April 23, 2003
Powell And France
I stayed up last night and watched Charlie Rose interview Colin Powell. At some point in there he asked the question about whether there would be "consequences" for France opposing the United States about Iraq.Powell gave the standard response you would expect, along the lines of, "We have a long history with France, and we've compared it to a marriage that has lasted 225 years, and of course after a situation like this there are things about the relationship that you just want to take a look at; they had made it known that there was no resolution that they would not veto, as you know, Charlie, and so of course there was a bit of relationship strain there, and now we're ready to move forward and look at the relationship and see how to deal with the strain and --"
And this is interesting, this is where Charlie interrupted, stuttered a couple of times, leaned in and said, "But will there be consequences?"
"Yes."
It was an immediate reply, not emphatic, almost like a murmur. Just a flat-out "Yes." The contrast between that response and the normal talking points you hear from politicians and diplomats was pretty intimidating and not a little bit creepy.
Powell seems to be the only member of this administration who isn't a neo-conservative, Project For The New American Century, Defense Policy Board, Certified Lunatic.
So when he says, "yes," like that, it's something to sit up and listen to.
Scary, man. These guys are single-handedly tearing apart centuries of diplomacy . . . and why, exactly?
And where the hell is Congress right now? How about a little check and balance, guys?
Posted by: wil at April 24, 2003 08:06 PMWhat's scary is that I found that article in one of my entries that talks about neocons also coming up through the democratic leadership council.
So... basically, first democratic candidate that utters the word "neocon" publically (assumedly in a negative context) gets my vote. I don't think any of them have the guts though. It's the big private enemy right now. bleah.
I think the "why" is about their skill is really in getting other people to compromise *themselves*. And each time they do that successfully, they get more power.
Curt