(Colin) Powell speech draws anti-war protesters

[sabra]

Source: The News-Sentinel

<snip>

The protesters argued that the U.N. speech allowed Powell to have it both ways: If Iraqis had chemical and nuclear weapons, Powell was the guy who had made the case for disarming them. And if they didn't, Powell was the good soldier who despite deep misgivings made the case out of a sense of duty and loyalty to President Bush.

“He told a number of lies that resulted in our going to war. Since then, he has not acknowledged or apologized for it,” said protester Dave Lambert, a U.S. Army veteran and grandfather of two Army soldiers. “As a result of that, my grandson is back in Iraq right now. And the other one is scheduled to go back in the fall.”

Polls said the speech convinced Americans skeptical of the war that it was justified because of Powell's credibility, but Powell has since admitted he had grave doubts about the case he made.Powell, who was unavailable for a personal interview, according to a speech organizer, did not discuss his U.N. address during his 45-minute speech on leadership. In 2005, he told ABC news that the speech was a “blot” on his record and the aftermath has been “painful.” Powell said he had been given bad information by the CIA.

...

Protester Tim Tiernon said Powell was too smart to have believed what he was told.

“No one could say for sure there (were) absolutely no weapons at that time, but there was no way that the quantities of chemical weapons would be in existence at that time,” Tiernon said. “He (Powell) knew they had no nuclear program. … There was no clear and present danger. We had time to let the (U.N.) inspectors work.”

Read more: http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080528/NEWS/805280320

[otohara]

1. Good - Hope For the Rest of His Life

he and all the assholes who lied us into war are protested.

[Algorem]

2. aint he a obama guy now?

[TheDebbieDee]

3. I think he's been quoted as saying that he likes Obama.......

In fact, for a few days in January, Obama supporters on this site was boasting of the possibility that Powell would publicly support Obama until other DUers kept pointing out that Powell was also a war criminal and that his endorsement of Obama might turn potential Obama supporters away!

Powell had his choice to either become a Democrat or join the repukes. He chose to join the repukes and allowed himself to be used to give legitimacy to the racist * regime and give false testimony to the UN about Iraq's weapons capability. He's slime........

[pattmarty]

4. Good. He had the respect of the nation and threw it away.

[ckramer]

5. Colin "dog and pony show" Powell

That's the name people will remember.

[burf]

6. Both Powell

and his chief of staff, Col Wilkerson are a disgrace to the oath they swore to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States".

[Hulk]

7. Powell ALLOWED HIMSELF to be used as a whore....

Good man, perhaps, but a whore all the same. He bears responsibility for this Iraq war, along with all the other cast of liars and deceivers. He couldn't stomach the depth of their deception, but he was an actor in their devious game, none the less.

He has sold his soul to the devil, and he deserves no respect from the American people. The deaths of the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi's and US military lay at his feet. Shame on him....forever more.

[daleo]

8. Aftermath has been "painful" for him

It has been fatal for so many others.

[davekriss]

9. A painful blot on his record? It ended his political career

In Cairo, on February 24 2001, Powell said: "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."

This is the very opposite of what Bush and Blair said in public.

Powell even boasted that it was the US policy of "containment" that had effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator - again the very opposite of what Blair said time and again. On May 15 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had not been able to "build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years". America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box".

Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenseless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of the country," she said. "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

-- videos and text available here.

One could argue that Powell was ill-informed in 2001 and was talking out of a paper a...(um, you get it). More likely that, since the new pearl harbor hadn't occurred yet, the Bush administration hadn't gotten around a compelling story line with which to sucker the American people into an illegal and immoral imperial war designed to make massive profits for Bush's "base". When Powell later synced up to the party line, his words here made him look like an asshole and made it obvious, IMO, that the Bush administration was deceptively manufacturing consent for unjustified and unnecessary war.

[DinahMoeHum]

10. Powell is less than a man. Three-fifths of one, actually. (hint hint)

n/t

[cyr330]

11. Colin Powell is a LIAR.

I don't care how he feels today about his lies to the nation. He may say he regrets it, that it's a 'stain' on his record, blah, blah, blah. The FACT of the matter is that Powell knowingly lied, and NOTHING he can say today will EVER change that fact.

[ckramer]

12. He is a gutless man

That's all I can say.

[fasttense]

13. Until he gave that speech at the UN, I did not support the war.

I believed him. I will never forgive him for lying and enabling the neocons. He is a traitor to the Constitution of the United States.