Bob's Links and Rants

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Friday, March 14, 2003

Newsweek's Howard Fineman is looking for the blame game to start in the White House. Will Colin Powell continue to be the blustery warmonger he has seemed to be for the past two months, or will he become the "peace bomb" in the White House by becoming the reluctant warrior most of us thought he was until recently? Cyndy at MouseMusings is holding out hope; I was quite negative about it yesterday, a bit more hopeful today after reading the Fineman column. Maybe, maybe, maybe all the bluster was just a final attempt to frighten Saddam into compliance. Maybe Powell agreed to go along with the bluster on condition that the war would actually be a last resort, not Bush's door number one as it has seemed for a year. I don't know--he has had so many chances.

For those of you who watch Fox's "24" show, Powell's resignation or similar protest now would be as surprising as it was when Nina was revealed as the mole inside CTU last season. For the first 22 hours of the show, she had had numerous opportunities to send the assassination target and dozens of other good guys to fiery deaths. Instead, she came through time after time with critical information or actions. Then, after the plot is almost completely foiled, she acts in a way that complicates things but has little impact on the final outcome. Why, if she was really working with the bad guys all along, would she wait until the plot is foiled to do anything? And why would Colin Powell let things get so out of hand and then decide now was the time to "go off"? I had more hope for some seemingly reasonable Republican senators like Lugar, McCain and Hillary Clinton ;-), but they have recently made public statements that destroy that hope.

Instead, it appears that they may just attempt to change the subject one more time. Hopefully, it will be to Israel/Palestine or the economy, not because I think the Bushies will do anything to improve either situation, but because it might mean they aren't starting any wars. More ominously, the focus could switch to North Korea, Iran, Columbia or Venezuela, with Kim or Chavez completing Bush's "trifecta of evil" (Osama, Sadaama,...). Of course, we're not out of the woods with Iraq, and there is definitely the possibility that some staged event will be used as an excuse for going ahead with the war.