10/27/2008
From: Rick Johnson
Re: Patrick Cleburne’s Blog: The Powell/Obama Betrayal: Might GOP Establishment Wake Up?
Colin Powell is the most over-rated American in public life.
He was wrong about the first Gulf War when he predicted tens of thousands of casualties.
And Powell was wrong again when he went before the UN pushing the lie about weapons of mass destruction.
I became interested in Powell when he was nominated by Bush I to be Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs. At first blush, I was ready to admire the man. Soon, however, I was struck by his claim that he had suffered racial discrimination in his military career.
Powell had just been nominated for one of the highest military positions in the world and he wasn’t even a West Point graduate…or VMI or The Citadel.
In fact, Powell was ROTC at City College of New York. Yet he went all the way to the top. This is discrimination?
In the military, ever since the 1960s minorities and women have been over-rated in their officer efficiency reports because of rating officers' fears of discrimination claims. Any rating officer’s career is over if a member of these groups lodged a discrimination claim, however scurrilous, against him. Hence, Powell and other minorities were given a free pass to advance beyond their ability — the Peter Principle in force.
And these individuals then rate others beneath them — an insidious process which has lowered the quality of leadership, as evidenced by our failed policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is an interesting fact that Powell never had a combat command. He was a staff weenie, where bureaucratic games and politics could bring advancement if one was ruthless and dishonest enough.
Although he served two Vietnam tours, one was as an advisor at a regional level, and the other was as the Executive Officer of the battalion of the Americal Division.
Powell, a man without honor, has always lived by discreet leaks to the press that advance his interests while denigrating others.
Johnson is a former security specialist and stock trader with 30 years experience. He recently authored a financial e-book, Finding Waves.
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