On Monday, one of the good guys made a disappointing, but not surprising, announcement: Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was hanging up his Bush administration spurs.
Powell’s resignation is a loss to the Bush administration, and whether the scheming politicos and the smirking minions of Karl Rove residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. realize it, it is a loss for American foreign policy as well.
Powell’s less-publicized successes include his diplomatic efforts with India and Pakistan. He has provided an even keel in a recently stormy era of international politics. Within the first months of Bush taking office, it
was Powell’s cool head that diffused a well-publicized U.S. scuffle with China. During
a two-day visit to Moscow in January,
he sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for his vaguely undemocratic actions, and then held talks with him to press for solutions.
The man commands respect at home and abroad. It is admirable, considering the way the government has treated the notion of diplomacy. (Strike any mention of the word “French” from America! I’ll have my eggs with a side of “Freedom Toast,” says Congress.)
For the past four years, Powell has
been buffeted as the fall guy for the Bush administration’s numerous blunders — and without grimace or letting it slip that he was unhappy — Powell has acted as a moderate and intelligent team player who thinks with his head in an administration that thinks with its military budget.
When the administration would slip-up, like when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in May, it was Powell who was thrown to the masses on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” instead of Donald Rumsfeld. When confronted with the difficult task of presenting evidence to the U.N. in February 2003, it was Powell who spoke to the general assembly with charts and satellite photos. Bush took it upon himself to make emotional speeches.
For four years, Powell’s sage advice was marginalized. Much of it may have had to do with Powell’s ties to the Clinton administration, but Powell is and was respected in both conservative and liberal circles, and we cannot imagine any better person for his nuanced job at this time.
Powell was a moderate voice inside an administration known for its homogenous echo-chamber-like group-think. Sadly, we can’t help but think that if Bush had listened to Powell’s rationalization, Iraq might have been a success instead of the bloody mess it has become.
Good-bye, Colin. We’ll miss you and that little thing called rationalism you brought to the Bush administration.

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