Colin Powell: "It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-29/colin-powell-it-worked-me-life-and-leadership
(AP Photo/CBS News, Karin Cooper)
Colin Powell has spent most of his life as a leader. He’s a retired four-star general and served as National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His new memoir is filled with advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond. But Powell is still dogged by his tenure as former President George W. Bush’s first secretary of state. He had misgivings about invading Iraq, but agreed to make the administration’s case for war in a speech at the United Nations. Much of what he said is now known to be based on false information. Diane talks with Powell about his storied career and his thoughts on political leadership today.
Guests
Gen. Colin Powell
former Secretary of State
Related Items
Video Extra
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed his views toward gay marriage, abortion and lifting the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Powell, who said he has voted for Democrats and Republicans, said he also considers what presidential candidates say about the economy, education and foreign policy.
Read An Excerpt
Excerpt from "It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership" by Colin Powell. Copyright 2012 by Colin Powell. Reprinted here by permission of Harper Press. All rights reserved.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
General Powell I watched the John Bolton nomination hearings. During those hearings then Senator Biden brought up the NSA intercepts that congress had demanded be handed over to them having to do with John Bolton and teams alleged intercepts of conversations that you had with Iranian and other officials. Can you talk about those intercepts and your relationship with John Bolton? And can you tell us whether our Reps were able to access those intercepts?
The good soldier's revengeIn Colin Powell's battle to block Bush's nominee to the UN, far more is at stake than John Bolton's unsuitability
"And after Bolton attempted to coerce a state department intelligence officer to agree to an unfounded report about nonexistent Cuban WMD, Powell personally assembled the entire intelligence staff to instruct them to ignore Bolton. When the British foreign secretary Jack Straw complained to Powell that Bolton was obstructing negotiations with Iran on the development of nuclear weapons, Powell ordered Bolton to be cut out of the process, telling an aide: "Get a different view." The British also objected to Bolton's interference in talks with Libya, and again Powell removed Bolton. But as much as he may have wanted to, Powell could not dismiss him because of his powerful patron: Vice-President Cheney.
The Bolton confirmation hearings have revealed his constant efforts to undermine Powell on Iran and Iraq, Syria and North Korea. They have also exposed a most curious incident that has triggered the administration's stonewall reflex. The foreign relations committee has discovered that Bolton made a highly unusual request and gained access to 10 intercepts by the National Security Agency, which monitors worldwide communications, of conversations involving past and present government officials. Whose conversations did Bolton secretly secure and why?
Staff members on the committee believe that Bolton was probably spying on Powell, his senior advisers and other officials reporting to him on diplomatic initiatives that Bolton opposed. If so, it is also possible that Bolton was sharing this top-secret information with his neoconservative allies within the Pentagon and the vice-president's office, with whom he was in daily contact and who were known to be working in league against Powell.
Does Powell really believe there is "orthodoxy" on the left? The Dems have caved to nearly all demands of the right. They are a very compromising bunch. Is Powell just not paying attention?
cont
"If the intercepts are released they may disclose whether Bolton was a key figure in a counter-intelligence operation run inside the Bush administration against the secretary of state, who would resemble the hunted character played by Will Smith in Enemy of the State. Both Republican and Democratic senators have demanded that the state department, which holds the NSA intercepts, turn them over to the committee. But Rice so far has refused. What is she hiding by her cover-up?"
Colin Powell lied the world into a war it would not otherwise have condoned. That is the crime of all crimes. Spare us the self-evident platitudes, a book on the tragedy that comes of doing what you are told would be more fitting.
How about this question: "General Powell, where do you buy your clown shoes?"
How about this question: "General Powell, where do you buy your clown shoes?"
No matter what the secretary says now, nor what he said at the UN that faithful days helps me in understanding what he did that day... long before his presentation at the UN, the Bush 2 administration decided to go to war and every effort after that was aimed to justify the end, a war with Iraq.
Mr. Powell was nothing more than a pawn in that aim.
When I watched his presentation at the UN, I saw illustrations, not photos, I heard "evidence" that was nothing more than hearsay. If we were going to war, then I had one thought, if we do not find WMDs after the invasion, then Bush 2 is done in my book. Unfortunately, we went to war, did not find WMDs and Bush 2 got a second term. Then, people like Mr. Powell were shuffled off, their usefulness complete... Your actions at the time did not "work for me", and I do not believe they worked for you Mr. Powell.
How about this question: "General Powell, where do you buy your clown shoes?"
I get the feeling that Colin Powell was expecting "softball" questions from Diane today. I think that was a miscalculation on his part. There's really no way to put lipstick on this pig (the Iraq war) since not only did we go to war based on ginned-up intel, but we did so without doing ANY research into WHO we were invading and possible outcomes, we went to war on the cheap, tortured and abused the Iraqi citizens and lost so many American and Iraqi lives and for what? So George W. Bush could take out a dictator that was the Bush family's nemesis and the U.S. could get access to Iraqi oil. In my mind, he absolutely was a patsy.
No matter what the secretary says now, nor what he said at the UN that faithful days helps me in understanding what he did that day... long before his presentation at the UN, the Bush 2 administration decided to go to war and every effort after that was aimed to justify the end, a war with Iraq.
Mr. Powell was nothing more than a pawn in that aim.
