Edgar, he is indeed more of a "yes man" than a "loose cannon".
But liek sozobe says it's a matter of characterization. It can go both ways.
It can be characterized positively (loyal, not egomaniacal) or negatively (slavish yes man).
Same with it's opposite a "leader" can be an egomaniacal loose cannon.
I prefer a Powell to a Bush, and Bush is, indeed, a leader while Powell is closer to a yes man.
Thing is, both positions are always needed. Powell has avoided positions of ultimate leadership in the past and that's one thing that makes me want him to lead.
I would of course accept a Powell over Bush, but that is not a choice we will be asked to make. Sure a yes man is better than a loose cannon. I prefer a man of vision who is not a loose cannon to a man who in my view works best as a member of a committee. I also believe that if you lie with dogs, you begin to smell like those dogs, intentional or not.
I am wary of the people who strive to lead. Sometimes I think the best leaders are the ones who do not want to be the leader.
I agree that Powell is more of a team player than a team leader, but that's one of the reasons I can think of no person whom I'd rather see as president.
To me he seems the kind of team player who subverts his own scruples too much. I really don't want him. To be honest, I have not trully been accepting of any president within my memory, which begins with truman. Surprisingly, I like Gerald Ford, a man with a reputation for little intellect. He was decisive in a crisis, but did not go to excessive lengths in his actions.
being career military he must be a team player, and that has its own problems as well.
Sadly, I agree about the generalization that, in order to be a successful politician, there is pressure to be the kind of person who is not a worthy leader.
This is one of those contradictions that, I suppose, only a few can straddle without falling into the hole.
I expect no "perfection" from leaders - if I could attain anything remotely resembling such a state myself, I might have a right to, but until then....a "good enough" leader is (to quote Winnicott) all I hope for. I would far rather Powell, "lies" and all to Bush.
I am pondering the ramifications of your argument, Craven - as I see it you are saying that the thing which made Iraq II a 'bad" war was that it was done without UN sanction, thus setting a number of very negative processes in motion - like the weakening of the UN and America's setting itself on a course of the use of its power whenever it feels like it.....I agree....
However, I am having trouble believing that having the UN believe major untruths, (or pretending to, presumably because of the pressure and difficulty of the situation) and acting on them, would have strengthened it in any meaningful sense.
Not that it was strong before...
I can't see any justicication for the attack on Iraq, with or without UN sanction. I've been in a number of threads about it and read many hundreds of arguments pro and con and none of it makes me see even a tiny bit of justification.
The interesting thing is that all the initial planning done at CENTCOM was constantly being second-guessed by then Secretary Cheney, and a special "think-tank" came up with a plan that also had the interference of the SecDef (Secretary of Defense). Secretary Cheney even went so far as to develop his own battle plans for Operation Desert Storm. Such is the extent to which civilian leadership has been involved with military planning and operations and was supported by Powell in contradiction to the field general Schwarzkopf.
The American Military University.
being a team player often includes deciding which team you are playing for. Powell, it appears to me, chose the team of political power over the team of the men in boots on the ground. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
A disgrace.
Powell sold his soul to be in the ring of Neo Fascist Power. He sold sold out the American people and the troops. Now that the lies are bubbling up from the mire he is trying to backpeddle. Too late.
Oh, well, that sums it up then. I had believed the truth of a human being to be a complex, dappled thing - but now I see the light.
