A Spork in the Drawer

Say What?

Colin Powell:

THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

“I tried to avoid this war,” Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”

You might have said something at the time, Colin.

But this shouldn't be surprising: From Powell's attempt to cover-up the My Lai masscre in 1969 to his apparent perjury during the Iran-Contra years and on Colin Powell is nothing more than a Good German. He salutes and takes his orders. Only later does he try to rationalize his actions. Perhaps Powell believes the media narrative that he's a Man of Great Integrity™.

Colin Powell is as much a political operator as any other politician, though maybe a bit more spineless than most.

[Via Think Progress.]

.

If It's Not Hookers It's Cars

Powell:

No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to President Bush, his family and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.

Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his nation’s support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider’s insider. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.

[...]

Robert Jordan, a former Bush administration ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the Saudis’ mixed signals have come at a time when King Abdullah — who has ruled the country since 1995 but became king only in 2005 after the death of his brother, Fahd — has said he does not want to go down in history as Mr. Bush’s Arab Tony Blair. “I think he feels the need as a kind of emerging leader of the Arab world right now to maintain a distance,” he said.

[...]

A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state two years ago, Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar. Mr. Powell’s wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model. The Powells kept the car — a gift that the State Department said was legal — but recently traded it away.

I've long regretted not having a law degree or a business degree; I thought that they were passports to riches.

But it turns out that none of those things matter.

So, can someone introduce me to a Saudi prince?

'Cuz I'd like a new car.

.

AHHAHAHAHA!

Colin Powell Day.

.