John L. Perry
Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2004

It was an entirely different Powell the nation and the world saw being interviewed recently on Fox News Channel by Sean Hannity. This was not Powell the cautious, even-handed diplomat.

What came across in that remarkable interview March 8 on the “Hannity & Colmes” program was an American patriot with fire in his eyes. His president, George W. Bush, had been lied about, accused of lying to start a politically inspired war, characterized as a betrayer of his country, and Powell was incensed.

Morale Booster

This was … well, it was really something spectacular, and should give friends of Bush a much-overdue increase in confidence.

It was no defensive repost Powell made. Rather, it was a sudden saber thrust and cut aimed unmistakably at Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Al Gore and the whole swarm of Democratic Party hypocrites desperate in their fury to dismantle the Bush administration.

If there was any doubt lingering among supporters of Bush that Powell was unswervingly in the loyal service of this president, Powell has now excised that.

Powell the Partisan

Nor was he merely doing his duty. He was, moreover, enlisted on a partisan cause in which he ardently believes.

It had to come as both a total surprise and a sickening blow to those Democrats who have always cited Powell as “one of us.” Powell has now made it abundantly clear exactly whose side he’s on.

Just listen to these excerpts from the interview. Strong as they are, you had to have seen this man’s face and looked into his eyes to appreciate their full impact. It was manifest that Powell had come ready to do battle.

Into the Fray

Hannity asked Powell if, in light of all that’s happened since America went to war in Iraq, “would you advocate it all over again?”

Powell could have slid off that easily, with a simple affirmative or even evasive reply. Instead, he chose the opportunity to engage the opposition head-on.

Powell: “… we can discuss and debate, and we should discuss and debate the intelligence and what we knew and when we knew it, but I can tell you that last year we put forward the best intelligence case we had.

“I put it forward to the United Nations. And February last year the president used that intelligence.

“[CIA Director] George Tenet is now discussing [on Capitol Hill] what he concluded at that time of the discussions that were made to go to war. And I think we based everything we did on sound intelligence.

“And that intelligence said: You have a regime that has the intent, you have a regime with the capability. We believe they had stocks [of weapons of mass destruction] on hand. Everything has been proven except we don’t see the stocks on hand. We don’t know how that was missed. And if it was missed, we’re still looking. But the intent and the capability, no doubt.”

Hannity: “Isn’t it a more likely scenario that either they are still hidden or that they have been moved? Wouldn’t that be a greater concern than, oh, they didn’t exist? Isn’t that the more – the greater – reality?”

Powell: “Well, it is the greater reality. We just don’t know. And we didn’t know at the time we made the decision.

“But the president couldn’t sit and look the other way and say, ‘Well, because I don’t know, I’m not going to act.’ He acted on the most solid evidence he had.

“Now we’ll find out. The work continues. Did some leave the country? Is some still hidden? Was some destroyed before the war? Is it a combination of all these things? We’ll find out.

“But this debate over whether there were ever actual stocks in hand or not should not contaminate the correctness of the president’s decision and the fact of the matter that we now have a country that is moving toward democracy.”

Hannity: “Prominent Democratic leaders have made some very outrageous statements about the administration. Let me give you some examples.

“Ted Kennedy said the president told lie after lie after lie, said that the case for going to war was a fraud, was concocted in Texas for political gain.

“Former Vice President Al Gore, screaming at the top of his lungs, said that George W. Bush betrayed America; he played on our fears; he took us on an ill-advised adventure that was preordained prior to even 9/11.

“And of course Howard Dean’s advancing the theory that the president was warned about 9/11 ahead of time.

“ … When you hear those things, what do you think?”

Again, Powell could have side-slipped, demurring that he didn’t want to get involved in partisan rhetoric. Instead, he waded right in, saber slashing. Listen to this.

Powell: “This is very disturbing. I mean Vice President Gore was in an administration that believed there were weapons of mass destruction to the extent that they bombed the facilities [where] they thought those weapons of mass destruction were back in 1998.

“That was President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

“So he now screams that there’s something wrong with the Bush administration, because we finished the job as opposed to just a four-day bombing campaign, and we’ve eliminated the problem forever, I think is incorrect.

“The same thing with respect to the others – Sen. Kennedy and the others.

“… And they got the National Intelligence Estimate. They were briefed by Director Tenet, the same information I got, the same information the president got. And if they had a problem with it they should have raised it then.

“And what the president said was consistent with the information he was given by the director of central intelligence.

“… this clearly seems to me to be a politicization because, in fact, Sen. Kerry was arriving at those judgments using the same intelligence base, the same intelligence information that President Clinton and Vice President Gore had previously, and that President Bush was receiving from the Central Intelligence Agency.

“Sen. Kerry accepted it and spoke as if he believed it. And now a year later, to say the president was doing the wrong thing or he misled the nation, just is inaccurate. It isn’t right.

“And we shouldn’t be having a political debate over issues like that. We ought to stick with what we said and not start changing our view a year later because it’s in a political interest.”

Hannity: “… You’re a former soldier. What does it mean to morale for troops when they hear these attacks against their commander?”

Powell: “It doesn’t help. … they want to know the American people are supporting them … let’s not misuse an issue for the purpose of political advantage in a way that will undercut the efforts of our brave young men and women out there or affect their morale.

“… let’s talk about the issues of today and not go back and drag up old stories for the purpose of diverting us from what we ought to be doing right now.

“And that is: Who has the better vision of a brighter future for the American people and the world?”

Hannity: “I assume that’s George W. Bush.”

Powell (smiling): “That’s my view.”

Of course this failed to catch the attention of the leftist news media. After all, it was on Fox News Channel, and it would never do to recognize anything that occurred there. Besides, it wasn’t helpful to the Kerry campaign, to say the least.

Just wait, though. Colin Powell has declared war, and before this presidential campaign is done the press won’t be able to hide this soldier’s effect on the Nov. 2 election.

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for NewsMax.com.

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