Colin Powell Talks About Obama, Iraq, Rev. Wright & Much More…

April 10, 2008

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As reported here a while back, retired General Colin Powell will remain silent as to whom he will support in the upcoming presidential election. However that is not stopping him from commenting on the candidates, the issues, and the election cycle “turbulence.” Appearing in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer for Thursday’s “Good Morning America” Gen. Powell spoke candidly about the current race for the White House and those at the center of the storm:

“I’m looking at all three candidates,” Powell said, “I know them all very, very well. I consider myself a friend of each and every one of them. And I have not decided who I will vote for yet.”

Powell who is in fact a registered Republican made no bones about it that party affiliation alone is not enough to automatically lead him towards Sen. John McCain, the all but official GOP Presidential nominee. Powell then went on to discuss Gen. Petreaus’ testimony over the past two days, and Sen. McCain’s seemingly undying devotion to the war in Iraq, which Powell observed is beginning to show signs of wear on our military forces:

“The United States Armed Forces are very, very stretched. It appears that after the surge is over, we’re going to go down to 140,000 troops in Iraq. That’s 10,000 more than we had before the surge,” “There is something of a continued surge there with that extra 10,000. And based on what Gen. Petraeus has said, he wants to let the surge troops go by July and then take 45 days to see what it looks like, and then begin a process of assessment. Well, that tells me that we know what the administration strategy is going to be through the end of the term of the administration. And that is, we’re going to maintain a very significant presence,” Powell said.

During the interview Powell also expressed his reservations about engaging in a two-front combat scenario, which we are currently fighting in both the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. This dual combat scenario is exactly what led us to where we find ourselves today: surging in Iraq while trying to maintain control in Afghanistan:

“We have responsibilities in Afghanistan. And in some ways, Afghanistan is more difficult than Iraq. You have the tribal problems. You had drug lords running around … and al Qaeda and the Taliban are making a resurgence,” Powell said.

And when asked about the challenges the next commander and chief will inherit upon entering office in 2009, Powell did not shy away from letting his feelings be known:

“I’ll tell you what they’re all going to face whichever one of them becomes president on Jan. 21 of 2009 they will face a military force, a United States military force, that cannot sustain, continue to sustain, 140,000 people deployed in Iraq, and the 20 (to) 25,000 people we have deployed in Afghanistan, and our other deployments,” Powell said.

There was more talk about the issues surrounding Iraq, Afghanistan and the debate over an Olympic boycott (which he is firmly against), but the interview got real interesting when Sawyer asked the General to weigh in on the controversial remarks made by Reverend Jerimiah Wright. Powell condemned the Pastors hateful remarks, at one point even calling them “deplorable” but also complimented Senator Obama for his historic speech regarding Race in America that followed the controversial sermons.

“Rev. Wright is also somebody who has made enormous contributions in his community and has turned a lot of lives around,” Powell said, “And so, I have to put that in context with these very offensive comments that he made, which I reject out of hand.”

Powell added that he does not know Wright, but continued to offer praise in regards to Senator Obama’s response:

“I think that Sen. Obama handled the issue well . . . he didn’t look the other way. He didn’t wait for the, for the, you know, for the storm to go over. He went on television, and I thought, gave a very, very thoughtful, direct speech. And he didn’t abandon the minister who brought him closer to his faith,” Powell told Sawyer.

While this was pretty much the “wrap it up” portion of the interview it seemed as though Powell couldn’t end it without divulging a little bit more into his respect and admiration for Barack Obama. And it he did so in a manner which really came across as both genuine and free of beltway doublespeak we hear so much of during election cycles:

“It was a good (speech),” Powell said. “I admired him for giving it. And I agreed with much of what he said.”

I’m going to do it, yup, I am going to go ahead and pose the hypothetical, “not going to happen question” which will fill the columns of Joe Klein and the commentary of Chris Matthews for days to come; What about a Obama/Powell ticket? Ha Ha, I wish, but that my friends is highly unlikely.