I won't understand respect for someone who was reponsible for the deaths of 100s of thousands of people because he lied.
I’m no fan of Colin Powell but IMO the responsibility for those deaths does not fall on him specifically. The US was going to war in Iraq with or without the UN’s backing, everything Powell did was window dressing. False, deceitful and criminal window dressing, but still.
just because others were ALSO responsible doesn't absolve him of any of the responsibility of all those deaths.
Around half a million innocent Afghani and Iraqi civilians died in Afghanistan and Iraq during those wars. I dont understand why the American news media neglected to report on that. Another interesting observation: Halliburton ran the supply chain for both the Vietnam war and the Gulf wars. Not alot of sympathy from me for that guy.
For the younger generation who might have missed the reference ...Halliburton was the company the vice president used to be CEO of.
I won't understand respect for someone who was reponsible for the deaths of 100s of thousands of people because he lied.
If he didn't deliver that speech, they would have found someone else to do it (and he would have been fired). The responsibility lies with Bush and Cheney, not with the messenger.
I know it's a stretch and I don't want to Godwin the discussion too much, but that is really not an excuse. The Nuremberg trials clearly rejected this "Nuremberg defense", but of course it was the beaten party standing before the court back then.
But in principle, since 1945, no one can evade personal responsibility for a clearly unlawful act by pointing to superior orders.
I will always remember him for bringing a vial of what he asserted to be Saddam’s chemical weapon to the UN Assembly.
A complete lie which he was fully aware of. > At one point, he became so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing to intelligence claims that he declared: "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit," according to the magazine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/02/usa.iraq He did read it in full, of course. And he brought the fake vial of Iraqi anthrax to the presentation, too. A known unknown of known bullshit, I…
As Powell's chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson once recalled, that speech resulted in a resumption of hostilities for a war that already received Security Council approval back in the '90s - the original war never stopped, as no truce was ever agreed to, only detente. North and South Korea are in a similar state of detente. Powell's speech itself was an effort to receive political support for reengagement.
Colin Powell is a textbook case of "A thousand 'Atta-boys!' and one fuck-up!". He joined the Army in the 1950s, served through 2 tours in Vietnam, and made it all the way to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by the end of the 1980s, leading the military through Operation Desert Storm and the post-Soviet era. That's a rare career for ANY American, let alone a black one. But all that went "poof!" after his shameful performa…
I don't really see rising through the ranks of the U.S. military through the 70s/80s/90s as particularly praiseworthy either. Powell did the job he did at the UN because he was a company man and had been for a long time. And in addition to a few tut-tuts and a black mark on his record, it also kept him in the good graces of the Washington foreign policy blob, with all the sinecures, speaking fees, magazine profiles, and mostly-hagiographic obituaries that come with it.
I won't understand respect for someone who was reponsible for the deaths of 100s of thousands of people because he lied.
If you are talking about Iraq, these people were not exactly living happy lives under Saddam rule. Colin lie is inexcusable, but Iraq war was a good thing for Iraq. Net zero at least. (Feel free to downvote, downvote is used for disagreement on HN these days.)
13 Rules of Leadership First printed in the August 13, 1989, issue of Parade magazine,[41] these are Colin Powell's 13 Rules of Leadership.[42][43] It ain't as bad as you think. Get mad, then get over it. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. It can be done. Be careful what you choose. You may get it. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good de…
> It ain't as bad as you think.
It was for the people in Afghanistan and Iraq.
> Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
I will always remember him for bringing a vial of what he asserted to be Saddam’s chemical weapon to the UN Assembly.
A complete lie which he was fully aware of. > At one point, he became so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing to intelligence claims that he declared: "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit," according to the magazine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/02/usa.iraq He did read it in full, of course. And he brought the fake vial of Iraqi anthrax to the presentation, too. A known unknown of known bullshit, I…
He was also successfully honey-pot-ed by my country, Romania, at about the same time (early 2000s), googling "corina cretu" and "colin powell" should reveal some Romanian texts (easily translatable via Google Translate) plus some photos. Old habits die hard, I guess (I'm talking about my country's tactics, which I guess we learned from our big neighbour further East).
I won't understand respect for someone who was reponsible for the deaths of 100s of thousands of people because he lied.
If you are talking about Iraq, these people were not exactly living happy lives under Saddam rule. Colin lie is inexcusable, but Iraq war was a good thing for Iraq. Net zero at least. (Feel free to downvote, downvote is used for disagreement on HN these days.)
> but Iraq war was a good thing for Iraq
I wouldn't even know where to start. This is such an obviously illogical argument. I mean, man, c'mon.