Colin
posted in General |COLIN
When the dust has finally settled on the current Iraqi/Saddam flap, I wonder how history will treat Colin Powell. Make no mistake, Mr. Powell is a great American success story, and a solid good guy from a national leadership standpoint. He has a lot of talent, amd I am glad he is on our side.
But in 1991, as the Gulf war was winding down, his was one of the strong voices urging that we call off the assualt and not pursue Saddam into Baghdad to take him down and remove him from power. Granted, he was not alone since GW Bush(I) and Norman Schwarzkopf concurred. But as our #1 soldier, his input was not insignificant. If letting Saddam off the hook in 1991 is seen (by hindsight) as a mistake, Colin Powell has to carry a lot of the blame.
Now we are mired down in the swamp of the UN in March 2003, and Mr. Powell has been the strongest voice arguing that we go the UN route rather than just go after Saddam and take him out. We have surrendered the advantage of world opinion, domestic opinion, and UN support. Also, we have given Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction more and more time to prepare for combat. There is little doubt that we are worse off today militarily than would have been the case a month ago – all due to the delays of UN manuevering. At this point it seems that UN support is no longer even a factor and we will have to proceed alone with just a few friends.
Maybe it was worth the effort at the UN. Maybe. But if things go wrong and the long delay results in higher casualties for our guys and the Brits there will be a storm of criticism directed at Geo W Bush. Colin Powell is a military man, but not a military hawk. He prevailed in the strategic argument to pursue the support of the spineless UN. That has not succeeded and in fact has backfired. No doubt, Geo W will take the hit. But upon reflection, I wonder how our hindsight experts will view the role of Mr. Powell five years from now?