Be careful of Realchange.org. They make the following charges against
Collin Powell:
1) Involved in cover-up of the My Lai Massacre.
False: Powell was the keeper of military logs AFTER the massacre. When
asked to review the logs, he did - and reported what he found without
knowing what it meant. IG reports cleared him of ANY involvement other
than attending an earlier school with Capt. Medina (who also was
exonerated).
2) More bureaucrat than soldier.
Partially true. He was an advisor in Vietnam and was wounded (stepped on
a punji stick, I believe). He was injured in a helicopter crash in Vietnam but
continued to serve.
At the time, improving minority status in the military combined with
Powell’s considerable political expertise to catapult him on his career.
Minority status can not be the complete reason however, many other similar
minorities led much less successful careers.
3) Let Saddam survive at end of Desert Storm.
True - but so did you and I! None of us killed Saddam! This misleading
factoid ignores the fact the United States led a coalition of MANY countries -
some of them fellow Arab states to Iraq. The authority for Desert Storm
was a United Nations resolution permitting the coalition ONLY to get Iraq
out of Kuwait. None of the coalition could kill Saddam without destroying
the coalition and greatly increasing the scope of the war.
4) Rejected ordering more helicopters in Somalia, with disastrous results.
False. Powell repeatedly requested more arms (including tanks) for the
“peaceful” mission in Somalia - but was over-ruled by civilian authorities in
our government. Powell DID oppose sending the Delta Force to Somalia but
that is a different story.
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Read Powell’s book, “My American Journey” for details which remain
undisputed.
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Though it is fun to read the accusations, I do not believe many of them are true.
, Art