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| Home Front: Politix |
| Colin Powell speaks |
| 2005-02-27 |
| Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, has for the first time publicly criticised troops levels in Iraq and spoken of the rifts between himself and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, that undermined his role as architect of American foreign policy. Mr Powell, in his first interview since resigning last November, also told The Telegraph of his "dismay" at the deterioration in relations between America and Europe and of his "disappointment" with France. While holding back from blaming Mr Rumsfeld by name for the problems that eventually persuaded him to resign, Mr Powell showed that much of the innuendo and leaks surrounding his volatile relationship with the defence secretary had been well-founded. Admitting that Mr Rumsfeld's controversial plan to fight the war with limited troop numbers had been an outstanding success, Mr Powell said the "nation building" that followed had been deeply flawed. There had been "enough troops for war but not for peace, for establishing order. My own preference would have been for more forces after the conflict." Mr Powell said he had warned President George W Bush over dinner in August 2002 that the problem with Iraq was not going to be the invasion but what followed. He told him: "This place will crack like a goblet and it will be a problem to pick up the bits. It was on this basis that he decided to let me see if we could find a United Nations solution to this." Mr Powell told Charles Moore, the former editor of The Telegraph who conducted the interview outside Washington, that he regretted the fall-out with Europe over the Iraq war. He also found Mr Rumsfeld's reference to "New Europe" and "Old Europe" unfortunate. "I never used the phrase," he said. "It just wasn't a useful construct. I don't think the president ever used it. "We've got a lot more work to do with European public opinion." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Dr Steve - He still talked to the Telegraph, of all sources, and aired private squabbles - positively airheaded quotables. Pfeh. He has fallen far and he has joined the Shalikashvili ranks. Ship - I love the Hustler. Saw it up close - my father (whose world I got to ogle every other weekend for a day at a pop) was part of the team which invented the clamshell escape pod. Later he was a GD VP. Most of the highlights of my otherwise totally-fucked childhood were when he took me and my brother to Carswell and to air shows. The Hustler ranks second only to the B-70 in pure unadulterated awesomeness - though it was only once with the B-70 - it crashed after leaving the Ft Worth air show enroute to California. The Hustler set 19 different records - and was the first delta-wing supersonic bomber. It just boggled at low altitude - saw it do a low altitude pass (under 500 ft) at Mach 1.6 - as it would do on a bombing mission inside enemy territory - and I damned-near wet my pants. I was 8 at the time. There's even something for a swabbie to love: "Internally, the B-58 is framed like a Navy destroyer, with transverse duralumin spars, corrugated for strength, spaced only 11 to 15 inches apart running from one wing margin through the fuselage to the opposite wing." And this: "An irresistible attention-getter, a voice warning system, has been developed for the Hustler: into the masculine chatter in the pilot's earphones a soft feminine voice (pre-recorded, unfortunately) breaks in with one of twenty announcements--'weapon unlocked,' 'hydraulic system failure,' 'check for engine fire,' 'nose too high.'" Double-heh. The little monster just rocked. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-02-27 6:28:56 PM |
| #5 "We’ve got a lot more work to do with European public opinion." Why? Their media is going to do what it can to counter anything we do, so why bother? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-02-27 5:56:07 PM |
| #4 Read the whole interview, folks. Colin defends the prez, and the MSM is going to lay into him for that. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-02-27 12:06:37 PM |
| #3 Can't wait for Colin's next interview where he tells where he would have gotten the troops and how he would have gotten them into Iraq after his State Department botched Turkey. Colin should remove himself from politics, devote himself to good works and begin his memoirs. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-02-27 10:09:03 AM |
| #2 OT PD. Wasn't dissing the Hustler, I want to rent about 48 (from Davis-Monthian, Planes R Us) to the IDF for a weekend special. It would be ideal for a mid-range hi-lo-lo-hi 3 day getaway. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-02-27 8:58:39 AM |
| #1 He chooses to give an interview to the Telegraph? Colin, you've fallen so far. Sad. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-02-27 3:00:52 AM |