Monday, November 15, 2004
Next Stop: Tibet
Not a lengthy post this morning; I'm not in the mood. I am glad to see that poor Colin Powell has decided to resign as Secretary of State. If he couldn't bring sanity to U.S. foreign policy during Bush's first term, there's no way in hell he could have done so in a second--although he's not blameless in the first-term disaster, either. He chose to sell the defective Iraq product even though he knew how flawed it was, either out of respect for the authority of the commander-in-chief or out of fear of seeing the State Department further marginalized by the Defense Department, and he got peed on by the neocons for his trouble anyway. Powell was once one of the most respected figures in America, an inspiring presence who seemed to represent the best this country could be, and a man who probably could have had the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 or 2000 if he'd wanted it. Now he leaves public life as perhaps the most pathetic figure of the first Bush term.
As to who gets the gig next, I'm not sure it matters. At the very least, the new secretary will be required to have the fuck-the-world, we're-America attitude necessary for high administration positions, even if he or she has to hide it for the sake of appearances. Whoever it is will be less moderate than Powell. It'll be somebody who has to continue to truckle under to the Defense Department--which makes me wonder if it won't be somebody from the Defense Department, like Paul Wolfowitz. Stay tuned.
Not a lengthy post this morning; I'm not in the mood. I am glad to see that poor Colin Powell has decided to resign as Secretary of State. If he couldn't bring sanity to U.S. foreign policy during Bush's first term, there's no way in hell he could have done so in a second--although he's not blameless in the first-term disaster, either. He chose to sell the defective Iraq product even though he knew how flawed it was, either out of respect for the authority of the commander-in-chief or out of fear of seeing the State Department further marginalized by the Defense Department, and he got peed on by the neocons for his trouble anyway. Powell was once one of the most respected figures in America, an inspiring presence who seemed to represent the best this country could be, and a man who probably could have had the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 or 2000 if he'd wanted it. Now he leaves public life as perhaps the most pathetic figure of the first Bush term.
As to who gets the gig next, I'm not sure it matters. At the very least, the new secretary will be required to have the fuck-the-world, we're-America attitude necessary for high administration positions, even if he or she has to hide it for the sake of appearances. Whoever it is will be less moderate than Powell. It'll be somebody who has to continue to truckle under to the Defense Department--which makes me wonder if it won't be somebody from the Defense Department, like Paul Wolfowitz. Stay tuned.
