Sunday, May 13, 2012

Hejira


We live in fabulist times.  That's "fabulist," not "fabulous."  If you ever doubt that, look at the Iraq coverage on any given day.  Today's news cycle is nothing but the work of fabulists.

Take professional liar Collie The Blot Powell.  The Daily Beast offers up the Iraq chapter from his latest 'co-written' book.  It's full of words, short on honesty.  He can't even be honest about the Pottery Barn.  He writes, "I had come up with a simple expression that summarized this idea for the president: 'If you break it, you own it'." No, even there Colin Powell can't tell the truth.

What a big liar.  Colin Powell did advance the "if you break it, you own it" nonsense.  This is documented in many places including Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack.  And in many 2004 sources you will see Colin Powell claiming that this is the Pottery Barn rule.  Al Franken, on his Air American Radio program before he was in the US Senate, loved to explain how this was not a Pottery Barn rule. 

Helen Huntley (San Francisco Chronicle) reported April 20, 2004:


Supposedly Powell warned Bush that if he sent U.S. troops to Iraq, "you're going to be owning this place." That was based on what Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage called "the Pottery Barn rule" of "you break it, you own it."
The real Pottery Barn has no such rule. And it's a bit weary of Powell's remarks being quoted in newspaper and television reports the last few days.

In a supposed honest phase, where he's allegedly owning his mistakes, where he's raising the issue of "you break it, you own it," he can't even be honest that he was wrong about the Pottery Barn.  Even on the smallest of things, Colin Powell cannot take accountability.  He is and remains a trashy liar.

He's a damn liar who, if he had any ethics at all, would take his own life already for his failures and crimes.  Colin Powell is a War Criminal, he can spin it any way he wants, but he is a War Criminal with blood on his hands.  In his book, he 'writes' (with his co-author):


“Taking Charge” is one of the first things a young Army recruit learns. The new soldier is taught how to pull guard duty—a mundane but essential task. Every recruit memorizes a set of rules describing how a guard performs his duty to standards. These rules are collectively known as the “General Orders.”

One of those guard-duty General Orders has stuck deeply in my head all these years and become a basic principle of my leadership style: a guard’s responsibility is “to take charge of this post and all government property in view.”

What the hell does that have to do with Colin Powell?  Colin Powell is a trashy two-bit whore and Ava and I noted that back in 2005.  If you're not getting it now, "General" Colin Powell was not a US Secretary of State.  Civilian Colin Powell was.  Stop trying to hide behind the military, you lying coward, Colin Powell.

One of the first things -- in fact the very first thing -- a Secretary of State does is what?


Here's a video of Hillary Clinton taking the Oath of Office for those who need their memories jogged.


US Vice President Joe Biden:  Madam Secretary, please raise your right hand.  I --


former US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton:  I, Hillary Rodham Clinton, --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  -- do solemly swear --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  -- do solemnly swear --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  -- that I will support and defend --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  -- that I will support and defend --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  --  the Constitution of the United States --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  -- the Constitution of the United States --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- against all enemies, foreign and domestic; --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- against all enemies, foreign and domestic; --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  -- that I will bear -- excuse me -- that I will bear true faith --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- that I will bear true faith --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  -- and allegiance to the same; --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  -- and allegiance to the same; --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- that I take this oath freely, --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- that I take this oath freely, --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- without any mental reservations --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- without any mental reservations --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- or purposeful evasions; --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  -- or purposeful evasions; --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- and that I will well and faithfully --

former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- and that I will well and faithfully --


US Vice President Joe Biden: -- discharge the duties of the office --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  --  discharge the duties of the office --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  -- on which I am about to enter. --


former US Senator Hillary Clinton: -- on which I am about to enter. --


US Vice President Joe Biden:  So help me God.


former US Senator Hillary Clinton:  So help me God.

And having been sworn in to the office the Senate had confirmed her to, Hillary became Secretary of State.


Are you getting what he refuses to?

As Ava and I pointed out in September 2005 and what is still true of Collie today:

This is how he wants to be remembered:

"A good public servant somebody who truly believes in his country. . . . Somebody who cared, somebody who served."

Yeah well, Nixon wanted to be remembered a certain way as well. Liar's the way many remember him now. Liar's the way many will remember Colin Powell. Belief in your country doesn't allow you to lie to your country. Belief in your Bully Boy does. That's something this adminstration fails to grasp. They all think they're working for the Bully Boy. Powell makes statements to that effect. He's full of many things including his "service" to the Bully Boy.
The administration is supposed to be working for the country. Presidents come and go. The nation is what is supposed to matter. Belief in your country would mean you tell the people
the truth.


Colin Powell then and now acts as if he took an oath to George the Bully Boy Bush.  That's not what takes place.  Secretaries of State take an oath to the Constitution and to the country, not to whomever is occupying the Oval Office.  Colin Powell, for all his strutting and posturing, did not honor his oath.  In earlier times, a public servant with that sort of 'ethics' would have taken their own lives.

And maybe he yet will.  Supposedly, he has trouble sleeping. Good, he should be haunted by all the deaths he caused.  He wants to insist in his new book that the war wasn't debated and it wasn't vetted and it wasn't --  He took an oath.  The American people expected him to honor that oath. Honoring that oath would require him to come forward -- not years after but while it could have made a difference.  Colin Powell is a War Criminal and a liar.  And for all his posturing and trying to hide behind the military, the truth is the last official oath he took is one he betrayed.  He dishonored the country.  That can't be prettied up no matter how many co-writers Collie gets.








I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name




Last Sunday, the number of US military people killed in the Iraq War since the start of the illegal war was 4488. Tonight? PDF format warning, DoD lists the the number of Americans killed serving in Iraq at 4488.

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