Covid Claims Colin Powell

 


A son of immigrants who rose to become the first black general to chair America's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell has died of complications of Covid-19.

Not surprisingly, Powell had been fully vaccinated. A reminder that the vaccines may keep you safer but there is no entirely safe.

Powell had a storied career with plenty of ups and downs. Years ago there were rumours that he played some role in the US Army's efforts to conceal the My Lai massacre, a cog in the military machine.

He surfaced again in the public eye when he as appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell ran the shop when coalition forces drove Saddam's troops out of Kuwait.

As Secretary of State under George w. Bush, he gave America a dandy bit of advice called the "Powell Doctrine"



The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

Is a vital national security interest threatened?

Do we have a clear attainable objective?

Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?

Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?

Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?

Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?

Is the action supported by the American people?

Do we have genuine broad international support? 

As Powell said in an April 1, 2009 interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, it denotes a nation's exhausting of all "political, economic, and diplomatic means", which, only if all were futile, would result in the condition that the nation should resort to military force. Powell has also asserted that when a nation is engaging in war, every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy, minimizing casualties and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate.

Powell warned Bush/Cheney against the invasion of Iraq citing the "Pottery Barn rule" of "you broke it, you own it." He later said he regretted appearing before the UN General Assembly to present ginned-up evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.



A lifelong Republican, Powell broke with the GOP during the Trump presidency. He never went back.

Comments

  1. Northern PoVOctober 18, 2021 at 2:52 PM

    Powell and his over-hyped 'doctrine'. Bla Bla Bla. Anything honorable about the guy was swept into the dustbin of history when he shilled-for and implemented the Cheney/Bush admin crazy war on terror/endless $ machine.

    Summed up well when he openly lied to the world in this grim performance:
    "He later said he regretted appearing before the UN General Assembly to present ginned-up evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction."

    ReplyDelete
  2. TrailblazerOctober 18, 2021 at 4:34 PM

    Many of his era have masses of blood on their hands.
    GW Bush and Tony Blair are the obvious ones.
    Powell changed his allegiances , Blair changed his religion.

    Awe, hekky thump sorry folks we did the wrong thing!
    The USA will not release the death toll on the highway of death citing we don't do numbers!!

    https://www.google.com/search?q=iraq+war+highway+of+death+images&oq=iraq+highway+&aqs=chrome.5.0i512j69i57j0i512j0i22i30l4j0i390.11279j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    Bush and Blair left office to pursue speaking engagements that commanded massive payouts.

    https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64364/people-making-a-fortune-from-public-speaking

    TB

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Disaffected LibOctober 19, 2021 at 12:06 AM

    NPoV, TB, I was expecting your commentary. I won't add to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Northern PoVOctober 19, 2021 at 7:40 AM

      I love the smell of passive-aggressive in the morning. I t smells like ...

      ;-)

      Delete
  4. Northern PoVOctober 19, 2021 at 7:44 AM

    btw, the methane bomb that we have discussed here, finally made it to the front page of the Wapo.

    "Russia’s planet-warming methane leaks, revealed by a new generation of satellites, come at the planet’s peril
    A new breed of satellites devoted to locating and measuring greenhouse gases, including methane, are orbiting Earth — meaning trouble for Russia, the world's second-biggest natural gas producer."

    trouble for (just) Russian, you say?
    I'll take 'Runaway Global Heating' for 2000, Alex.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibOctober 19, 2021 at 4:35 PM

      Yeah, I read the piece on the ESA satellite. I hope these spacecraft can police the fossil fuelers - in Russia as well as elsewhere. What I'm waiting for will be the numbers for methane and CO2 emitted from melting tundra and permafrost. The US is the largest natural gas producer. Canada comes 6th. A lot of the gas in North America is fracked. We also have some of the oldest gas infrastructure. MIT ran a couple of studies of gas leaking out of the roads and sidewalks of Boston. I have a post on that.

      https://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-reminder-natural-gas-is-not-clean.html

      https://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2018/01/nat-gas-killed-coal-now-its-time-to.html

      Delete
  5. the salamanderOctober 19, 2021 at 9:32 AM

    .. try to name a North American politician who has uttered the word ‘Methane’

    .. try to name a Canadian politician who can clearly state real or even any progress with Federally (taxpayer) Funded $$ - remediation of abandoned oil, gas wells, bores

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibOctober 19, 2021 at 4:37 PM

      Getting into it brings up the embarrasing business of remediation, Sal. We don't want to talke about the risks of fracking, gas leaks, orphan wells and tailing ponds visible to the naked eye from space.

      Delete

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