Colin Powell: The Good Soldier Speaks out on his Words to the World

At the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue on a temperamental Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., Colin Powell packed the people up to the balconies, telling the throng stories of his life in the Army and as secretary of state. All add salt and pepper to his bright, chatty new book, "It Worked for Me."

Yes, Powell is a Washington rock star. I saw it in people's eyes as they rose to cheer him at the public event. No, the Army four-star general is not a tragic figure on this stage, nine years since delivering an "infamous" speech to the United Nations during the march to the Iraq War. At 75, he's like the latest edition of the American folk philosopher, giving aphorisms to guys in charge of stuff.

Hey, Benjamin Franklin, have you heard "perpetual optimism can be a force multiplier?" That's the latest spin on the oldest of American faiths, optimism. Powell, a disarming New Yorker raised in a snug immigrant community in South Bronx tenements, seems to embody Franklin's early school of self-improvement. An indifferent student, the City College of New York ROTC program was his avenue to the Army, not West Point.

He gives savvy advice on military leadership: "Never walk past a mistake." At greater length: "It is far better to gain buy-in from followers by explaining what you are trying to achieve and the important role they are about to play in accomplishing the mission." The Pentagon was his domain as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Years ago at that post, he openly opposed a new president, Bill Clinton, on lifting the ban on gays in the military — acting overly political.

Yet page after page in the book, moment by moment in the talk, left me bittersweet, wishing Powell had never crossed over to the snark-infested waters of the George W.

Bush White House in 2001. There were only two cowboys in the rodeo that didn't respect him, but they were Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. From the start, Secretary Powell didn't win any arguments under the second President Bush.

But the rub didn't end there. Powell's good name was used, his standing squandered, by the president's men to present a false premise for going to war. Don't we all indelibly remember his deft speech on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

The new book is the first time Powell confronts his symbolic singular downfall in the eyes of the world community. This happened when the case assembled by intelligence agencies and Scooter Libby, Cheney's chief aide, simply failed to be found in the real world.

The blinding consequences of the Iraq War are buried even in backstory. "He (Saddam Hussein) didn't want us to know he had no WMD," Powell told his avid audience. "I will always regret the information was wrong."

In Powell's book, this passes for bracing candor: "If we had known there were no WMDs, there would have been no war."

Come now, general, there was going to be a war. That ship had sailed from the Oval Office. Iraq is now a storm of shambles, thanks partly to Ambassador L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer, who disbanded the Iraqi army. Another Russian doll mistake. In Powell's view, Bremer made bad matters worse.

With his poised bearing, Powell cuts an impressive figure and seems lighter now. Who knew he could speak in Jamaican patois?

To be clear, none of this is meant as an apology. Just a regret, everybody. A good soldier's regret for obeying orders to play the fool on the world stage.

One of his own articles of faith comes in handy: "Always try to get over failure quickly."

Clearly, it worked for Powell.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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