Colin Powell an 'Uncle Tom'

Doug MacEachern completely missed my point when he responded in his Nov. 21 column ("Don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no stereotypes") to my comment: "Colin Powell could have been George Marshall. He chose instead to be Uncle Tom." For a decade, Powell opposed using military force to topple Saddam Hussein. He argued persuasively that Hussein posed no threat, and that the last thing we wanted was responsibility for a hostile and ungovernable Iraq. He was right, and he knew it. Had Powell fought for his convictions in the days and years after the tragedy of 9/11, he might have become one of the greatest statesmen in history. Instead, Powell stood before the United Nations and parroted the administration's specious case for war.  Powell understood better than anyone that the case for war was built on sand. He also understood what Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the other "neoconservative" members of the "Project for the New American Century" were up to. [more]

• Pictured above: "I used to work in the Pentagon, but now I help you get yo' chicken on" -- Billy Dee Williams as Colin Powell (Gen. Boutwell) in the film Undercover Brother. In the movie Powell gives up a run for the U.S. presidency in favor of opening a fried-chicken franchise. Consuming too much of the General's Nappy Meals led to a mass brainwashing of the populace.
• Jamaicans give Powell tenure mixed review [more]