My opinion is that Colin Powell is still highly respected in international circles. I think he has at least twice as much class as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld put together.


>George Bush got a lot of respect initially when he brought Colin Powell on board. Many today see him as the most respected man on GW's cabinet. I remember in 2000 many of my friends stating 'If only Colin Powell were the Replublican candidate...' (I thought the same at the time) However, with a democratic wife that is not about to happen anytime soon and she is staunch Democrat...Now his reputation has been tarnished after his prentation on Iraq and the following investigations. I do not know if he intentionally misled anyone or he believed the intelligence or if he was forced politically to state something he didn't know for fact or what happened. I do know that he has quite the accomplishments and nothing can take away or diminish that. In March he was being blamed along with the U.S., Canada, and France for corruption in Haiti, reneging on their endorsement of a Carribbean community initiative and deciding Aristide was expendable when he was legitimagely elected.
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>It seems that no American politician can do right these days.
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>>Terry:
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>>I forgot you were from Texas when I made the comment about the high polution levels there.
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>>Did you know that the local newspaper in Crawford endorsed John Kerry?
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>>You know one thing that really bothers me is that all the tapes from Osama Bin Laden refer to their opposition to the American policy for supporting Israel and not getting their troups out of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Yet George insists that Osama attacked the World Trade Centre because Al Qaeda is against "freedom" in the US. By playing the "freedom" card, he does not have to do anything about the Palestinians and troup deployments in Arab countries. But the people hear the news the same as we do and they believe George anyway.
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>>Also in spite of the report from the 911 Commission that there is no link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, 60% of the people in the US still believe there is a link. They also believe that he has WMD even though they have not found any. In WW II the Nazis had an expression "If you repeat anything often enough, the people will believe it." Karl Rove has stated that he follows this philosophy.
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>>I am glad that Colin Powell is quitting. I am surprised that he lasted this long. He was the only voice of reason in the cabinet. His replacement will be another right wing nut case, but this is what the people have asked for.