Powell's predicament
Mohamed Hakki wonders why Colin Powell, the Bush administration's last hope, is so bent on self-destruction
Around the proverbial dinner table, discussions in American homes for the last several months have often centered on discussions of the behaviour of the leading members of the Bush administration. How can one explain Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice? Secretary of State Colin Powell is in a class of his own. He is the last hope for this administration and the only person left to believe.
Roles have been assigned to each of the first three. Cheney was the chief of the warmongers, or the neo-cons who were called "chicken hawks" because none, including Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and many of the civilians in the defence department who hold the reigns of power, ever served in the armed forces. Many, many articles were written about Cheney -- not only in Europe, but even here in America. Equally damaging is the fact that Donald Rumsfeld, who allied himself almost entirely with this group of neo-cons, made a mockery of himself with his ridiculous remarks about "Old Europe", meaning France and Germany, and his attempt to discredit the closest US ally in the war against Iraq -- Britain.
Condoleezza Rice was a tougher nut to crack because nobody knows exactly whether she is an ideologue or is tied to the Israeli lobby, with which she worked during the Cold War. After all, she was the main liaison between George Bush Sr and the Israelis during that time. They literally forced immigrating Soviet Jews to move to Israel instead of allowing them to freely choose their new homeland.
So, how can one explain Colin Powell? Here is a man who was considered as the best, and maybe the last hope of the Bush administration; and he is allowing himself to be publicly humiliated by Ariel Sharon. Notice how awkward he appeared in Cairo as he tryed to dance around the word "accept" when discussing Sharon's dismissal of the roadmap to peace between the Arabs and Israel. This reminds us of President Clinton's statement during depositions about his possible affair with Monica Lewinsky when he said that it depends on your interpretation of the word "is".
What is Powell afraid of? He is probably the only politician that the Israelis cannot manipulate. The African-Americans would eat them for breakfast. One could say that Powell did not want to upstage his own president. Perhaps he did not want to make any judgment, or even a comment, so that he would not have to eat his words when he returned to Washington. After all, he watched his own boss do just that last summer. Bush beat his chest threateningly, demanded that Sharon withdraw his goons from Jenin and shouted angrily, "When I say now, I mean now!" Then, he suddenly bit his tongue when Sharon essentially told him to go fly a kite!
But, why should Powell go to Israel and Palestine at all if it would so undermine his standing in the eyes of the world? Can we be led to believe that his trip was not well thought out? Or, is he following orders from the Bush administration to tell the Arabs and the world that it is either Sharon's way or the highway? Why should he demean his position as secretary of state while at the same time conduct official meetings in Jerusalem rather than Tel Aviv, as all previous administrations have done?
One can explain a lot of other decisions made by Powell. His decision to support the war, once taken, can be explained by his history as a soldier and the fact that he cannot contradict his commander in chief. Once the decision was taken, he had to abide by it. He is also known to be fiercely loyal to both Bush presidents -- Bush Sr, the 41st president and Bush Jr, the 43rd president -- and to the system. He also had won his battle within the administration against the hard-liners, or warmongers, or neo-cons. They all opposed going to the UN, saying that there was no need to go to the good-for-nothing organisation, which has become irrelevant. He insisted on gaining the support of the international community to legitimise the war. The US went to the Security Council, and it was on the basis of his testimony that the US won the passage of Resolution 1441. Everyone recognises that.
But, it doesn't end there. He personally supports the chicken hawks' thinking. Despite the fact that he resisted pressure from the neo-cons on a number of issues, he shared some of their goals. For instance, twice he personally had a hand in drafting the "National Security Strategy of the United States", presented to Congress last September. Historian Joseph Stromberg observed, "It must be read to be believed." He said that the doctrine preaches the benefits of the United States becoming dictatress of the world. It also assumes that the president and his lieutenants are morally entitled to govern the planet. It declares that America's best defence is a good offence and that preemptive action is a matter of common sense and self-defence.
Be that as it may, Powell did not have to go to the Security Council and repeat the many untruths that were obviously supplied to him by the intelligence community, particularly the defence department. Every single "proof" he presented, whether about the moving trucks serving as labs or the "irrefutable" evidence that Saddam is very close to producing nuclear or chemical weapons, have turned out to be merely empty rhetoric. In fact, former Israeli Mossad officer Victor Ostrovesky wrote a long report in which he said that most of these fake proofs, including those implicating Libya in the bombing of a German night club in the 1980s, were fabricated and manufactured by Israel. Some people may say that everyone fell for it. Tony Blair and even President Bush repeated the same untruths.
What is surprising is that no matter how hard Secretary Powell has tried to approach hard-line conservatives, he has continued to come under intense fire by them. The most recent attack came from Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives (whose wife worked for the Israelis) who attacked Powell's stewardship of the State Department. Hard-liners of the Pentagon and members of Cheney's office also have attacked him. Many news analysts began to ask whether the White House would continue to back Powell. Will the president defend him publicly? Some, such as Martin Indykk, said that Powell cannot really gauge President Bush's support for him and that he has to wait to see how much the White House is prepared to do. Others, such as historian Richard Norton Smith, considered Powell's recent moves a success. As proof, he says that Syria is now safe from invasion, President Bush is talking to the prime minister of South Korea about renegotiating with North Korea, and the roadmap to Middle East peace is back on the table. Smith even elevates Bush by saying that he may be on the verge of joining a small group of presidents, all now thought of as great, who pitted their top aides against each other, fashioning an agenda above the fray.
Why should Powell squander all that? He is the only remaining bridge between this administration and the African-American community. He is also the only member of this administration who could be trusted by the Arabs to reach a final settlement in the Middle East. In a recent poll, a majority of Americans rated him higher than President Bush by 12 percentage points, Vice President Cheney by 31 points, and Donald Rumsfeld by 12 points (source: Quinnipiac University and Brookings Institute).
Professor Eliot Cohen, who was a critic of Powell in the past, admitted after his speech at the UN that Powell was the only logical spokesman for the administration "because he captures so much of the best about America. Not his wisdom, which is uneven, but his character, which is not." But, by compromising himself and lying to the UN, he denigrated himself to the level of the New York Times reporter who fabricated his sources. By succumbing to pressure from Sharon, the Israelis and their amen chorus in America, he proved to be capable of self-destruction all on his own.
I hope he can still save whatever is left of himself before it is too late.
