Colin Powell Is No Hero

Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama on Sunday. All but a few are impressed by this "Powellful" endorsement. Some even see the endorsement has a "redemption" for Powell; in light of WMD lies at the UN in the prelude to the Iraq "war".

Revulsion and bitterness comes close to expressing my feelings. I haven't felt this type of emotion since I heard about how a South African who spoke at the "truth and reconciliation" sessions that were stage after the "end" of apartheid confessed that he held a "barbecue" with friends while a live Black African man was roasted on a spit as they chatted and carried on around the poor soul in careless disregard.

Until a truth and reconciliation session is held in regards to the crimes of the Bush administration, there are some who are not ready to give Powell "redemption."

In Haiti, Powell was the "Head Negro in Charge" of dismantling Haiti's democracy and installing the Bush administration's goon, Gerard Latortue.

Bush and his confederates lied in the faces of massed Black congressional representatives in the days leading up to Aristide’s departure (see “US House Members to Bush, Powell: Don’t Usurp Aristide’s Power,” February 26), with assurances from the President that, "We still hope to be able to achieve a political settlement between the current government and the rebels." We now know that the Bush men and France were even then seeking "perfect coordination" in removing Aristide. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice sat like bookmarks at Bush’s side as he lied to nineteen Black members of Congress.

Are these two conspirators fit to speak at any Black gathering, ever again in life? Who in the Black community will debase their organizations with the presence of such “role models?” An invitation to Powell or Rice should be viewed as proof of a moral deficit on the part of the inviter.

Godfather Colin Powell, The Gangster of Haiti
by Kevin Pina

Fool me once... well it turns out that this is a pattern with Powell. He has the stain of Iraqi blood on his hands, no doubt; but there was a precedent for his immorality and blind ambition in his actions in Vietnam that foretold his lack of character.

...As the round-up continued, some Americans raped the girls. Then, under orders from junior officers on the ground, soldiers began emptying their M-16s into the terrified peasants. Some parents used their bodies futilely to shield their children from the bullets. Soldiers stepped among the corpses to finish off the wounded.

...Several months later, the American's brutality would become a moral test for Major Powell, too.

A letter had been written by a young specialist fourth class named Tom Glen, who had served in an American mortar platoon and was nearing the end of his Army tour. In the letter to Gen. Creighton Abrams, the commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam, Glen accused the American division of routine brutality against civilians.

Glen's letter was forwarded to the American headquarters at Chu Lai where it landed on Major Powell's desk.

...After that cursory investigation, Powell drafted a response on Dec. 13, 1968. He admitted to no pattern of wrongdoing. Powell claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat Vietnamese courteously and respectfully. The American troops also had gone through an hour-long course on how to treat prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, Powell noted.

"There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs," Powell wrote in 1968. But "this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division." Indeed, Powell's memo faulted Glen for not complaining earlier and for failing to be more specific in his letter.

"In direct refutation of this [Glen's] portrayal," Powell concluded, "is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

Powell's findings, of course, were false, though they were exactly what his superiors wanted to hear.

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon

This is the man that people respect and consider to be an American hero?

There are many Americans who tell the truth. They are the heroes. Cindy Sheehan, who's son Casey died in Iraq is one. Cindy is campaigning for Nancy Pelosi's seat in California.

The real military heroes are the men who have resigned in protest over the sham military courts that have been convened to find the Guantanamo detainees "guilty."