03-21-2003, 03:59 AM
While Powell is a likable guy, and certainly has that honest appearance, I have run into enough tidbits here and there in the press to worry me a little about him.
From the Boston Globe (and I've seen this one elsewhere too, I thought it was in a Slate or WashPost article recently but can't seem to locate it):
"While past error is no indication of future action, the Kurds have not forgotten that Secretary of State Colin Powell was then the national security adviser who orchestrated Ronald Reagan's decision to give Hussein a pass for gassing the Kurds. #$%& Cheney, then a prominent Republican congressman and now vice president and the Bush administration's leading Iraq hawk, could have helped push the sanctions legislation but did not. "
http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/2002/.../coverstory.htm
Also, I have read (though I can't seem to locate this right now) that Powell caused problems in the First Gulf War, that when his superiors (Bush, I believe) gave him orders he carried them out well, but that his advice (which was disregarded) was based on bad conclusions he drew about the strength of the Iraqi army, and that if the war had been conducted his way it would have been alot longer and potentially more deadly. That was in a respectable publication too as I recall, (perhaps The New Republic? Can't find it).
From the Boston Globe (and I've seen this one elsewhere too, I thought it was in a Slate or WashPost article recently but can't seem to locate it):
"While past error is no indication of future action, the Kurds have not forgotten that Secretary of State Colin Powell was then the national security adviser who orchestrated Ronald Reagan's decision to give Hussein a pass for gassing the Kurds. #$%& Cheney, then a prominent Republican congressman and now vice president and the Bush administration's leading Iraq hawk, could have helped push the sanctions legislation but did not. "
http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/2002/.../coverstory.htm
Also, I have read (though I can't seem to locate this right now) that Powell caused problems in the First Gulf War, that when his superiors (Bush, I believe) gave him orders he carried them out well, but that his advice (which was disregarded) was based on bad conclusions he drew about the strength of the Iraqi army, and that if the war had been conducted his way it would have been alot longer and potentially more deadly. That was in a respectable publication too as I recall, (perhaps The New Republic? Can't find it).