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November 15, 2004
No Longer Bothering with Cover, the Administration Dispenses with Powell
So, Powell resigns as expected. In any case, his misson is done. From the time he was sent to cover up My Lai, Powell has been just that: a cover. He was employed to muddy the waters when the administration was clearly bent on invading Iraq. He was purposely deployed at liberals who find it hard to criticize a black man.
This administration no longer needs him because it is no longer covering up; we are now at the brazen, in-your-face, "mandate" phase. Thus Powell can be discarded to take his shameful place in history, and be replaced by someone who will be even worse.
Here's an excerpt from a brief biography of Colin Powell from his lesser known activities in Vietnam, Panama and the first Gulf War. I especially like the part where he threatens to kill all four million residents of Baghdad.
VIETNAM:In his memoirs, An American Journey on page 140 Gen. Powell writes, about the Vietnam war:
If a helo [helicopter] spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM [military age male] the pilot would circle and fire in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him. Brutal? Maybe so.Article Three of the Geneva Convention of 1949 to which the United States is a signatory, states that:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:(a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
In his memoirs, General Powell also defends the U.S. practice of forcibly displacing peasants and destroying their homes, part of the "strategic hamlet" program – in fact, Gen. Powell's first "combat" assignment was in that program.
In 1968, he was charged with responding to a letter by Tom Glen, a soldier in the Americal division. The letter charged American soldiers with indiscriminately shooting into people’s homes and with severe beatings and torture of civilians. Without interviewing Glen, Powell wrote a response denying the allegations, claiming that "relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." (The New Republic, 4/17/95). Given his involvement in the "strategic hamlet" program and the knowledge expressed in his memoirs of the brutal practices of American soldiers in Vietnam, he had to know his report was false. The report came out shortly after the My Lai massacre, in which hundreds of unarmed men, women and children were murdered and many women raped (Four Hours in My Lai: Penguin, 1993) – an atrocity committed by that same Americal division.
PANAMA:
Gen. Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the invasion of Panama. In his memoirs he states that he recommended the invasion to President Bush (Also see, Bob Woodward, The Commanders, 1993). Previously, the U.S. had supported the then dictator of Panama, Gen. Noriega. -- he was on the CIA’s payroll (Buckley, Panama: The Whole Story, 1991; George Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State, 1993). In terms of international law, there is no difference between the invasion of Panama by the U.S. and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq -- both are illegal. The number of civilian deaths caused by the invasion in Panama have been estimated to be between 1000 to 4000, greater than the number killed in Kuwait by the invasion of Iraq. The Central American Human Rights commission [CODEHUCA] studied the invasion and reached the following conclusions:
1) The U.S. Army used highly sophisticated and experimental weapons against unarmed civilian populations;2) Estimates of the number of non- combatants killed run from as few as 2200 to as high as 4000 Many of the mostly black victims were residents of the El Chorrillos slum which was next to the Panamanian military headquarters and was razed to the ground in the attack;
3) U.S. efforts to obscure the actual death toll included massive incineration of corpses prior to identification, burial in mass graves prior to identification, and U.S. military control of administrative offices of hospitals and morgues;
4) "A thorough, well-planned propaganda campaign has been implemented by U.S. authorities to... deny the brutality and extensive human and material costs of the invasion." (CODEHUCA report submitted to Americas Watch 6/5/90)
US Ambassador to Panama Ambler Moss said his "gut instinct is that there is an awful lot of parties around there that have an interest in covering up numbers" (New York Times, 1/10/90) Catholic priest Diego Caffley, claimed that the invasion killed 3,000 people and that the main obstacle to learning the full number was the US Army Southern Command (La Republica, Costa Rica, 11/01/90) Washington Post Columnist Colman McCarthy commented on Powell's actions in Panama:
Of the victims of the one-sided, sure-thing massacre, Powell says the "loss of innocent life was tragic." Of course. Tut tut. This superficial expression of grief was a run-up comment to Powell's telling of "the lessons I absorbed from Panama": "Use all the force necessary, and do not apologize for going in big if that is what it takes." For sure. In the name of peace, kill as many women and children as get in the way of U.S. policies. (Washington Post, 10/3/1995)GULF WAR
Colin Powell was the highest ranking military officer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the Gulf War. He was thus directly involved in decision making at all levels. In his memoirs, Gen. Powell recounts drafting a warning to Saddam one day before the beginning of the fighting, on Jan. 15, 1991.If driven to it, I wrote, we would destroy the dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and flood Baghdad, with horrendous consequences. (Powell, 1995; p.491)The city of Baghdad that Gen Powell threatened to flood is home to 4 million civilians who are also victims of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
...
Powell will now go back to collecting many, many pieces of silver for speaking engagements. I suggest that he team up with Kissinger and a few others for a "War Criminals All-Star Tour."
Posted by zeynep at November 15, 2004 01:14 PM
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» And the high horse you rode in on from August J. Pollak - xoverboard.com
Okay, honestly: screw Colin Powell. I refute any suggestion from moderates and sympathetic liberals that he's a "good person" by nature of being the least-horrible member of Bush's cabinet. For someone with so many alleged good intentions, he certainly... [Read More]
Tracked on November 15, 2004 09:21 PM