Colin Powell: A Strange Endorsement

Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama yesterday on "Meet the Press," and it has been seemingly well-received by Mr. Obama's supporters. But it all strikes me as rather odd.

If there is one unique characteristic of Barack Obama's candidacy, it is that he has consistently held that not only was the Iraq War the wrong war at the wrong time and probably in the wrong place, it was begun on faulty (and maybe even deceptive) pretexts. Many Democrats have for years denounced the war as a scam, a neo-con plot rife with imperialism, greed, and a lust for oil. Bad intelligence transmogrified into gross lies, into "cherry-picking" and abuse. Or so it has been claimed.

Moreover, many on the left -- many of whom are die-hard Barack Obama supporters -- believe that Bush and Co. behaved criminally; that there should be prosecutions and impeachments and jail time (and maybe even execution).

Colin Powell, as we all know, is the very man who perpetuated these great crimes before the United Nations. It was Powell who spoke of WMDs, of chemical weapons; he offered stern warnings that Saddam Hussein was a threat to America's security. He was one of the principal "liars."

Now, somehow, he's something of a hero. He who could not be trusted is now amazingly trustworthy. His endorsement of war was at first deemed criminal; his endorsement of the man who will inherit that war (if elected) is now somehow wise, brilliant, courageous. Reliable.

What Powell's "run-up-to-war" status as Iraq War architect means for the Obama campaign can't be easily descried. When Mr. Obama accepts such an endorsement, is he accepting the role Powell played in the Iraq invasion? (Does he believe that Powell's view of Iraq was the right one, or the wrong one? )

Conversely, in endorsing Barack Obama, is Colin Powell agreeing with Mr. Obama's central claim, that the war should never have been started?

Or is an endorsement of Mr. Obama a catharsis; is Mr. Powell exonerated by submitting to the anti-war position of Mr. Obama? In other words, is Barack Obama Colin Powell's absolution?

It is interesting that Mr. Powell's endorsement has not been wildly vilified by the leftists who hate the Iraq War in all its complexities. Maybe it has been vilified and I don't know it. If I have my history right, it was Colin Powell who helped design the first Gulf War, writing into that great plan restrictions that left Saddam Hussein in power. Then, more than a decade later, it was Colin Powell who pushed to have Saddam Hussein removed, all to the detriment, not just of the country, but of the whole world (or so claim the war's many critics). How is it that Mr. Powell's endorsement is not seen as a run for political cover?

Alas, there is more that confuses me here, but I shall have to explore those things some other time.

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