Senior EMN Fellow Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson shares what the public doesn’t know about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died on Monday.
After standing by Powell’s side for more than a decade, Wilkerson gives an exclusive look at Powell’s internal conflict, blind spots and disillusionment over his role in the Iraq War.
Am I angry that my fellow soldiers gave lives and limbs for an effort that is clearly ending in defeat? Of course. But I am even angrier that our nation’s leaders ignored reality and insisted for two decades that the war was headed in the right direction. Nearly a score of different generals in charge of the war effort, and three presidential administrations, chose to extend an unsustainable status quo rather than acknowledge hard truths. None of them faced any consequences.
Am I angry that my fellow soldiers gave lives and limbs for an effort that is clearly ending in defeat? Of course. But I am even angrier that our nation’s leaders ignored reality and insisted for two decades that the war was headed in the right direction. Nearly a score of different generals in charge of the war effort, and three presidential administrations, chose to extend an unsustainable status quo rather than acknowledge hard truths. None of them faced any consequences.
Debates, about whether the U.S. could have won, who bears responsibility for the loss and whether soldiers’ sacrifice was worth it, are coming.
The Taliban has retaken Afghanistan with lightning speed, forcing Americans to grapple with our 20-year-long tragedy in the war-torn Central Asian nation…
Figures like Edward Snowden, Tom Drake, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou and a host of other whistleblowers loom large today above a world full of mostly sycophantic, cowardly and selfish adherents to the “rules.” Such truth tellers actually better represent the traditional nonconformist American ideal than any of their rule-of-the-road, stick-to-the-script fellow citizens.
As U.S. and Western forces gear up to depart from Afghanistan, the country’s more than 40-year war enters its next phase. This is nothing new for the Afghan people. In the course of a century, they have seen British and Soviet conquerors exit, leaving various would-be kings, power brokers and warlords to fill the vacuum. Through it all, it has been the Afghan people who suffer.
The Military Industrial Complex, best defined as an insulated network consisting of the US military establishment, the corporations that market and sell goods and services to the U.S. military and allied governments, and Capitol Hill, creates a permanent warfare state which helps cause our endless wars.