selling the iraq war was THE main focus of the bush admin, one wonders what would have happened if they had spent as much effort planning the occupation.
"same par with the other neo-con's who have trampled our international standing in the muck of their misguided dreams of absolute hegemony. "
im sorry steve, but with a notable and noble exceptions the us policy elite both repub and democract neo-con and neo-lib, hawk and dove are all interested in and work towards the dream of "absolute hegemony". it is the dream of imperial elites throughout time.
i have been recently reading a history of the US getting into the second world war. a story as filled with lies, double dealing, media manipulation and presidential intrigue as this current war. it hasnt changed much, except we have more access to info these days.
the point being that the intention was to place the US first in the world through the means of ww2 - which was achieved. maintaining and increasing this imperial leadership or hegemony was the goal of us foreign policy since then. it was the guiding hand of the cold war struggle of two large empires. it has persisted beyond the cold war to now where cold warriors are still playing chess with the world (they still dont know how the horsey moves).
the actions throughout time may be different ranging from covert operations, financial conflict and action and out right war -oh sorry interventions/police actions - but the policy has always been the same. sometimes more somtimes less intensively.
Powell, whatever personal qualities he has, still fits neatly into the that structure. his career was deeply entwined with said foreign policy goals, as is the US military as a whole.
" I remember listening to him and thinking to myself that he sounded like he was deathly sick."
perhaps he was but he still went ahead and did it. he went ahead presented that bull**** knowing how weak it was, knowing how it would damage him personally. he knew what he was doing and still did it.
whatever the immediate reasons he laid his political life down at the altar of empire.
