Colin Powell. Where the heck have you been these past few years?
This morning MtP had a great interview with Powell. I will admit I was a fan of both John McCain and Colin Powell circa 1999-2000. Their personal involvement with the Bush administration's colossal failures has caused me to lose a lot of respect for both men but that could change. Both men did interviews on national TV this morning, Colin's in particular was worth a watch because he has been seen so rarely since he left the administration.
He will not run for office himself but he will support the "best candidate to lead our country" in 2008 - from any party. Ouch.
He was very aware of the possible post-war problems in Iraq (that all came true). That awareness of the consequences made him very cautious about invading without UN support and he briefed Rice and Bush about it personally before the invasion. (A lot of good that did.)
He would have sent in more troops to secure the nation after the war, for things like stopping the looting and maintaining security.
He would close Guantanamo Bay immediately, "not tomorrow, I would close it today".
The Republican Party debate last week showed that the Republican Party has no interest in letting gays serve openly in the military. When Powell was asked why the US is one of two nations (along with Portugal) in NATO that does not allow gays to serve openly, he said that it was time for that to change.
Overall I thought it was a great interview. One that makes me wonder (not for the first time), why he had so little impact on our actual policies? In a time of war, McCain and Powell are the men I would like to see leading us to safety. Who is really running the White House?
