Guys, let me entertain you. Why anyone pays the slightest attention to Colin Powell is completely beyond me. The way the man "earned" his four stars and position as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was by parlaying decades of political intrigue at the Pentagon and the color of his skin into more power than he could imagine. Daniel "Chappie" James he is NOT! He is a desk pusher.
His sole claim to fame is that he appointed Norman Schwartzkopf (sp?) to run the war in Iraq, then left him alone to do it. Before that time, no American citizen had ever heard of him, including me. And I was career military, had no clue who the CJCS was, also did not care. I was there (Saudi) from Oct. '90 till Mar. '91, the whole time, and when I retired in Jun. '91 I was STUNNED to find that so many people were all a-twitter about the possibility that another political whore (Powell) might run for Prez, if he could just decide which party. Norman Schwartzkopf? Where do I sign up? He has his ducks all lined up in a military fashion, I would follow him anywhere.
I would have happily campaigned for Chappie James circa 1980-84, so don't waste your time calling me a racist, but Powell is a big, fat, zero. He ended up the hero of Desert Storm due to the media, he was black and Schwartzkopf was white, never mind the facts after that, and he did NOTHING to facilitate the US victory except stay the Hell out of Schwartzkopf's way. Who got the credit? You tell me.
I gave him credit at the time for keeping everybody off Norman's back, doing his job as it were, but 98% of the credit for the success of Desert Storm (after Bush got the international politics out of the way) belongs to Schwartzkopf, not Powell.
Ya wanna elect yet another political whore? Powell is your man. Schwartzkopf ain't mentioned, haven't heard of him since, bastard might be dead for all of me. But if he wants me, I'm his.
Larry P.