I'm not surprised. I for one was never a Colin Powell fan, especially since he supported lifting the embargo and engaging with Castro.

Politico.com is reporting that Powell has denied that he will be speaking at the Dem convention but held off on endorsing. The report also noted that Powell donated to McCain's campaign when it was in trouble but that Powell made it clear that it was not an endorsement.

Powell was way wrong on the Gulf War but way right on this one. Tossing away the Powell Doctrine was the biggest mistake Republicans made. Let's also be clear that Reagan, Bush 41 and candidate W. were all very pro-Powell Doctrine. It wasn't until we went into Iraq that we ignored it. Don't hate Powell for being right. Unfortunately for him the biggest hit to his rep was a speech in which he backed the Prez on an issue he obviously did not agree with him. I wouldn't blame the man for walking up to the Capitol steps wearing nothing but a thong with the rising Obama "O" on his crotch.

Should you see pictures of Powell in this thong, please don't hesitate to keep them on your hard drive.

Sometimes pride in race or ethnic group trumps politics. I have heard Codoleeza Rice say very nice things about Obama also.

And I recall an election in Miami where Cubans voted for a Democrat and Blacks voted for a Republican.

Go figure.

“I'm not surprised. I for one was never a Colin Powell fan, especially since he supported lifting the embargo and engaging with Castro. “

Ray,

I feel the same way you do.

Plus remember that famous stupid comment Colin Powell made years ago in Congress about the great health care in Cuba as an achievement of the Cuban Revolution.

theCardinal,

I feel that President Bush did the right thing to topple Sadam’s regime (regardless of the Colin Powell doctrine). Years from now he’ll be somehow vindicated for that decision.

I also feel that the unfinished Gulf War of 1991 was due to the bad advice that Colin Powell provided to Bush Sr. at that time. Remember that General Norman Schwarzkopf wanted to go all the way to downtown Baghdad at the time and he was stopped.

We should have finished Sadam Hussein back them (when we had a bigger military that we do today) and we would not be in the predicament we’re today.

I feel that Colin Powell advice to the President played an important role on this poor decision.

Thought I do agree that there have been way too many mistakes made in both the military and political execution of the current war in Iraq as these mistakes have contributed to prolonging the conflict, and it’s cost.

I also feel that there been quite a few people in the Bush administration that are responsible for the bad decisions made during this conflict and have let this President down big time in the execution of his policy.

Unfortunately President Bush has stuck with these individuals (like in the case of Donald Rumsfeld) for way too long before sacking them from his administration. By the time they were gone the damaged was already done to his administration.

Unfortunately President Bush inherited what I feel is the biggest mistake that Bill Clinton made during his presidency which was the trimming of the active armed forces from the 1.7 million soldiers mark to the 1.3 million active military of today. Plus the enormous retirement of military equipment that the US could have still use today to fight the current conflicts that we’re involved.

No wonder that we have not being able to put enough soldiers on the ground in Iraq to control the situation after the fall of Sadam Hussein’s regime.

Before Bill Clinton came to power the United States military was designed and built to fight more than two and half conflicts at a time. Unfortunately this is no longer the case, and now we have to deal not only with Iraq and Afghanistan but with Iran too.

Plus we have seen this week in the events that are taking place in Georgia the resurgence of the former Soviet Evil Empire under Putin’s helm.

On top of all this worries we see a Communist People's Republic of China that continues to grow their military at levels that they never done before while allying with Putin’s Russia against United States foreign policy around the world.

I can almost guarantee you that the next 8-10 years will be very challenging for the United States of America. For our sake I sincerely hope that I’m wrong.

Freedom -

I agree with you more than you may think. I actually hold Powell responsible for swaying Bush 41's mind in the Gulf War. Even if we would have held out a bit longer the Republican Guard would have been smashed making it easier for Saddam to be toppled.

My issue with the Iraq War is different. I actually agree that Saddam had to be knocked off my issue is in the manner it was done. Among other things that the Powell Doctrine calls for is the use of overwhelming force. We have seen recently that given the proper numbers what we can do but it took us four years to figure out what Powell had advocated all along. W, however, chose to go what was thought to be the cheap and easy route advocated by Rumsfeld et al.

The other issue I have is that I am a strong believer in having a clear exit strategy - another component of the Powell Doctrine. This eschews the concept of nation building, which is precisely what we are engaged in today.

On the rest of the issues you mentioned I could not agree more. Let us remember however that even though Clinton significantly reduced the size of the military it was W's people particularly Rumsfeld who wanted to keep it small. We are closer to the right track but a great deal of damage has been done to our image...not that I give a hoot that we appear to be warmongers but that we appear to be weak.

theCardinal,

I fully understand your point and could not agree more with it (specially the point you made about the former Secretary of Defense keeping our armed forces small).

I feel that after September 11, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld totally underestimated the fact that the USA needed a much bigger army to go into the war on terror.

Now we are paying the price for Mr. Rumsfeld’s mistakes.

Imagine that, two people agreeing on something other than Cuba - certainly a first on Babalu

LOL