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if theres any lesson that voters might want to take with them into the voting booth this november, it is this: that a proud and distinguished military career, and even bravery in a combat situation, is no guarantee of the kind of political courage that america needs in its future leaders.
the issue at hand may be john mccain, but for a case study we can look no further than colin powell. some 15 years ago, powell was the kind of guy youd want to name your kids elementary school after. a vietnam veteran who moved up the ranks and became national security advisor and chairman of the joints chief of staff, he was viewed as a moderate who -- according to most accounts -- usually pushed diplomatic solutions over military ones, and developed the powell doctine aimed at winning any wars that were fought with miminal casualties.
all good, but when he became secretary of state he made it clear that loyalty was his strong point, while backbone was lacking. the low point came in february 2003 when powell went before the united nations and made a case for war that convinced many moderates to support it, when he himself (reported later) didnt actually believe all the evidence. in fact, he was arguing privately against the war, and later admitted his presentation was a blot; in 2007 he even tried to claim that i argued against the war -- even though his only contribution that mattered was to make it happen, 4,000 dead americans and many more dead iraqs later.
that is bad enough -- but i find this revelation from last nights abc news article to be astounding:.
well, i cant wait for powells next barbara walters appearance so he tell us how he pleaded with cheney and the others not to do this, either. give me a break. anyone who sat in those meetings and didnt stop america on the path to torture is just as guilty as those who proposed it in the first place. and that includes not only powell but former attorney general john ashcroft, whose reported quote that history will not judge this kindly will be in your grandchilds textbook.
i bring up powell for two reasons:
1) as noted in the lead-in, mccain is going to bash voters over the head for the next seven months over his biography, especially the years in which he himself suffered as a prisoner-of-war in hanoi. he deserves a lot of credit for that as a person, but in the political arena he needs to be judged on his political leadership on current issues like iraq, which isnt nearly as unimpeachable.
2) powells been all over the news today for another reason -- because hes said nice things about barack obama and hinted he might even endorse him:
powells answer to the critique that obama lacks executive experience: he didnt have a lot of experience in running a presidential campaign, did he..
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