The Road To Redemption

Colin Powell’s road to redemption will be long, trying and ultimately no more convincing than his tenure as the legitimizing conscience of the Bush foreign policy. Indeed, his parting words give testament to the fact that the General has little appreciation for the full extent of his failure.

Why should we apologize, Powell asked, for accomplishing what we set out to accomplish? His list of accomplishments, without any hint of objective qualification, was astonishing for the fact that it joined him to the neocon’s of the White House with a common bond: Arrogance.

The Secretary wishes to be remembered for toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan, regime change in Iraq, and establishing a foothold for democracy in the Middle East. Powell’s cryptic assessment of his UN Security Council performance, a performance that will be entered in history as the crystalline moment of his fall from grace in the eyes of the world, bordered on pathetic: Get over it and move on.

We should never forget that America’s mainstream media, print and electronic, from Fox-CNN-MSNBC to the broadcast triumvirate, was joined at the hip in heaping praise on that singular disgrace. They tell us now that the whole world was fooled by the conundrum of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. In truth, no one was fooled but the American people and, by-and-large, they had every reason to believe. The lie cooked up by the Pentagon and the White House was passed down the chain of command from the ideologues to the intelligence community, to the military brass, to the diplomatic corps, to the corporate press. Everyone knew it was the stuff of Wolfowitz dreams, devoid of balance, absent documented evidence, yet they all signed off like good soldiers.

Like the name of Vaclav Havel on the document that gave legitimacy to the lie of an international coalition, the name and reputation of America’s greatest war hero gave credence to a case for war that should never have been made. His insistence that Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet sit behind him during the charade assured that Tenet would be the first to fall.

Who is more at fault? Those who believed in the lie as a means to an end? Or those who did not believe but delivered it as if they did?

Sadly, I was among those who held Colin Powell in high esteem. I believed, as Powell seemed to articulate, that a reluctance to war was prerequisite to a just and civilized nation. I believed in the integrity of our reluctant warrior.

I am no longer satisfied by the explanation that I have joined in advancing: that Powell was a victim of his own loyalty. When all the chips were on the table, stacked so high we could hardly see the players, General Powell sold us out.

Under the first four years of the Bush administration, the State Department was a portrait in failure. The Powell Doctrine was buried in a preemptive strike yet the dutiful Secretary played on. There were no accomplishments. Not one. Afghanistan and Iraq are disasters in motion, the one more prominent than the other, and the probability of democracy emerging from this nightmare is only slightly better than the prospect of General Powell’s redemption.

Why should you apologize? Let us begin with 1,200 fallen American soldiers. Let us not forget the wounded. Let us not forget the never-to-be-acknowledged foreign fighters and civilians who have given their lives. How many is it, General? Fifty thousand? One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? (What’s the difference between a civilian and a terrorist? Civilians are only wounded; terrorists are dead.) Let us not forget the wholesale destruction of two nations, the pestilence and suffering that will inevitably follow. Let us not forget the wars to come.

Most of us will have some justification in pleading ignorance or powerlessness. Not you. You were there. You possessed the knowledge, the means and the influence to assert yourself in this battle but you chose to follow orders.

There are times in history when great individuals stand up for a just cause and actually make a difference. The best we can say for Colin Powell is that he did not possess greatness.

I sincerely hope that the retired Secretary of State, in the days and years ahead, finds the courage and conviction to embark on the road to redemption. It begins by acknowledging the truth. If his first step, however, is a true measure of the man beneath the uniform, then he might as well follow the path of old soldiers.

Ironically, the only redemption I can foresee for a man of Colin Powell’s stature is his emergence as an Independent or third party antiwar candidate for president in the year 2008.

How’s that for duplicity?

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS) AND THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS). HIS COMMENTARIES ARE DISSEMINATED WIDELY. SEE WWW.JACKRANDOM.COM.