Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, has come out swinging lately against the 'cabal' he says has caused all the trouble. Thanks, Larry... but you're a little late (so much for the 'adults')
The best bits?
The administration's performance during its first four years would have been even worse without Powell's damage control. At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet. He held a youthful, inexperienced president's hand. He told him everything would be all right because he, the secretary of State, would fix it. And he did — everything from a serious crisis with China when a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was struck by a Chinese F-8 fighter jet in April 2001, to the secretary's constant reassurances to European leaders following the bitter breach in relations over the Iraq war. It wasn't enough, of course, but it helped.
Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38% and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White).
Now I appreciate the nice summary, but come on Larry: your former boss is hardly blameless - if he was this important, he should have told US, the people, what was going on and been a real hero. But he didn't. And thousands have paid with their lives. I hope Powell can live with that because he share responsibility for it... good soldier or not.
