Our Secretary of State

February 25, 2001 10:04 AM

Our Secretary of State And you thought everyone adored Colin Powell?
posted by Postroad (3 comments total)

Editorial cartoonists would satirize their own mother for a laugh.
posted by xtrmntr at 3:17 PM on February 25, 2001

For some reason, I can't access the link -- I'd still like to point something out, though.

I don't adore Colin Powell. A few months ago, my father said, "name one of Colin Powell's policies that you support".

I couldn't name anything. Colin appears to have gotten a positive image without any real substance. I guess it's fitting.
posted by jragon at 6:10 PM on February 25, 2001

I dunno. For someone never elected to political office, we know quite a bit about him. He's a skeptic about military power, much more so than most politicians. He's in favor of military operations only when diplomacy has been exhausted and there is broad popular support. He's a hawk's dove. At the same time he's socially liberal with one exception (gays in the military; but again chiefly because he believed it would fail if forced down the throats of the rank and file). He's no demagogue, that's for sure.

More on the so-called (by others) Powell doctrine, in his own words; something of the political context (and why it was originally called the Weinberger Doctrine).

I had thought he was responsible for a short book detailing our failings in Vietnam that was excitedly devoured by the Pentagon and West Point about 20 years ago, but perhaps I'm thinking of On Strategy or The 25 Year War. It was in the back of my mind that his military reputation was built on that.
posted by dhartung at 10:29 PM on February 25, 2001