One of the interesting aspects of Bob Woodward’s new book, as I understand it, is his insights on the major players in the Bush administration during the lead up to war. Among these, Secretary of State Colin Powell appears to be the toughest nut to crack. By all accounts he very much opposed the idea of invading Iraq beforehand. But at some point he did an about-face and donned his war uniform. Why? If he thought war was wrong, how come he didn’t just resign?
Last night on Hardball, Woodward offered his theory on Powell’s thinking:
MATTHEWS: If that’s correct, how does he maintain his honor of being opposed to the war, signing on to it without resigning and then knocking the war while he’s still in office as secretary of state? How does he bring all that together?
WOODWARD: What’s the important constituency for Colin Powell?
MATTHEWS: History.
WOODWARD: I’m going to ask you–no, the soldiers who are out there in Iraq, 130,000 of them.
(CROSSTALK)
WOODWARD: And we’re sitting here quite comfortable.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WOODWARD: and those people are going through hell. And Powell knows it, because he’s been there. And he knows, if he quit at any point in this…
MATTHEWS: Right.
WOODWARD: … he would undermine confidence in what they’re doing.
MATTHEWS: But has he undermined confidence by saying in this book to you, if he did, and he says he has, that he thought this was bad policy at the time?
WOODWARD: Well, he thought he pushed and issued very specific warnings to the president.
(CROSSTALK)
WOODWARD: Very, very clearly, no ambiguity.
But it is Powell’s belief that presidents make this decision, not secretaries of state. And I believe, if he had been asked, “Hey, Colin, what do you really think? Tell me. Let’s sit man to man up in that office in the residence,” he might have heard. But he was never invited in and he never felt comfortable enough to go and break the china to say, you have to listen to my recommendations on the bottom line here.
That makes as much sense as any explanation I’ve heard. It doesn’t make much sense that Powell is venting in a book now, though, since the troops are still under fire.
At any rate, if Bush wins reelection, I’d be very surprised if Powell stays in the cabinet after this term ends.