Powell always did what his paymasters, the Saudis, told him. He was little more than an errand boy who looked good in a uniform.

If there is a G-d in heaven, maybe the next time we see General Disaster he'll be parking cars at 21 Club or walking around the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria shouting 'Call for Philip Morris!'

Bart:

No, no, no--Bush and Cheney are employed by the Saudis, why would thety fire a fellow Saudi tool for being anti-Israel? Your conspiracies are coming unravelled.

I have never claimed that Bush or Cheney were employed by the Saudis. I have certainly said that Old Bush, of Carlyle Group-fame, is. And that W is a loyal family member so he does what the Saudis want from time to time in order to keep his slimy father rolling in cabbage. Thus, the decision to let the Bin Ladens leave the country when we couldn't fly, and our failure to capture Osama and give him the Pugachev treatment. Inviting that desert bandit, Abdullah, to his ranch was disgusting. And if he says 'Islam is a religion of peace' once more I'll barf my guts out.

Powell was another Saudi stooge and Armitage was worse. Now, the highest ranking Saudi buttboy in the GOP is Hagel and the highest ranking one at State is Burns. This is a big improvement.

The Saudis were the big losers on 11/2.

Where does Area 51 come into play?

oj,

That is unworthy of you. Mulder and Scully aren't needed here, as this is simple small-time boodling. The Saudis throw a lot of money around and Old Bush, a Jew-hater from Greenwich, CT(where 'Gentlemen's Agreement' was set), Baker(who would dance a hora if Israel had the oil), Scowcroft, Weinberger(the very model of the 'self-hating Jew'), Armitage, Powell, and countless other lesser lights were willing to get paid off.

Bart:

Unworthy? What's unworthy when someone's raving about the President being bought by the Saudis? You sound as foolish as an Arab channel claiming he's doing the bidding of Jews. The aliens have to tie in somehow...

Well, now I've finally made up my mind. All alng we have been told that Powell was playing the Good Cop to Rumsfeld's Bad Cop.

WRONG! He wasn't playing---he was flat-out taking the anti position. The first thing he wanted to do after the Iraq/Arafat dust had settled was to stab our friend/ally in the back.
Again.

Seems like Powell truly was an "Affirmative Action" General, CJCOS, and Sec of State.

Could we stop with the AA jibes?

It's possible to think Powell was wrong about the big issues without slandering a man who served his country for four decades.

Agree with Ali.

Powell was obviously a good choice after the 2000 election.

Am I wrong in saying his only failure was getting Turkey onside before the Iraq war? He was successful in Sudan, Liberia, you name it.

Reforming State in Bush's first term was never going to happen. And neither was Israel going to happen until Arafat died. So now Powell is replaced with someone more direct.

It makes a lot of sense to me.

Randall:

No, Turkey wasn't a failure, our interests just diverged. His failure was in thinking he could get a war resolution through the UN.

I thought the UN resolution was for Blair's benefit.

Randall:

Yes, but he knew it wouldn't pass and didn't care about it--just needed to seek it for his own purposes within the Labour Party. Powell thought he could get it.

oj - Going to the UN had political benefits for both Blair and Bush, and staying at the UN for six months gave Russia time to persuade the Iraqis to move all the WMD to Syria, thereby greatly reducing US casualties and ensuring the President's re-election. Neither of those were mistakes.

The Turkey situation is murkey, but it's not implausible that Turkey could have been brought on board by trading veto power over creation of a Kurdish state for participation. There've been rumors our anti-Iraq-war diplomats took charge of the Turkey relation and sabotaged the recruitment effort there.

pj:

We weren't about to trade Kurdish statehood and the President just gave Blair the UN effort because he said he needed it. Even then, the President told him that if the war was going to topple him we'd do it alone.

Powell was just reflecting the State consensus on Israel.

That's why a Bush loyalist (Dr. Rice) had to be dispatched to clean the mess up. Paul Wolfowitz surely wanted the job, but he wasn't quite the right person. Rice is.