Powell endorses Obama

Where was this Colin Powell in February 2003? First things first: on foreign policy, and the message an Obama presidency would send about what an extraordinary and resilient country the United States is, I agree with the endorsement Powell delivered this morning on Meet the Press.

That said, I’ve lost some respect for him. When Tom Brokaw asked him about the war in Iraq, Powell consistently deflected blame: “the intelligence community,” “the intelligence community,” “the intelligence community.” Powell still maintains that the case for war in Iraq was solid, assuming the intelligence had been correct with respect to Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction.

It’s a preposterous claim. The Soviet Union had weapons of mass destruction — enough to pose an existential threat to the United States — and we never attacked it, even after it rolled over Hungary and Czechoslovakia. North Korea has weapons of mass destruction. So does Pakistan. The idea that certain military capabilities alone are enough of a cause to go to war against a state, absent other evidence indicating that, say, the state is about to launch an imminent attack against you…why is that reasonable, let alone sensible?

Either Powell honestly believes what he’s saying, in which case you have to question his judgment, or he knows the legend has become fact, so he’s telling the legend, and lying about the wisdom of the war. How disappointing. The whole promise of an Obama presidency was that the country could finally start talking truthfully about the war in Iraq, without questioning one another’s patriotism or worrying about losing an election for it, and that we could begin moving forward, welcome our troops home, and begin the long process of rebuilding our national honor.

The Republican party still refuses to have that debate, driving a massive wedge into the conservative coalition, and leaving any conservative who thinks the war was a mistake out in the cold. Yet, without any admission that the war was a bad idea — a simple “I was wrong” or “I should have put my job on the line” would suffice — Powell’s endorsement loses its mooring, and becomes an expression of taste rather than principle.

Powell should have resigned over the war.