Things half remembered

In the article Colin Powell regrets his erroneous address regarding weapons of mass destruction to the UN. He blames intelligence officials for lacking the courage to tell him that he was presenting disinformation. He said, “My instincts failed me.” His memory failed him as well, as the photos he produced had already been laughed out of court, when presented previously. When the UN official reported this fact, Colin Powell was centre picture on the TV nodding in agreement. 

Powell knew then he had been sold down the river by the Dick Cheney “presidency”. The decision to attack Iraq was made by Cheney and his neo-con pals in 1986, waiting for the chance to present itself (this is on public record). George W Bush was the opportunity. Swayed by a nonsensical link to 9/11 Bush succumbed to the will of the neo-cons. The “Team B” approach was applied to intelligence and away they went. Powell claims there would have been no war in Iraq if Bush “and his advisers had known that the country’s regime had no weapons of mass destruction”. Dream on Mr Powell!

Powell claims Bush’s prime achievements were getting rid of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taleban in Afghanistan. Getting rid of Saddam has moved Iraq closer to Iran, the new WMD target for the US. The Taleban is on the up, so this is still a work in progress. Powell makes a good living in the US giving advice gleaned from his experience. Is he still feeding disinformation into the system? How can this be tolerated in a democracy?

Richard Bowler

Bangkok