Profiles in Pacifism

Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama for President can be explained by only one of two factors. Either he’s making a decision based on race; or he never believed what he claimed to believe while in high government positions over the past 20 years. Consider the context. Powell was Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush; and George W. Bush’s first Secretary of State. Although Powell was always associated more with the moderate than the conservative wing of the Republican Party, he chose to work for Republican Presidents who certainly believed in the use of American military force. He was no fan of President Clinton — a rabid conservative when contrasted to Barack Obama — and he stepped down from his post soon after Clinton took office. There’s no reason to think that Obama believes in the use of any military force — outside the context of “humanitarian” missions to aid African dictators and the like — and, as we know, Obama even favors overt pacifism towards the West’s most dangerous enemies, such as Iran. What on earth would lead Colin Powell to openly endorse him for President? One can only assume that Colin Powell never believed in the relatively hawkish policies he once pursued, particularly against Saddam Hussein in Iraq; or that he is opting to support Obama for reasons of race rather than national security principle. It’s another sign that the world has gone mad, and that once respectable Americans are on the political and intellectual equivalent of a drunken rampage. Check back in a year, and witness the results of the hangover, once it has fully set in.