Today, two Reuters stories on Muslims and the election cite Powell's following comments:
Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion 'He (Obama) is a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
How right he is. In America, we shouldn't be protecting bigots and paranoids in high places. If Colin Powell is aware of such sentiments lurking in the halls of power, he owes it to the country that this be exposed. Instead, he names no one, casts general aspersions on the GOP, and punishes a man he readily admits "is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know."
The knock against Powell on the Left is that, during the build-up to the Iraq War, he went against his better judgment and left out details he knew would poke holes in the WMD case against Saddam. And as Bret Stephens recently pointed out, during the Valerie Plame affair, Powell "knew all along that the original leaker was his own deputy, Richard Armitage, a fact the two of them didn't publicly reveal for years." Now, he's withholding the names of dishonest or malicious politicians in whom the public has placed their trust, while, once again, going along with popular sentiment. Three makes a trend.
If Colin Powell is really interested in cleaning up the nastiness in his own party, it's not too late for him to name names. But if he's merely looking to disown an unpopular war, he'll stick with his self-righteous silence.
So let's hear it. Name names, get specific, "tell the truth and shame the devil". (OMG! It's been years since I've actually heard that line, never mind used it!)
No comments:
Post a Comment