"In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."
--Colin Powell; official response to Tom Glen’s description of the My Lai Massacre
There have been a number of interesting discussions on DU in the past 24 hours, regarding the unconfirmed rumor that retired General Colin Powell is preparing to endorse Senator Barack Obama this weekend. Powell is, of course, an unpopular figure among progressive and liberal Democrats, and for very good reason. More, DUers are prone to view Powell as less trustworthy than a rattle snake – again, for very good reason.
Let’s take a minute to review some of General Powell’s rattle snake nature. We know from Corn & Isikoff’s book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War" that Powell and his best friend, Dick Armitage, were assisting Joseph Biden efforts to have the Congress create an "alternative" to the Bush-Cheney push for a US military invasion of Iraq. Biden, along with republicans Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel, had introduced a measure to force the administration to do two things: prove that Iraq posed an "grave" threat to the US, and get UN backing for any military invasion. (See page 127.)
Other sources, including the second of Bob Woodward’s series of books on the Bush administration, document that Powell was focused on getting the UN involved in the discussion of what the US and world community should consider as options for dealing with Iraq. On the surface, this may seem to indicate that Powell was taking a moderate role, attempting to counter the Office of the Vice President’s push to war. But moderation was not needed at the time. Colin Powell was in a position to tell the American public the truth. Instead, he sought to have other people – Biden, Lugar, Hagel, and those at the UN – do what was his legal and moral responsibility.
More, when it came time for a US official to make the case for war to the UN, the OVP put Powell in check. There had been a debate on who could best make the administration’s case, in the days following the President’s infamous "16 words" in his State of the Union address. The OVP pushed for Powell to do its dirty work. Why? Because it put Powell in a position where he had but two choices: to tell the truth, or to become invested in the lies.
We know that Powell spent long hours on the weekend before his address at the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters. The first day, he was provided with documentation that indicated the administration was ignoring the intelligence that showed there was no "grave" danger to the US. Then, on Sunday, he had Armitage accompany him for further study.
This was the same Colin Powell who had, two years earlier, said that US sanctions had prevented Iraq from developing WMD. And he knew that the intelligence community had nothing that supported the administration’s claims. But the OVP was correct in pegging Powell as a moral coward, who would peddle the administration’s lies to the UN and the world community. (Likewise, Armitage failed to ever honestly address his role in the later Plame scandal, which, by no coincidence, included his meetings with Woodward. Liars, all.)
As a boy, I was taught the following story about "rattle snakes." Of course, it is not about actual snakes, but rather is a Native American insight on human nature. An Indian teen-ager was on the top of a mountain, where it was very cold. He came upon a rattle snake, which was shivering. The snake asked the boy to put him inside the warmth of his coat, and carry him to the warm valley below.
The boy said, "But you are dangerous." The snake said, "I promise that I won’t hurt you. In fact, if you bring me to the valley, I will give you a valuable reward." So the boy carried the snake down to the valley, and then asked for his reward. The snake, of course, bit him.
As the boy laid shivering on the ground, dying, he said to the snake, "But you promised." The snake replied, "Of course I did. That’s my nature."
Many cultures throughout human history have used the symbols of the mountain of humanity, and of snakes, to teach valuable lessons on human nature. Thus, as Obama is approaching a mountain top, we are naturally weary of the possibility of not just Powell’s endorsing him, but that Obama might be tricked into putting the shivering snake "in his coat." Let’s look closer at what is happening this weekend.
To fully appreciate what is actually happening, we need to go beyond what will ever be reported in the corporate media. The republican party recognizes that Barack Obama is about to be elected President. There are divisions within their party as to how to respond to this potential loss of power in the upcoming couple of weeks before the election. The most important thing for our attention is the faction of republicans who have controlled the OVP. This has been the den of neoconservative snakes during the Bush2 years. The OVP, for example, ran the fake intelligence operations that "proved" that Iraq posed a grave threat to our national security. They are unwilling to give up that seat of power, without a nasty fight.
Colin Powell carries a chip on his shoulder, blaming the neoconservatives from the OVP snake den for his moral cowardice. As Sidney Blumenthal reported, in a 2004 discussion with Great Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Powell called them "fucking crazies." ("Colin and the crazies"; 11-18-04; Guardian Unlimited). In April, 2005, Blumenthal reported on Powell’s quiet campaign in opposition to John Bolton being appointed as UN Ambassador. (Guardian)
The corporate media has failed to report on the role that John Bolton plays within the McCain campaign. He was among those who promoted the idea of selecting Sarah Palin as the VP on the republican ticket. The neoconservatives recognized that Palin, if elected, would allow them to keep control of the OVP den of snakes.
Others in the McCain campaign had pushed for him to choose Powell for VP. This was the cause for some ugly in-fighting within their party. DUers will remember Bolton’s co-neoconservative William Kristol using the OVP’s Fox Network to "report" that Powell was, in fact, prepared to endorse Obama. Kristol went so far as to predict that Powell would be a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention.
Spreading outrageous lies in hardly a new tactic for neoconservative snakes. It’s all they have. And it is known that, in the next two weeks, they plan a series of snake attacks on the democratic ticket. These will be along the lines of the infamous 1988 Willie Horton ads. While the corporate media reports that McCain is opposed to using Rev. Wright, the truth is that he lacks the juice to stop what is beginning to happen. There is little respect for McCain within any faction of republicans today. The Palin wing is thus going to use not only Rev. Wright, but is actually prepared to use the image of Louis Farrakhan to try to scare the public, especially "undecided" voters, and those who are not solid in their commitment to either candidate.
Powell’s endorsement is aimed at two groups, as well. These include "undecided" voters, many of whom have expressed concerns about if Obama is qualified to serve as Commander-in-Chief; and moderate republicans, who are tempted to vote for Obama, because they find the McCain-Palin ticket to be repulsive.
More, there is a belief that Powell’s support now could be important when Obama takes office, and attempts to work with Congress to end the US war of occupation in Iraq. The neoconservative attempt to portray Obama’s plans as a form of surrender, and to create questions about his patriotism – for who could trust Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan to represent our nation’s best interests? -- can create problems. Powell’s endorsement, on the other hand, can provide republican officials with the cover they need to work with President Obama.
Still, progressive and liberal democrats have cause for concern. We do not want neoconservatives maintaining power within the OVP; nor do we want the Colin Powell-types to maintain power within the Office of the President in the Obama administration.
Therefore, while the Powell endorsement has potential value right now, and we should use it to our full advantage, we want to be sure that Barack Obama doesn’t put that shivering snake inside his coat.
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