Today is the Day of Shame. Let us never forget!

[lwcon]

Seven years ago today, Colin Powell gave his "compelling" Iraq War pitch to the UN.

Please K&R if you think it's important to remember and learn from this monstrous act.

The Day of Shame blog commemorates this tragic day each year. Perhaps we all should, until our country holds itself to account for all that is symbolized by that fateful day.

[Mari333]

1. he should be in jail too

but , oh yes, we must move fricking forward.

[muffin1]

10. And yet he's portrayed as a hero, even among "dems".

He is as guilty as shrub, cheney, rummy, wolfowitz, etc., as far as I'm concerned.

But you're right, it looks like NONE of them will ever be investigated.
If I'm ever arrested, maybe the judge will agree that we should just "move forward". Yeah, right...


Ha! Spell check says for "wolfowitz", I should try "halfwits".:spray:

[piratefish08]

16. Yes he should. He was spineless when he had the chance to do the right thing.

[Echo In Light]

26. War Criminal like the rest

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Why did he do it when he knew it wasn't true?

was he trying to protect himslef and his family?

[Mari333]

4. dunno. he 'supposedly' regrets it now

gee, and yet, how much do the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who lost family members , or are living daily with insufferable wounds, regretting it?
Clown the Colin skated, big time. they are all skating, and no one calls them on it.

[lwcon]

6. Here's what Powell said in late 2008

http://dayofshame.blogspot.com/2009/02/powell-creedence-revival.html

"I'm well aware of the role I played . My role has been very, very straightforward. I wanted to avoid a war. The president agreed with me. We tried to do that. We couldn't get it through the U.N. and when the president made the decision, I supported that decision. And I've never blinked from that. I've never said I didn't support a decision to go to war." -- Colin Powell

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. but they never wanted to avoid the war it was finalized between Bush and Blair at the ranch

he could have resigned

[willing dwarf]

7. You could tell he was lying

just listening to his voice. I remember I was driving at the time, and listening to him on the radio. There was something constricted about his voice as if he was talking through clenched teeth, which told me he was lying. -- Who knows why he did it. Probably Cheney had unsavory info on him which he threatened to expose unless he played ball. Who knows, the game is played behind closed doors.

[lwcon]

8. It's very consistent with Powell's history

He helped cover up My Lai, after all.

[Mari333]

9. that good old boys network..covering up their war crimes

seems to be still going on with this admin.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. I think many heads should have rolled

[lwcon]

15. Accountability?

That's for little people!

[jotsy]

30. According to what I read in Vincent Bugliosi's 'Prosecution of GWB'

Powell was fully on board with going into Iraq, but got out voted as to the cover story and approach.

I say we'll suffer horrendous scarring as a people until the wound of these dirty war birds is properly cleaned. Prosecute them all as citizens in local districts for the wrongful death of the community's soldiers, our federal justice department sees no need to pursue what it is supposed to stand for.

[G_j]

5. K&R

[Mira]

13. Definitely a day that lives in infamy. But I did not know the date it happened.

It is the day Colin Powell lost all my respect, never to regain a shred of it. A day where a fellow Democrat looked at me and said Powell made a compelling case and he lost me, too.

An honorable man, the soldier's soldier he was supposed to be, would have come to the American people after resigning, and said: "Here's the scoop, and I ain't playing".

No, he is dirt to me, and he carries monumental responsibility, because he had the respect of the country as he led us down the path to further its destruction.

Recommended, so we will remember.

[lwcon]

14. And where did he ever earn that respect?

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1344

[Fumesucker]

17. The Powell Doctrine..

The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

Is a vital national security interest threatened?
Do we have a clear attainable objective?
Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
Is the action supported by the American people?
Do we have genuine broad international support?


In retrospect it is clear that not a single one of those points applied to the Iraq war..

[lwcon]

18. Honestly, it was clear at the time

My jaw dropped lower and lower while watching his speech. There was simply no there there.

And then the media gave it the Good Warmaking Seal of Approval, and that was that.

One lesson we ought to learn is that conventional wisdom about individual greatness ought to be tested more than accepted. Powell rode on a reputation he never earned, and his evidence-challenged presentation rode on that and a lying and pliant media to (what should be) our great national shame.

[Fumesucker]

19. The only reason I said "in retrospect" was because it did seem to have wide approval..

I know that talking against it got me shunned, big time.

[lwcon]

20. I've been on the business end of a few rounds of that

When groupthink, truthiness, and STFU take hold, you're absolutely screwed if you don't get on board.

However, I don't play well with others when that's the case. Good on you for raising a fuss.

How many people spend so much as ten seconds wondering how it happened and how to prevent it from happening again? Not very damn many.

[opihimoimoi]

21. The man has lost his once proud Credibility and Respect...he is wallowing in Shame

[lwcon]

22. Check out some of the links upthread

That credibility was never deserved, certainly shouldn't have trumped the obviously shabby "evidence" he put forth, and he appears quite uncontrite about supporting the war.

[opihimoimoi]

23. Current thought/evidence is::::: he was a PAWN....under Rove/Bush/Cheney & Rummy

History will not be too kind to the man....he blew it....went with GOP and got shit on his face/name

Sad....I once thought highly of him but no more...he was so disappointing

[lwcon]

24. If he was a pawn

He's a longterm, high-ranking, and unrepentant one.

[opihimoimoi]

27. Yup. long term asshole for the GOP Masters...Bullies ...all of them...

[lwcon]

25. Batocchio is (again) on the case

http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-of-shame-2010.html

[lwcon]

28. BTW, did anyone else notice (see the current post at...

http://www.dayofshame.com for the context) how little reaction there's been to Obama's SOTU statements about ending the war in Iraq?

[gleaner]

29. I do remember that speech ...

I was shocked that he would make it. I thought he was one of the "better" members of the Bush Administration. I think a lot of people did which is one reason Bush had him do this. Bush felt that Powell gave the war in Iraq validity when there was nothing about it that made it legal, moral or necessary.

After that I realized that Powell was the same as any other Bush criminal and nothing he says now or in the future will ever raise my opinion of him. He is a war criminal just like the rest of them.