Colin Powell Dies of Covid at 84

Started by SGOS, October 18, 2021, 10:35:27 AM

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SGOS

He was vaccinated, but before anyone jumps to the conclusion that vaccinations don't work, he was also being treated for myeloma, which weakened his immune system.

Dark Lightning

I was of the opinion that there was more to it. 84 is a good run, in any event.

SGOS

Who's to know if there isn't more to it? There are so many untruths flying around these days.  Although, I will accept this at face value, until I know differently.

Dark Lightning

I meant that Covid wasn't the primary cause. The multiple myeloma and treatment thereof didn't help him much for avoiding death from Covid. I don't suspect anything else. I could have been clearer.

Shiranu

More or less sums up my opinion on the guy...


"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Hydra009

Quote from: Shiranu on October 18, 2021, 11:35:16 PMMore or less sums up my opinion on the guy...
In fairness, he came clean years later and said that he regretted that profoundly.  But spilled blood is still spilled blood.  Can't undo that.

Shiranu

#6
Quote from: Hydra009 on October 18, 2021, 11:40:58 PM
In fairness, he came clean years later and said that he regretted that profoundly.  But spilled blood is still spilled blood.  Can't undo that.

Perhaps he did... and if so, then I don't hold it against him as a person.

And I know this is preaching to the choir, but as a political figure his lies were a large part of 900,000 dead Middle Eastern civilians, 7,000+ dead American soldiers, 8 trillion dollars in taxpayer dollars thrown down the drain, between 37 and 59 million Iraqi, Afghanis, Syrians, Pakistanis and Yemeni displaced from their homes and the creation of a new organization so radical that even the Taliban thinks they go way too far.

Somethings cant be just waved away with a, "Whoopsie, my bad, sorry about that."
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Hydra009

"Whoopsie" years and years later, well past the time it could possibly be politically disadvantageous, to boot.

I want to like the guy, but jeez, he was mum for far longer than an ethical person would be.  If I was tricked into saying some BS and I found out about it and had all sorts of deaths (Iraqi and American) on my conscience, I'd be talking to the press THAT DAY.

Cassia

Yeah....shock and awe doesn't win the war. Twenty years of attrition and a 4-year election cycle can loose a war, however.

SGOS

Quote from: Shiranu on October 18, 2021, 11:35:16 PM

I watched Powell's testimony to Iraq's WMD as it happened in real time on CNN, and it was monumentally hard for me to understand how so many were swayed by Colin Powell's testimony, including many so called liberal skeptics.  He limited his evidence to fuzzy pictures of 18 wheelers that had moved locations.  Just for the record, 18 wheeler semi trucks are designed for the specific purpose of moving things, and they are constantly engaged in that activity throughout the world.  Then he showed diagrams of what "could" be inside.  The diagrams were childlike, showing a hopper where nuclear waste "could" be poured in, which then connected to what might also pass for a bread making machine, followed by a conveyor belt where the bombs came out.  It was unimaginably unbelievable testimony that didn't even approach the magnitude of proof.

Now I get that many liberals are not skeptics, and are hardly capable of making logical deductions, and given by what I observe about American society today, I would not have been so horrified back then about how people can believe anything without reasonable evidence.

On top of that, Powell had been lobbying the Bush Administration not to invade for the previous months, while the former head of the Iraq weapons inspections team could find no evidence for any such WMD.  But Powell was known as a team player, and once the captain of the team decided an unwarranted invasion was in his best interests, Powell, switched his position almost overnight.  I don't know what to make of that.  Being a team player is good, unless the team wants to play dirty.

No, I never forgave Colin Powell.  Team player does not justify unethical behavior where the human consequences are of such great magnitude.


SGOS

At the time, America was in a state of 9-11 hysteria, and of course logic tends to go out the window when people are hysterical.  So I hold American society equally responsible to what Powell did.

Cassia

Bush and Cheney probably really thought the WMDs existed, or they would have 'planted' some. Imagine if they got caught doing that.

Mike Cl

Powell was a huge political and military disappointment.  I was squarely in his corner prior to his UN speech.  He was a general and a chief of staff of the pentagon.  He clearly understood intelligence and how it was gathered and how it was tested.  Yet he got up in front of the world and knowingly lied to us.  Do NOT tell me (I was in Army intel for 10 years or so, so don't tell me he did  not know how to vet intel.--I did and I was a lowly field agent.) he did not know he was lying.   His words years later meant nothing; he sold his soul to Bush/Cheney, who are clear war criminals and he should be included in that category as well!
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Mike Cl

Quote from: Cassia on October 19, 2021, 08:42:12 AM
Bush and Cheney probably really thought the WMDs existed, or they would have 'planted' some. Imagine if they got caught doing that.
Those two knew they were lying.  They 'knew' he had WMD because the US game them to him during the Iraq/Iran war, when we heavily backed Sadam.  Cheney wanted oil for his company and talked Bush into backing him (who was an oil guy himself). 
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

SGOS

Quote from: Cassia on October 19, 2021, 08:42:12 AM
Bush and Cheney probably really thought the WMDs existed.
I question this.  Bush?  Maybe.  But his advisors, most that were from New American Century, had totally different reasons for invading Iraq.  They were part of what has been called an intellectual think tank, but who were actually naive enough to think we could force Western Capitalism into the Mideast by military action.  That worked with Japan and Germany but those were entirely different situations, for different reasons, and an entirely different strategy.  The Bush inner circle was just a bunch of fools with big weapons. Cheney was probably smart, but also an asshole.