which is even scarier. He’s a knowing hypocrite (SUV’s, limos, private jet, 2 mansions + another house, http://tinyurl.com/mo384) who’s fanning the flames of a fear campaign to fan his ego or worse.
According to GigG’s link in #20 His IQ is the same as mine. (I take back everything I’ve ever said about him being an idiot. 😉 ) I too am curious about the proven track record of leadership though.
(Unless you’re referring to when he invented the Webtubes)
PS. I turn lights off all the time and even have environmentally hazardous CFLs in my most used fixtures.
#20 – And what leadership experience are you talking about?
He invented the Internet.
I have no respect for Colin Powell. That Uncle Tom MOFO did a little shuffle and spoke on cue every time his massah gave him the signal.
Whether it was burning down the homes of Vietnamese civilians, lying to or withholding evidence from Congress regarding the Iran/Contra hustle or lying about WMDs in Iran.
He talks out both sides of his mouth.
The most Ironic bit was the Audio book he recorded. Would you believe “The Art of War”?
To hear him parrot that shit he couldn’t execute adds insult to injury.
Somebody once said, or wrote, or sang an aria, lofting the idea/concept that any citizen who actively seeks an elective office should be taken out and shot. Makes sense, kindasorta.
“But let’s welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on.”
feh. this is a great fallacy. People in the US have this “if they only knew us, they would like us” idea.
that’s not the problem. the people who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11 knew America. They spent months here. Many were very familiar with Europe as well, coming out of Germany.
they know us, and they know that we – secular, materialistic, egalitarian, pluralistic – are a mortal threat to their idealized way of life, which encompasses intolerance, religious based government, and the subjugation of women.
valid arguments are made that the last is the biggest motivator, that Western egalitarian ideas regarding women and sexual permissiveness are what really hacks them off.
makes sense to me.
this is the other fallacy:
#3. “So what he’s saying is he would fight terrorism by helping the downtrodden and disenfranchised.”
the 9/11 terrorists, like much of AQ, are not the downtrodden and disenfranchised. they were spoiled, privileged young men from one of the richest per capita countries in the world.
recent studies have shown that the poor in Arab Islamic countries are much more likely to be moderate than the middle classes. as per usual, poor people have more immediate concerns that some wank-fantasy of overthrowing the West and establishing a caliphate.
Americans are really in a grip of fear. Is terrorism REALLY our greatest threat?
I, myself, personally, have lived in one of the most terrorists intensive countries in the world and even there, I think you had a bigger chance of getting hit by some goofball running a red light.
For the average American, isn’t e.Coli a bigger threat than bin.Laden?
#26 Greg Allen “For the average American, isn’t e.Coli a bigger threat than bin.Laden?”
But that is not the way the government wants you think. It’s like arguing about religion – it goes nowhere.
I agree with you that living in terrorist intensive areas aren’t as they seem. Where did you live?
Cheers
#7 …and devastated the greatest American city… and the result is that we are barely hanging on to a free society, and face the very real possibility that we’ll lose this nation soon.
The fearmongers in America are far greater enemies to our nation, and truly are traitors to our country, than any terrorist can ever hope to be.
You mean the fear-mongers who say things like: “we are barely hanging on to a free society, and face the very real possibility that we’ll lose this nation soon.”
Interesting use of the word “devastated”.
Doesn’t look very devastated in this post:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=13576
#28 – No… I mean the fearmongers who lied about Al Quiada and Iraq being connected. I mean the fearmongers who gave us the Department Of Homeland Security, The Patriot Act, and who made it a nightmare to hop a flight from Indianapolis to Denver. I mean the fearmongers who created the terror alert system… what is it today? Orange? Yellow? Lavender?
Nice link to the hi-rise article… Now link to that same place on this day in 2001… It was devastated, and since there is no WTC there anymore, I contend that it still is.
We aren’t really a free nation. We just look like a free nation, but beneath the thin veneer of illusionary liberty, we are merely expendable resources to be used as our corporate masters see fit.
Fearmongering is when you create a false danger to subdue a population into obedience. What I do is called telling the truth. It’s a different thing entirely.