GQ has become the shit-hot outlet for former cabinet officials to take shots Bush… and each other. Hot on the heels of Donald Rumsfeld’s icy-cold dissathon, former Secretary of State General Colin Powell’s own interview contains a not-so-glowing analysis of Rummy’s abilities as a post-invasion planner:
“That was the big mistake. Don had written a list of the worst things that could happen, but we didn’t do the contingency planning on what we would do about it. So we watched those buildings get burned down, and nobody told the divisions, ‘Hey, go in there and declare martial law and whack a few people and it will stop.’ Then the insurgency started, and we didn’t acknowledge it. They said it wasn’t an insurgency. They looked up the definition. They said it was a few dead-enders! And so we didn’t respond in a way that might have stopped it. And then the civil war started at the beginning of last year. I call it a civil war, but some say no, it’s not a civil war, it’s a war against civilians. In fact, we have total civil disorder.”
But what does Powell know? He’s only a retired general.
Powell also asks a rhetorical question that could be interpreted as a jab at Bush and Cheney without much difficulty. “What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?” [emphasis added].
General Powell put something in perspective for me I’ve been mulling over for some time. It’s true: al-Qaeda isn’t the greatest threat facing America. Tony Robbins is.
