Colin Powell for President! No, really - I'm totally serious!

I always thought Colin Powell was an honorable man who was swept up in the frenzy and optimism (*retch*) of a new Administration. But 9/11 changed so much about everyone - even the best and brightest of us. The cooked intelligence surrounding Bush's phantom imminent threat of WMD from Saddam, as well as the conflating of Iraq with Al Qaeda, led Powell to the UN to make the case for war. General Powell's commitment to serve at the pleasure of a folksy, dry drunk caused him to meet his credibility Waterloo.

But the man's redeemed himself in my view. Actually, he redeemed himself by walking away from the boy king. He joins many other good and decent men who've walked rather than deal with Bush and company - John Danforth, Paul O'Neill, James Comey, among others.

The September 10, 2007 issue of GQ Magazine, General Powell gives a wonderful and insightful interview. He says everything I've been feeling about the dangers we face and the fact that, okay yeah, we're vulnerable, but let's not let that destroy who we are. Moreover, HE OFFERS SOLUTIONS - what a friggin' concept!

From GQ:

What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves.

I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there—ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.

And one more:

Let’s show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That’s why I want to see Guantánamo closed. It’s so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we’re worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.

Back to me:

The worst thing the terrorists can do to us is change who we are. And they are winning. Bright, intelligent people think it's okay to torture human beings, that Abu Ghraib doesn't need to be examined too closely lest we disgust ourselves with the truth of our government's behavior, that the military industrial complex Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about in the 1950's doesn't require close scrutiny, that civil liberties should be sacrificed in favor of security, that the U.S. Constitution is an overly optimistic and dated document that doesn't address the needs of today and should be ignored.

Based on the last six years - war profiteering, the loss of Habeus Corpus, warrantless wiretapping, the Military Commissions Act, certain provisions of the Patriot Act, the pronouncement of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint", torture (euphemistically referred to as "rendition"), Abu Ghraib, GITMO, loss of worldwide credibility - this generation will certainly not be remembered as America's finest, not ever. I don't care how many nations the Shrub says we need to invade to fight his ridiculous "war on terrorism". (That man is INSANE and needs psychological help.) We will be thought of as the German people were at the end of WWII.

Colin Powell is brilliant, and I wish he would run for president on an Independent ticket. As undecided as I am right now about who to vote for, he would totally rock my world. Somebody needs to.