-Caveat Lector- http://www.houstonreview.com/articles/polichinello/P20001213.html Houston Review December 6, 2000 Saving General Powell- Jeff Jacoby's Jaundiced J'accuse! by Derek Copold The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby has slapped on his war paint, and now he’s going after General Colin Powell’s scalp. Ensconced in his comfy New England digs, the vicariously brave columnist finds Monsieur le Général to be lacking "strategic vision and innovation." Instead of "thinking outside the box," the Globe’s token conservative laments, Powell fixates on mundane issues –like being careful with munitions. Oh, if only Powell would relax and learn to love the bomb, all would be well according to Jacoby. It’s his past, Jacoby growls, which condemned the poor general to a life less visionary. Instead of learning about military operations in law school like him, Powell foolishly turned to the Army. He became a "company man," addicted to consensus. How Jacoby sees any kind of reliance on consensus in the U.S. Army(!) is something of a mystery he doesn’t bother to share with his readers. Who knows? Maybe Jacoby gleaned this gem of military insight while enduring a lecture on civil torts. No matter, for however he learned to see consensus, he learned it well. Jacoby sees consensus everywhere. The stench of consensus was all over Powell’s Gulf War record, he argues, because Powell opposed military intervention. But how does this work? In 1991, then-President Bush and then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney supported the war, and so did the American public. Knowing this, it would seem to us mere mortals that Powell was arguing against the consensus. Ah! But Jacoby’s a god of the press, capable of discerning what the consensus on consensus is, even when no one agrees with him. In this state of ersatz convention, the Globe’s writer also condemns Powell’s Gulf War advice, taking for granted that Desert Storm was a boon to the nation and the world. If this is so, Boston must be a very happy place. Where else can one believe united Muslim enmity against the United States is a good thing? Those cheerful New Englanders are probably overjoyed to see Iranian influence growing in the region too. Maybe they’re looking to get a discount on Persian rugs. The bombing of the World Trade Center, the Khobar towers and the USS Cole, costing over 50 lives? Clearly, these are strategic gains. Jacoby also sulks about Powell’s distaste for an abortive 1989 Panamanian coup, which, the columnist believes, would have prevented the American invasion. Yes, we can see Jacoby’s point. The general should know better than to be cautious with his men. He should be like –like Jeff Jacoby –and never let details, such as lacking firm intelligence, get in his way. So what if an ill-prepared intervention would have led to casualties as happened in Somalia? Damn the facts and act, Jacoby and his mates would scream. Got to think outside the box. Don’t worry, we’ll send the dead soldiers’ moms a nice flag with some pretty flowers. Powell is something of a Scrooge as well, pouts Jacoby. The Beantown neo-con complains that during the Reagan administration the general opposed sending stinger missiles to the Afghan rebels, now known as the Taliban. Imagine that. Having trouble giving a deadly accurate weapon to the people who regularly refer to our fair land as the "Great Satan." Hey, it’s just a term of affection. Don’t sweat it. Osama bin Laden promised to return the extras to us one of these days. What really busts Jacoby’s pencils, though, is the general’s tiresome reliance on that old, lame couldn’t-find-a-vital-US-interest excuse, especially when it comes to Bosnia. Jacoby gets so bent out shape that he loses all sense of geography. Sniffs the snarling columnist, "A U.S. general who cannot discern a vital Western interest in stopping genocide in the heart of Europe is not the man to run the State Department." How did Bosnia become the "heart of Europe?" Those of us not intoxicated by our imagined sense of strategic vision look at a map and see Yugoslavia in the most remote corner of Europe, over the Adriatic Sea and above Italy’s boot, cut off from the rest of the continent by the Alps. Bosnia’s more like the right big toe of Europe, or maybe even its shin. It’s said there are people who wear their heart on their sleeve, but on their shoe? Well, why not? It’s certainly a fitting place for Jacoby’s heart, as it’s sure to sink a few feet when George W. Bush is inaugurated. Colin Powell’s appointment as Secretary of State is all but certain. W is going to pick him, and there are zero, count’em, zero senators eager to be known to history forevermore as "that white guy who voted against the black war hero." Strange as it may seem after having endured the Mad Maddy years, the US’s top diplomat will actually believe in diplomacy. What a shocking development. It certainly is for Jacoby. The thought of foreign policy discussions contemplating a few scant options not ending with the phrase "then we’ll bomb them" is already tearing him apart, not to mention his grief stricken neo-con brethren. At first, one is hard pressed to figure out why this is. After all, Powell’s dissent, when voiced, is minimal at best, and despite his misgivings, the general fulfilled his duties to everyone’s satisfaction. When he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the troops and tanks were always ready for action, and he restored prestige to National Security Agency after it had been damaged by the Iran-Contra scandal. The most Powell will do in the Bush II administration is act as a counterweight to the more activist- minded Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. At most, he’ll be a drag on intervention, which is still great, but he’ll never play the anchor. One would think Jacoby and his fellow travelers would by thrilled with the patina of legitimacy Powell gives any future overseas intervention, despite his petty grumblings. But even this slight moderation drives the interventionists nuts, because it’s the little questions, such as those Powell asks, that eventually eat away at their bigger program. And for four years, Powell will ask these questions, again and again. Maybe he won’t do it as aggressively as many of us would like, but the questions will be out there. Colin Powell will do that much, if nothing else, and as he can’t be dismissed with the usual name-calling due to the GOP establishment’s heavy investment in him, his doubts will become mainstream. Those favoring the war option, like Jeff Jacoby, will actually have to counter Powell’s arguments with something beyond the ad hominem. Imagine their dismay if Governor Tom Ridge, another intervention skeptic, becomes Secretary of Defense. (Not a bad idea, by the way.) Bush the Younger may not be perfect, but at least his cabinet will include a few adults who don’t reflexively order air strikes when perennial panic panderers like Jeff Jacoby mindlessly scream "genocide." Under these conditions life will be a bit tougher for the little typing soldiers. Playing commander-in-chief at The Boston Globe or The New York Times won’t be near the fun it used to be when Bill Clinton could be counted on to oblige with a bombing to obscure his scandals. Of course, they’ll survive the deprivation. Their type always does. They’ll moan and complain, and yell a few names. It’ll sell their papers, and it’ll make them feel better. All the while, they’ll live. It’s just a pity the same can’t be said for those on the receiving end of their ideas. Derek Copold Houston Review Homepage - December 6, 2000 -- It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself. - Justice Casey Percell <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
