Medea Benjamin: Another War Criminal Cashes In

One could be forgiven for thinking there's anything honorable or honest about Colin Powell. For more than two decades now, the Washington media has portrayed the former Secretary of State as something of a real life action hero, a reluctant warrior whose greatest fault, should they deign to mention any, was just being too darn loyal to a guy named George and his buddy Dick. What you might have missed is that Powell is a war criminal in his own right, one who in more than four decades of "public service" helped kill people from Vietnam to Panama to Iraq, who never posed a threat to America. But don't just take some anti-war activists' word for it: Powell will proudly tell you as much, so long as he can make a buck from doing it in a book. Powell's latest $27.99 account of his legendary life is billed as a "powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with." But the title, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, could very well refer to Powell's own careerist ambitions: saying and doing whatever served the interests of power, as a young officer in Vietnam, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the illegal invasion of Panama, as Secretary of State under George W. Bush, has worked out tremendously well for the man, if not so much for those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of his public service. Though billed as a self-effacing, humble leader prepared to admit mistakes, the real Colin Powell is not the one advertised by the PR department at HarperCollins. His book makes that clear enough, when he discusses his now infamous 2003 presentation before the United Nations on Iraq's alleged stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction.