Memo to the Republican Jewish Coalition:
In Karen DeYoung's bio, Soldier, Colin Powell said that Truman's Sec'y of State George Marshall–a former Army chief of staff–was his "revered" role model, especially in his principled opposition to Truman's '48 decision to recognize the new state of Israel in defiance of the Arab world. In that book, Powell also twice refers to the Iraq war as being the product of Donald Rumsfeld's absorption in the "JINSA crowd," the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. In a word: Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, neocon, son of a Holocaust survivor, who helped cofound One Jerusalem, and whose former law partner is living in a settlement in the West Bank.
Please RJC, do do that voodoo that you do so well! Make Colin Powell defend these positions! Make Obama defend them! Get the chum in the water! No, Obama's not an Arab, but is he an Arabist? Seems like Powell is…
P.S. JINSA has a nice ring to it, you'd think that people might pick up on JINSA. Remember when cool WASPy hubs like the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations and Institute for Defense Analyses, and the Jason Project took the rap for the Vietnam debacle. But we're not allowed to do the blame game this time around.
Related posts:
- Ross Is Boss (and an Astonishing ‘Jewish Lobby’ Had Colin Powell by the Short and Curlies Anecdote Available Only in Hebrew)
- Colin Powell, Profile in Cowardice
- Colin Powell celebrates Obama’s Muslim roots
- Most of McCain’s Jewish Braintrust Has Ties to JINSA, of Iraq War Fame
- Obama Will Use Holbrooke as Cover for Prog Agenda as George W. Bush Used Colin Powell for Neocon One
{ 9 comments }
I just got back from Oliver Stone’s ‘W.’, wherein Powell is sympathetically portrayed as the reasonable man. But there were absolutely no allusions to the Zionist angle behind the Iraq war in the film, and Jewish Zionist Wolfowitz’s part was bit. Stone basically takes the left-wing canard view of the Iraq war, which is that it was purely oil and Oedipal behind Bush’s invasion imperative. (But the film is still worth seeing as a draft of history, even though Stone as a historian always has to be taken with a grain of salt.) Stone did play up the Christian angle, though. But strangely, in a way that almost made a case that there was a Christian cosmic design behind American events and America's world role. I think Stone is torn between his Jewish father and his Christian mother in his interpretation of history. But his hippy left-liberalism has biased him towards scapegoating Christians and highlighting the evils of conservatism, while simultaneously glorifying liberals as loving and innocent. This showed up in JFK, too, which was totally dismissive of the historical fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was Communist scum.
Liberals like Stone seem to cling, religious like, to their own blind faith in the Left, which makes them as delusional and intellectually misguided, confused, and single-minded as right-wingers.
Phil,
An unnecessarily provocative post, that likely MIS-represents Powell's perspective.
[...]
I don't know what MM is trying to prove with his mention of JINSA.
Posted by: Ralph Seliger | October 02, 2008 at 11:57 PM
[...]
Ralph, Dick Cheney was on JINSA's Board of Advisors before becoming vice president, where he was joined by Ledeen, Feith, Perle, James Woolsey, and John Bolton. JINSA's stated policy aims included regime change in "rogue" nations such as Iraq.
Posted by: MM | October 03, 2008 at 02:48 PM
Chirp… Chirp Chirp… Chirp Chirp… Chirp Chirp Chirp…
Posted by: crickets | October 03, 2008 at 05:30 PM
totally dismissive of the historical fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was Communist scum
…or the 100,000 in America who are christian capitalist scum, for that matter, Ed.
Would Powell have supported two wars against Iraq and policies that made complete chaos in the region if he were an Arabist?
Todd raises a good question. Powell decided to support the status quo of power politics, but he couldn't help mumbling about JINSA.
Powell is every American Firster who actually has to confront the power of establishment Jewry.
They all bow their heads.
SOG & Witty Rule!
"Powell is every American Firster who actually has to confront the power of establishment Jewry."
Could it be that Powell is a go-along-to-get-along type more than he is an America-firster or Arabist? Knowing that America, the Arab world and his own reputation would be greatly harmed by the aggressive wars and wars based upon lies that he supported, would an Arabist and America-firster go along and ignore his own reservations? If so, he isn't a person who can be trusted, given the loss of life, reputation and fortune caused by the wars. Didn't Powell have a similar problem with Mai Lai?
Powell is obviously a man without strong principles, he is an organization kind of guy. Once the team makes a decision his personal feelings on the matter are dropped. Sort of like democratic centralism that earned the Communist Party so much scorn in 1939.
Powell never had the guts to come out and speak to the American Public when it counted–just another politician; he's hoping to slowly turn the tide, as is Obama. Some would call him a realist, dealing with the status quo, of which he is a (reluctant) part… Obama or rather the positive reaction to him by whites, gives Powell fresh hope.
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