Kicked Upstairs

17 November 2004



Rice to Replace Powell at State

One of the worst kept secrets in Washington in the last several months was Colin Powell’s resignation from his job at the State Department. It also comes as no surprise that President Bush has opted to nominate National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to succeed General Powell. While this change in personnel is lamentable on principal, in practice it will mean little because the Secretary of State job itself has come to mean so little in the last decades.

Colin Powell entered the State Department as the most respected black man in America. Indeed, had he the fire in his belly to run in 1996 or 2000, he might have been America’s first black president. He leaves with his reputation shredded, his dignity tarnished and his honor stained. Having argued loud and long against Mr. Cheney’s war against Iraq, against Mr. Rumsfeld’s insufficient force levels and against Mr. Bush’s unilateralist instincts, he lost on every count. Yet, rather than resign, he marched dutifully in front of the UN Security Council just before the attack on Iraq and lent his personal gravitas to what turned out to be falsehood. And yet, even then, he failed to quit out of shame. Old soldiers, as MacArthur said, fade away.

History may be kind to the General. After all, few in Washington have their own Doctrine. And as bumper-sticker length explanations of American policy go, the Powell Doctrine makes a great deal of sense. If force is to be used, it must be overwhelming. Although many view this as a soldier’s reaction to Vietnam, it is actually a dictum of Napoleon Bonaparte’s, “If you are going to take Vienna, take Vienna.” The fact that the Powell Doctrine was not applied in Iraq may just be the greatest vindication of them all. At the same time, supporters say that he will grow in stature for the things he prevented while opposing the neocons in the Bush White House. If they are capable of seeing success here, their vision is remarkably keen.

As for Dr. Rice, she is a truly brilliant person, immensely talented, and oddly void of sound judgment. A sovietologist who missed the boat entirely when the Soviet Union collapsed ("I missed completely, really, the revocation of the Brezhnev doctrine" – CNN, Dec. 17, 1997), she somehow kept her job as National Security Advisor after September 11, 2001, the greatest security failure in America since the British burned the White House in 1814. Responsible for Iraq policy since the occupation has head of the Iraqi Stabilization Group, the insurrection and the fight for Falluja suggest her performance has been inept at best.

The good news is that as Secretary of State, she can probably do much less harm. In the second Bush administration, the Pentagon will run foreign policy as it did under Mr. McNamara, with State cheerleading. Since her chair will largely be ignored, unlike the National Security Advisor’s she holds now, whatever she does wrong will matter less. Unlike most countries, the foreign minister in the US doesn’t have just the defense minister to fight over policy, but several others. The position can be a strong one if the constellation of power in the administration allows it. In the case of the Bush White House, it is more accurate to say that Dr. Rice has been kicked upstairs.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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