Colin Powell scrambles to salvage his legacy

For years, Colin Powell was the Bush Administration's favorite Uplifting Story. Powell was regarded as a man with integrity -- until it was revealed that he sat in front of the United Nations and baldfacedly lie about Saddam Hussein's supposed "weapons of mass destruction" rather than say "No" to his boss.

Now, taking a page from the John Kerry Day Late and a Dollar Short file, Powell is now speaking up from his safe position out of the White House, where he no longer has to face the wrath of the sociopath in the White House on a daily basis:

"If you just look at how we are perceived in the world and the kind of criticism we have taken over Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and renditions," Powell said in an interview, "whether we believe it or not, people are now starting to question whether we're following our own high standards."

Powell, elaborating on a position first expressed last week in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also argued that the administration's plan to "clarify" U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions would set a precedent for other nations that would endanger U.S. troops.

"Suppose North Korea or somebody else wants to redefine or 'clarify' " Geneva Conventions provisions prohibiting "outrages against personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of prisoners, he said.

Powell's opposition marks a rare public breach with the administration he left 20 months ago. As secretary of state, he repeatedly clashed privately with Vice President Cheney and others who had more hard-line foreign policy views. But since leaving office he has declined nearly all opportunities to publicly criticize even those policies he opposed internally.

Powell has said he regrets that the Iraq invasion was launched on the basis of false intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and Hussein's relationship with al-Qaeda, information that he vouched for in an address before a hostile United Nations. He has also said that he believes the administration should have sent more troops to invade Iraq and provided a better postwar plan.

You know what? Like John Kerry swearing, "Hey, baby, I promise, this time'll be different" in regard to the Swift Boat Liars, Powell had his chance to do the right hting and he blew it. And because of Powell's willingness to lie for his boss, thousands of people are dead.

I am not interested in what Powell has to say. Let him live with himself in those wee hours of the morning when he thinks of those 2700 dead American kids he participated in dispatching.