Colin Powell foolishly entered into the political foray concerning Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens' trial for corruption charges. Powell called Stevens' sense of honor and integrity, sterling, in the 25 years that Powell has known Stevens, during his testimony on Friday in Washington. Federal prosecutors have accused Stevens of concealing gifts of more than $250,000 worth of renovations to his cabin in Alaska, and other pertinent gifts, ostensibly, from his friend, Bill Allen, the one time head of VECO Corporation, an energy services company.
As one can well remember, Colin Powell, as secretary of state for George W. Bush, went to bat for Bush and others in his address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003 ostensibly to convince the world, and him, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In addition, Powell also emphasized that Iraq had a legitimate biological weapons program, which was being shuttled around Iraq, in a game of musical chairs to hide the equipment from inspectors. Unfortunately, we all had to listen to the voices in the desert, ostensibly Iraqi conspirators, who were confused as well, trying to outsmart weapons' inspectors by staying one-step ahead of them. Powell's speech plays out like a Hollywood screenplay most probably written by the Advanced Hollywood Screenwriting Division of the CIA. We all know the outcome of the WMD folly perpetrated by Bush and others, and the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq, as Allan Greenspan once commented, it's all about oil.
If Powell believed he delivered an Adlai Stevenson moment at the United Nations, he was sadly mistaken in his convictions. As most of us remember, Adlai Stevenson went to bat for John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Adlai Stevenson, during a presentation at an emergency session of the Security Council, armed with original photographs of the missile sites in Cuba, all derived from solid intelligence from many legitimate sources, ambushed the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, by telling him, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over"-, when he queried Mr. Zorin on the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
Adlai Stevenson actually had concrete evidence, not some garbage fabricated in a back office of the CIA, similar to what Colin Powell delivered to the world during his not so famous speech to the UN. If Colin Powell, being a reasonably intelligent person, with average or above average intelligence, actually believed this nonsense he was spewing to the World, then one would have to believe he was going to bat for Bush and others, just like Condoleezza Rice, lying all the way to the bank, tying himself forever to an administration that criminally invaded and occupied a sovereign nation to ostensibly take control of their oil reserves, and consume their economy, to help stabilize the failing American dollar. One must guess at the patriotism involved in such a decision, were morals and integrity are thrown out of the window on top of the rotting corpses of the Iraqi civilians and US soldiers who died to bring democracy to the Middle East. In summary, was it oil profits?
It is no wonder that Powell would associate himself with Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska simply because people associate with friends who share common interests and beliefs. Powell, referring to Ted Stevens, even made the comment: "as we say in the infantry, this is a guy you take on a long patrol."- It appears Powell would be the most comfortable with people just like him. Wouldn't you know! If I could give Colin Powell some advice, it would be this: "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."- I like the part about fading away.
