Powell 2003 = Petraeus 2007? Or, How are we doing? We think we're doing great!

Sometimes I wonder how Colin Powell feels. He's the one who gave the speech on February 5, 2003 that lead to the US invasion of Iraq and the ongoing Iraq war. Was he duped or was he a willing participant in this deception of the American people? I wonder how he feels, knowing he played a part in all this death and destruction for reasons that turned out to be complete bullshit.

I'm tempted to refer to Powell as an Uncle Tom, but I find that sort of language unfair: the verbal options for insulting people of African descent are far more numerous than for insulting people committing similar actions but possessing paler skin. If Powell is an Uncle Tom, then Petraeus is likely the white equivalent, whatever that description might be. White trash, perhaps? How about we dispense with all the skin-color-related insults? To paraphrase Dr. King, let's not judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

My guess is that Powell was duped, since Bush-Cheney war-profiteers never hesitate to betray even those loyal to them to achieve their aims. Even if he was duped, that's got to suck to go down in history as the one who wears a face of the Iraq War.

So now to the present. It would be ideal if General Petraeus, when giving his report of the Iraq War status, were to say we shouldn't be there. Unfortunately the update is framed Orwellianly as, "Please report on the progress."

Ideally, an outside body would grade the situation. By giving Petraeus the opportunity to provide the report, he's essentially grading himself, and it is not likely he will say, "Things are getting worse." That would be like expecting someone to report on their own job performance with "Well, I kinda suck."

While zillions of bloggers will have more detailed insight on Petraeus and his self-grading than I care to pay attention to, I can see the big picture. Meaning, self-grading is a symptom of the Bush-Cheney squad's eternal insecurity. Bush-Cheney Co resist any attempt to have an outside, objective entity gauge their performance. So they try to have people report on their own progress. If only that was around when I was in school!

Whether it's resisting the 9/11 Commission, or trying to get the war criminal Henry Kissinger to lead it, or the colorful terror alerts, progress in Iraq, progress in Afghanistan, it's always the same with Bush-Cheney Co: How are we doing? We think we're doing great!

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Larry Nocella is the award-winning author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available at Amazon and Xlibris and other fine online book stores. Where Did This Come From? is also available as an eBook. For more info, visit Larry Nocella's website at www.LarryNocella.com.