Sanity Starting to Peak Through

Think Progress reports on Colin Powell's latest criticism of his former boss. In an interview with CNN's Hala Gorani, Powerll called on Bush to be honest about the situation in Iraq. Transcript of Gorani's report:

GORANI: Well, within the context of the leaders conference in Dubai and also within the context of this debate, this semantics debate, over whether to call what is going on on in Iraq a civil war, the former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he thinks we can call it a civil war and added if he were still heading the State Department, he probably would recommend to the Bush administration that those terms should be used in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground.

I'm paraphrasing what he told me. This was closed to cameras and this was something he said within the context of this academic debate with 2 or 3,000 people watching on in the region.

The story of Colin Powell's life would make a great tragedy. Honest soldier rises through the ranks, achieves greatness yet will always be reviled for his actions while working a man he didn't like. The great tragedy is that his greatest strength - his sense of duty, is what leads him there.

Enough Shakespearean blabber. Colin Powell has a great deal of esteem in the eyes of the public. Having him call for BushCo. to stop using Orwellian 'newspeak' is certainly a good thing. It would have been better for him to have done more while he was actually involved in shaping policy.

Colin Powell War in Iraq Iraqi Civil War