Image courtesy of Charles Haynes under CC BY-SA 2.0.
I like Colin Powell. I always have, and I sincerely hope that circumstances do not evolve to a point where I will be forced to change my mind.
If Dwight Eisenhower were alive today, warning Americans to be on guard against the dangers of the “military-industrial complex”, my gut feeling is that Ike probably did not have military men with the qualities and character of Powell in mind.
I mean, look at the man’s record.
Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs; in Dept. of Defense under two presidents; two tours of duty in Vietnam; battalion commander in Korea; recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart; awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal; and an honorary knighthood from the Queen of England; presently our Secretary of State.
How can you fault a guy with a record like that? You can’t. Unless you discover something on his resume that wasn’t there before.
For the past six months there has been a continuous tug o’ war between two factions as to whether the invasion of Iraq was legitimate and justified, or was a conspiratorial effort to get America involved in a foreign war as a natural “payback” for the devastating attack on the World Trade Center. (Or perhaps even a darker reason.)
But at this juncture, whether or not we went after Iraq for reasons other than 9/ll, is still the big question. We did it, we’re in it, and what rationale the administration gives for doing so is all we have to go on.
It is that fact, which reporter Charles Manley, writing for the Associated Press, presented in an up-to-date review of the situation. It features a litany of failures by the administration to show “just cause” for getting us wrapped up in this war.
And because Colin Powell, as Secretary of State, sat before congressional committees and gave various reasons why an attack on Iraq was justified, he has to bear the brunt of what Manley’s report reveals.
Here is a condensation of Colin Powell’s testimony, in which he spoke for the administration, and also the “corrections” to show how erroneous his statements apparently were.
* Powell showed a congressional committee photos of buildings and vehicles which he claimed were used to hide chemical and biological weapons.
Correction: 500 inspectors found no contraband, and no vehicles had been moved. So-called “contamination vehicles” turned out to be water or fire trucks.
* Powell said that hidden documents showed that prohibited items had been concealed.
Correction: UN inspectors said the documents were old and irrelevant because they were from a failed uranium enrichment program from the 1980s.
* Powell said that Iraq had produced 8,500 liters of the toxic biological agent anthrax.
Correction: Although UN inspectors said it could have been up to 25,000 liters, but to date no anthrax has been found.
* Powell displayed artists’ conceptions of Iraqi “biological weapons factories” on trucks and train cars. The CIA concluded it was part of a bio-weapons production line.
Correction: Iraqis said the equipment was used to make hydrogen for weather balloons. At any rate, no trace of biological weapons were found.
* Powell said Iraq was building small, unmanned aircraft, suitable for dispensing chemical and biological weapons.
Correction: No small drones or other planes with chemical or biological capability have been reported found in Iraq since the invasion.
* Powell contended that Iraq produced tons of the nerve agent VX. He said, one drop on the skin will kill in minutes.
Correction: Most of the 4 tons of VX were destroyed in the 1990s, under UN supervision. No VX has been reported found since then.
* Powell said that by a conservative estimate Iraq has a stockpile of between 200 and 400 tons of chemical weapons agent.
Correction: Powell gave no basis for his assertion, and no such agents have been found.
* Powell said that 122 mm chemical warheads found by UN inspectors might be the “tip of the iceberg.”
Correction: Powell didn’t mention that the warheads were empty. Inspectors said the dozen stray warheads (never uncrated) were “debris from the past.” None have been reported since the invasion.
* Powell said that Saddam Hussein has chemical weapons and has authorized his field commanders to use them.
Correction: No such weapons were used, or found, even after U.S. troops overran Iraq. Even before Powell spoke, UN inspectors had found no such weapons.
* Powell said that we have no indication that Iraq has ever abandoned its nuclear weapons program.
Correction: Inspectors said that to date they have “found no evidence or plausible indication of a revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.” And no such evidence has been found in Iraq since the invasion.
* Powell said that Iraq had up to a few dozen prohibited Scud-type missiles. And also they are building a newer, 600 mile-range missile.
Correction: In the 1990’s UN inspectors had accounted for all but two missiles. But since the invasion, no Scud-type missiles have been found. Neither have any longer-range missiles.
Whatever the REAL reason for us invading Iraq on such flimsy evidence, we may or may not, ever know, what with Secrecy being this administration’s latest amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
But what we do know—as demonstrated by the information above—is that Colin Powell is in this unseemly debacle up to his neck. And since Powell is too smart to be conned, his testimony indicates that either (l) he sincerely believes that what the conspiring elite calling the shots is telling him is true—or (2) Powell is a bald-faced liar who knows what the New World crowd is doing, but wants to keep his job.
If it’s the former, I feel sorry for a bright guy who can be taken in so easily. If it’s the latter, patriotic Americans have a name for that. It starts with a T.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”