Powell runs out on NY Times op/ed board

Not only did Colin Powell run out of a meeting with the NY Times oped board, unwilling to handle even the most perfunctary examination of the Bush administration's WMD lies, but the NYT was happy to write about it:

Asked whether Americans would have supported this war if weapons of mass destruction had not been at issue, Mr. Powell said the question was too hypothetical to answer. Asked if he, personally, would have supported it, he smiled, thrust his hand out and said, "It was good to meet you."

The question is not a hypothetical. The administration twisted and manipulated the "evidence" to give the impression of a rogue Saddam with the finger on the trigger of a nuclear bomb ("We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud") as well as chemical/biological weapons.

They knew damn well what they were doing, and how difficult it would be to sell the war on any other grounds. And Colin Powell knew as well.

That's why he was so touchy about the the question, and it's why he ran out of that edit board meeting, tail between his legs.

Posted September 27, 2003 11:03 AM | Comments (127)