Smashing Shibboleths: Colin Powell

Colin Powell is one of the more famous black men who has been in the Republican Party.  For some time, Republicans were even talking about him becoming president (along with Condoleezza Rice, another icon we will need to delve into later).  Some would whisper that he had “baggage” that could prevent it, but never went into detail what this referred to.  Given the recent news, I decided now would be as good a time as any to reveal the dirty laundry about Powell that comes up from even a cursory amount of research (well, cursory for me). 

Some may say it’s in bad taste to do such an article so soon after he died of COVID (despite being fully vaccinated) but I disagree.  I think it may be the best time.  After all, it’s a sin to worship anyone or anything other than God.  It is also not hyperbole to say that Republicans worship black “conservatives” like Powell.  Therefore, discussing why such worship is wrong, at a time where he is most likely to be talked about, is certainly justifiable.

I’ll look at three stages of his life: early, career, and post-career. It’s possible for a man to live a bad life and later redeem himself, it’s also possible for a good man to go astray, and it’s possible to always be terrible.  So, which is Powell?  Well, let’s look at the facts.

Powell was born to Jamaican immigrants who valued education.  Perhaps, this is why he worked at a toy store and as a Shabbos goy and learned at least some Yiddish (after all, Jews do well in school, so maybe it would rub off on him).  For those unaware, this is a non-Jew who does things for Jews on Saturday because they can’t break the Sabbath (though, you would think that ordering something done is actually more disrespectful to God’s command than just doing it yourself out of necessity). 

The two most notable events in his life that I’ll discuss are his coverup of war crimes in Vietnam and his promotion of the Iraq War, most notably represented when he brought a vial meant to represent anthrax into the United Nations Security Council on February 3rd, 2003. 

Regarding the Vietnam War, it seems he was an opportunistic officer who saw a chance for advancement by covering up crimes like the Mai Lai Massacre in the hopes that the men he covered for would later promote his advancement.

What essentially happened with Mai Lai was that a soldier, Corporal Tom Glen, reported the massacre and then Powell was sent to investigate.  He just accepted a claim from Glen’s superior officer that Glen wasn’t close enough to the front lines to know what he was writing about.  He apparently never even interviewed Glen.  Powell was undoubtedly a bright young man and knew that by covering it up, that superior officer could later help him out.  There are other examples in that above link that demonstrate Powell siding with higher officers to help them get out of trouble, which supports the theory that he was an opportunistic climber more than a soldier.

Powell’s memoir, My American Journey, indicates a more direct connection to the atrocities committed in Vietnam: “The people had fled at our approach, except for an old woman too feeble to move.  We burned down the thatched huts, starting the blaze with Ronson and Zippo cigarette lighters….[because] Ho Chi Minh had said the people were like the sea in which his guerrillas swam … We tried to solve the problem by making the whole sea uninhabitable.”  He also admitted “I had no qualms about what we were doing.”

I wouldn’t think burning down civilian villages would be becoming the “paragon” of conservatism.  Then again, the GOP is based on bombing countries full of brown folks and importing those same people en masse here for cheap labor, so maybe this is what the GOP liked about Powell.

Jumping forward a few decades, what about what happened in 2003?  Admittedly, he did not say it was anthrax.  He used it as a symbol.  However, there are still issues with it. Firstly, pointing out that anthrax is dangerous, without proof that Saddam had any, is simply theater and was clearly meant to plant the idea in peoples’ heads subconsciously that Saddam had it.

Also, just step back for a moment and picture the scene with Powell and imagine you had done it.  What do you think would happen to you if you brought a vial into the UN and pretended it was Anthrax?  I’d wager you’d probably not see the light of day for some time.

He didn’t just do the Kabuki theatre with the Anthrax, but made other lies about Iraq.  Some people may say “so what, politicians lie all the time” but think about this for a moment.  The official numbers are 25K dead on the U.S. coalition side with over 117K wounded, as well as a total death estimate of approximately 600,000 people.  You can look at the “Human Cost of the Iraq War” to see this in more detail.  Colin Powell is one of the people directly to blame for the boondoggle of the Iraq War and for all those lives lost. 

He also was smart enough to anticipate that taking out Saddam Hussein would have created a power vacuum.  This means at least some of the atrocities committed by ISIS can be leveled at him, as well. By no means was Hussein a good man (and by most accounts, his sons were worse) but there was no justification of the Iraq War other than the base desire to accumulate resources.  I don’t mean to be overly critical of that goal.  All wars are to some extent for the accumulation of resources.  However, at least the Romans shared the wealth of the conquests.  The Iraq War merely concentrated the wealth in the hands of the few and caused countless of our young men in uniform to suffer.

What conservative thing did Powell do over his career? What did he do genuinely that is good for you or your family? Or is it just that he was career military and in some Republican administrations, therefore a knee jerk reaction to defend him is inevitable?

Since being out of power, what has he done?  Well, nothing to conserve America, that’s for sure.  But then again, why should we expect that of him?  His heroes were Truman for desegregation (saying it was “the right thing to do,” though we have not won a war since) and FDR.  Sure, he donated to McCain and criticized Obama, but so what?  He endorsed Obama in 2008, again in 2012, and Clinton in 2016.  So again, how conservative is he?

Out of office, he would occasionally make mealy mouthed apologies for what happened in Vietnam, and would say that he was initially opposed to the Iraq War, but then was supportive of it.  Additionally, he never did or said anything to indicate that the U.S. military needs to stop its downright evil march throughout the world, deposing foreign leaders to replace with neoliberal sodomites.  The so-called “Powell Doctrine” is a set of (seemingly) good principles which it he never actually exercised. 

So, how do I summarize Powell?  He was endowed with natural talent and used that talent to advance himself and encourage atrocities throughout the world.  He is a man who cozied up most to people like Hilary Clinton (who he said had hubris, but was also a dear friend), Madeline Albright (a rather despicable woman who seemingly attempted to use her office and the blood of dead Serbs to buy Kosovo’s state telecommunication company), and other equally vile people. 

I am always shocked when normal people try to justify emotional support for the Republican Party.  They’ll say Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, etc are evil and that Powell, Scalia, and other right-wing leaders are saints, but ignore that all these people are friends.  For example, Scalia and Ginsberg weren’t just amicable colleagues, but actually went to the opera together (so much so that a comedic opera was made about them). 

We need to stop pretending.  It is not just the “demonrats” who are the reason the country is terrible.  It’s both parties who are part of this entrenched elite who profit at our expense and sell our children’s futures to globalist cosmopolitans.  Often the very worst offenders are those very people that the mainstream political wonks attempt to assert is either a maverick, moderate, or hero.

It is also we who must share part of the blame, for we have allowed the wool to cover our eyes so long and failed to recognize the evil before us.  We must not raise up false idols or aggrandize men simply because they advocate for things that sound good and can look imposing on a stage.  We need to stop compromising.  We must better ourselves and must demand better leaders, from among ourselves, to rise up.