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Originally Posted by ratbastid
Wow, Ustwo, that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say ANYTHING like that. Everything I've heard from both sides of the aisle talk about their respect for the man, his capabilities, and his professionalism.
You got any sources for this? Or is it just an opinion?
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Ustwo...if Powell, as a four star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to daddy Bush, was in "over his head", how would you describe Condi, with no military experience, no government experience, and no foreign policy experience, other than having an academic background in soviet affairs.
I do like Larry Wilkerson's (Powell's former chief of staff) assessment of the Bush foreign policy team at the time:
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He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."
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Wilkerson's beef with the administration was, for the most part, not ideological. He argues that U.S. forces must remain in Iraq, and he describes George H.W. Bush as "one of the finest presidents we've ever had."
Rather, the colonel objected to the administration's secrecy, which allowed Cheney, Rumsfeld and others to subvert the foreign policy apparatus that has been in place since 1947.
"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld," he said. By cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out those decisions, "we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina." If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic, Wilkerson continued, "you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence."
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Wilkerson blamed Bush, "not versed in international relations and not too much interested," for letting the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal to take over. He blamed Rice for dropping her role as honest broker to "build her intimacy with the president." And he blamed whoever gave Feith "carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw itself."
The cabal's end run around the bureaucracy, he argued, stalled nuclear diplomacy with North Korea and Iran. He said top officials "condoned" prisoner abuse and left the Army "truly in bad shape."
"You and I and every other citizen like us is paying the consequences," he said, "whether it was a response to Katrina that was less than adequate certainly, or the situation in Iraq which still goes unexplained."
The colonel said his old boss is not pleased with his decision to go public with his criticism. Powell, he said, "is the world's most loyal soldier." Wilkerson said he admired that, but he took a different view of loyalty: not to the administration, but to the country.
full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...101902246.html
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__________________
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire
Last edited by dc_dux; 10-03-2006 at 05:53 AM..
Reason: Automerged Doublepost
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