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Which Powell Is Which?
April 20, 2004
Colin Powell was never your average secretary of state. He
was the larger-than-life general turned statesman who
coined a doctrine of warfare and was spoken of seriously,
even longingly, as a potential candidate for president. But
he also was the faithful soldier who prized loyalty,
sometimes too much, and had an overly refined sense of the
governmental feeding chain. The question is, which one
became secretary of state?
For three years, it's been tempting to think that Mr.
Powell could yet fulfill his promise of being the powerful
voice of reason in an increasingly ideological
administration. That �ber-Powell was forever rumored to be
on the cusp of asserting himself with Vice President Dick
Cheney, or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Overseas, he
was the face of the "good," multilateral United States, and
foreign diplomats were encouraged to believe that he was
simply waiting for the right minute to bring their concerns
to the White House.
No one expected Mr. Powell to incessantly air policy
differences in public. Proper discretion has been as much a
part of his persona as strength of character. But even when
he was embarrassingly sidelined, it was calming to think
that in private, he was taking the strong, even indignant
stand.
The publication of Bob Woodward's latest Washington
pot-stirrer has left us wondering, once again, just where
Mr. Powell stood on Iraq, and how hard he fought for his
own positions when they differed from those of the
president and Mr. Cheney. According to the Woodward book,
Mr. Bush made his decision to go to war in Iraq in January
2003; talked it over with Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld;
informed the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice;
and even mentioned it to the Saudi ambassador before he got
around to Mr. Powell.
When the secretary of state finally got the word, Mr.
Woodward reported, he just asked, "Are you aware of the
consequences?" Mr. Woodward added that Mr. Powell had said
this in a "chilly way." But that is hardly the "cut it off
and kill it" kind of response the general was supposed to
be capable of making.
Mr. Woodward describes Mr. Powell as deeply concerned about
the prospect of an Iraq invasion, yet doing virtually
nothing to try to turn Mr. Bush back from what he
considered a dangerously wrong policy. Later, Mr. Powell
cashed in more of his credibility by going to the United
Nations and presenting intelligence about Iraq's weapons
that many thought was exaggerated and that turned out to be
flat wrong.
After letting the book sit unchallenged for a long weekend
of national news coverage, Mr. Powell finally told The
Associated Press yesterday that he had been both well
informed and ultimately supportive of the president's Iraq
plans. He did not address the details of Mr. Woodward's
account, which everyone in Washington assumed had come from
Mr. Powell himself. But he insisted that the formal
decision to go to war in Iraq did not come until March,
which is the official White House stance, and that by then
his support was "willing, and it was complete."
What we seem to have once again with Mr. Powell is a desire
to have it both ways, to be seen as a loyal member of the
Bush team, but also as a wise man who knew all along that
the Iraq war would be a mistake. If the Woodward version is
correct, Mr. Powell should have spoken up more than a year
ago. He had, in a way, prepared all his life to oppose the
Iraq policy. Like most soldiers, he'd always been reluctant
to go to war, and the doctrine that bears his name is one
that aims to restrict the country from any foreign
adventure taken without overwhelming commitment - say, by
an administration that was planning to launch an invasion
and cut taxes at the same time.
Mr. Powell, who apprenticed in the vicious parlor wars of
the Reagan White House, has always played the spin game
well. If the Woodward book is the version of
inside-the-White-House history that Mr. Powell wanted
people to believe, it has done nothing to burnish his
reputation. Knowing that Mr. Powell thought the invasion
was a bad idea doesn't make him look better - it makes his
inaction puzzling and disappointing. It's an article of
faith in Washington that Mr. Powell would not serve in a
second Bush administration. The lasting impression may be
this sense of disappointment in the secretary he could have
been.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/20/opinion/20TUE1.html?ex=1083489950&ei=1&en=389425246ec2b554
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