Balkinization  

Sunday, April 18, 2004

JB

Not Wanting To Talk, Not Wanting to Hear

Colin Powell comes off pretty good in the excerpts from Bob Woodward's book that I've read so far, but there is one passage that is particularly disturbing:

In all the discussions, meetings, chats and back-and-forth [about whether to go to war], in Powell's grueling duels with Rumsfeld and Defense, the president had never once asked Powell, Would you do this? What's your overall advice? The bottom line?

Perhaps the president feared the answer. Perhaps Powell feared giving it. It would, after all, have been an opportunity to say he disagreed. But they had not reached that core question, and Powell would not push. He would not intrude on that most private of presidential space -- where a president made decisions of war and peace -- unless he was invited. He had not been invited.


This says as much about Powell as it does about Bush. Bush has a reputation for not liking to hear unpleasant truths, but didn't Powell have a duty at some point to tell the President that he thought the war was a bad idea? After all, the lives of countless human beings, both American and Iraqi, were at stake, as well as the potential for serious long term consequences for American interests in the Middle East. Even if Powell believed that the President would ultimately be guided by Cheney and Rumsfeld, didn't Powell have a duty to say, "Look, you haven't asked me what I thought, and you may not want to hear it anyway, but I'm not only your Secretary of State, I'm also a military man, and unlike some of your other advisors, I've actually fought a war in Iraq, and this is what I think about what you are about to do."

I'm generally an admirer of Powell's. But his reticence at this point is unpardonable. What is the point of being an advisor to the President if you don't have the guts to risk his displeasure and give him the advice he needs?



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Sometimes the best way to get someone’s attention is to stop giving them yours .
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