Check Colin Powell’s meme after the article.
Colin Powell endorses Joe Biden for president.
Those of us who were actually there would like to remind people who weren’t that Colin Powell was the only member of that shitshow administration who had integrity. So much so that Cheney knew he couldn’t get his scam for-profit Iraq War 2 done unless he convinced Powell. So, Cheney cherry-picked known to be false intel and set Powell up with a load of known bullshit. Which Powell, unfortunately, trusted his acting Commander in Chief and then went before the UN to sell it. The rest is history. Cheney and his cronies got their war profiteering. Powell was disgraced when it was revealed he had been played and that he had inadvertently lied to the entire world because of it. Like a good soldier, he resigned when he could and slunk off in disgrace, barely to be heard from again. He also, for all intents and purposes, left the GOP, knowing they simply could not be trusted on any matter anymore. Folks, if it wasn’t for the worst Acting President in the history of America (no, it’s not the ignoramus Trump), Colin Powell would have likely become the first black president of the United States.
I protested and campaigned against the Iraq war from the second the idea was floated by the Bush administration, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that you are wrong on several levels. Powell had the respect of the military which is why Bush selected him for a cabinet position, but any illusion that he held serious power within the GOP was shattered when it became clear in ‘96 they wouldn’t support a presidential run because of his race.
Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al, manipulated Powell and the State Department to legitimize their invasion plan, then froze out an entire cabinet office when it because clear that Powell/State wouldn’t play ball the way Defense and the Pentagon wanted. I personally know high-level, well respected, non-political diplomats who worked for the State Dept in the early ‘00s who were blocked by Defense (who were running the show in the Green Zone) from effectively doing their jobs in the Iraq and Afghanistan because Powell disagreed with how the war was playing out and Rumsfeld wanted to undermine Powell as punishment. Colin Powell was the only member of the Bush administration that wasn’t constantly hated by the public at the time, it was clear even then that he had no influence within the Bush administration.
The one black mark on Powell is that once it because clear that Cheney wasn’t going to let him manage his agency the way he believed it should be run, he resigned instead of speaking out publicly. But I guess decades of military service makes it difficult to publicly undermine your commander in chief.
