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Politics
Colin Powell, totally-burnt pants and all, is coming to Vancouver
After a career of atrocious attacks on civilians, Powell comes to Vancouver to lecture an elite audience on the nuances of leadership
By Kevin Potvin
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It has just been announced that retired US four-star general and former George Bush-appointed Secretary of State Colin Powell will be speaking in Vancouver Thursday June 12 at 1:30 PM at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The topic of his talk will be “Leadership in the 21st Century.” During the Vietnam War, Powell was asked to investigate rumours of an atrocious massacre of civilians by US Army personnel at My Lai. His report to superiors said “In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Speaking about his behavior in this incident, which contributed to a long-running cover-up of the atrocity, Powell excused himself to CNN host Larry King with this statement: "I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored." Later in his career, Powell orchestrated for then-President Ronald Reagan the failed and disastrous, not to mention plainly illegal, attack on Libya meant to kill the leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Fifteen civilians were killed, including al-Gaddafi’s daughter. Powell was also in charge of the US regime-changing attack on Panama. Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark estimated three thousand civilians died as a result. He later oversaw President George Bush Sr’s attack on Iraq in the First Persian Gulf War. Asked to estimate how many civilians died in that operation, Powell replied, "It's really not a number I'm terribly interested in.” At the end of that war, when thousands of Iraqi civilian bureaucrats and their families, as well as thousands of defeated and retreating soldiers, fled Kuwait for Basra, Powell oversaw a massacre with deaths still not counted. US war planes bombed craters into the road ahead of and behind the massive retreating convoy, and more US war planes flew back and forth strafing the thousands of stranded and unarmed civilians and defeated soldiers all day long till they were all dead. Finally, in 2003, at a crucial meeting at the United Nations, Powell, then Bush Jr’s Secretary of State, presented the case for war against Iraq. Pointing to satellite pictures of trucks on highways and in parking lots, Powell claimed the photos showed irrefutable evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. He later blamed lower-level CIA intelligence operatives for the mistake. Well over a million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the illegal US attack on Iraq, an attack whose political cover Powell was critical in creating. That’s leadership in the 21st Century? Civilians in Vancouver might be interested in reminding the bloody-handed war General that this city doesn’t consider him to be good leadership material. The talk is presented by DSJ Communications (Stefan@dsjcommunications.com). Tickets start at $183.
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