When I watched his presentation at the UN, I saw illustrations, not photos, I heard "evidence" that was nothing more than hearsay. If we were going to war, then I had one thought, if we do not find WMDs after the invasion, then Bush 2 is done in my book. Unfortunately, we went to war, did not find WMDs and Bush 2 got a second term. Then, people like Mr. Powell were shuffled off, their usefulness complete... Your actions at the time did not "work for me", and I do not believe they worked for you Mr. Powell.
No matter what the secretary says now, nor what he said at the UN that faithful days helps me in understanding what he did that day... long before his presentation at the UN, the Bush 2 administration decided to go to war and every effort after that was aimed to justify the end, a war with Iraq.
Mr. Powell was nothing more than a pawn in that aim.
When I watched his presentation at the UN, I saw illustrations, not photos, I heard "evidence" that was nothing more than hearsay. If we were going to war, then I had one thought, if we do not find WMDs after the invasion, then Bush 2 is done in my book. Unfortunately, we went to war, did not find WMDs and Bush 2 got a second term. Then, people like Mr. Powell were shuffled off, their usefulness complete... Your actions at the time did not "work for me", and I do not believe they worked for you Mr. Powell.
Homer...the screener is clearly only letting ass kissers through. Lot at the comments posted. Most of the callers allowed through have been male and Powell ass kissers. Diane did ask some tough questions...
Powell''s unwillingness to apologize for that serious mistake says it all. pathetic just totally pathetic
Homer...the screener is clearly only letting ass kissers through. Lot at the comments posted. Most of the callers allowed through have been male and Powell ass kissers. Diane did ask some tough questions...
Powell''s unwillingness to apologize for that serious mistake says it all. pathetic just totally pathetic
If "weapons of mass destruction" are the reason to start wars why haven't we started them with North Korea and Pakistan? I think this excuse in Iraq was a cover for other personal vengeful reasons of Bush and Chaney. I am sad that Powell joined the band wagon and turned his back on the service men and women who had followed him so loyally.
The title of Colin Powell’s book—It worked for me—is working very well to allow Mr. Powell to now thread a fine needle to exonerate himself from the debacle of the Iraq War. He was the one person in the administration who could have made the American people see the big heist that was occurring in front of the entire country. The president and vice president followed their personal agenda very well in gaining access to Iraq’s oil. It did not work out well for the American people, whose wealth was squandered and who will be paying for the war for decades. In this case, why can’t Mr. Powell just say the truth—he was wrong and played a shameful role in helping G.W. Bush carry out this tragedy which most likely delayed the indigenous Arab Spring movements.
Cynthia Munley
Salem, VA
When does Gen Powell think the bombing of Iran should begin?
OIL !!!!
Well allright. To use the vernacular of the times: Sla amm Dunkkkk.
Thank you Secy Powell for warning especially the younger of us about how we can be deceived. A 60's grad, I listen up when congress threatens a debt crisis and passes increased defense spending all in the same week.
I hear the GOP war drums already. A vote for the 5 digits called Romney will most probably send us on a path toward more world conflicts. I wish you would talk more about how to avoid war and create defense leadership we can trust.
Todays show I only caught the last 15 min of. And with reading the posts, it makes me sad with any kindof revisiting..or reflection of events in the first 5 years of the past decade (with U.S. Foreign Policy/War on T). I mean, it is arguably 1 of the most interesting subjects in the world. But if you remember the tenor of those times, it was pretty much the US crossing different types of Rubycons to the social reality we have now. Its been nothing more than an exercise of US military might. unrecorded numbers of casualties on the supposed other side. And look at where we are at now? Congress approving ~$500 Bill. for a Military Budget (You would think after 20 years you would get used to headlines like that. I don't)..and Mitt Romney with a headline quote: 'If he were President the US Military would be the Greatest in the World'. -- If 50 years go by without another Republican president I don't think I would miss it.
Dick Cheney parked himself at the CIA in Langley and made sure that the evidence fit his assumptions. This is why the intelligence was so skewed.
I've been listening to General Powell on this book tour in various media venues, and today I'm hearing a different tone, and I wonder why. There seems to be a shift in perspective regarding his role in the entry into the war in Iraq from that in previous discussions, and even in his own book.
I have a similar feeling about his tone today as I had during the entire Cheney-Bush administration--the feeling that we were being told what they wanted us to believe and that there was a hidden agenda that would not be revealed to us.
When the general spoke out initially about his misgivings, it seemed a heroic gesture. Now I hear him retreating to the Cheney-Bush perspective, and I am puzzled to say the least.
Kudos to Colin Powell for enduring a very biased, liberal interview by Ms. Rehms. Is the interviewer's politics suppose to be so obvious? I respect Colin Powell for the way in which he answered questions and spoke about his book.
Kudos to Colin Powell for enduring a very biased, liberal interview by Ms. Rehms. Is the interviewer's politics suppose to be so obvious? I respect Colin Powell for the way in which he answered questions and spoke about his book.
Kudos to Colin Powell for enduring a very biased, liberal interview by Ms. Rehms. Is the interviewer's politics suppose to be so obvious? I respect Colin Powell for the way in which he answered questions and spoke about his book.
This man is attempting to redeem a shattered reputation. It doesn't work. He was part of a group that lied us into an unfortunate war. As always, Diane, you were excellent and persistent with your incisive questions. He responded with evasive answers that rang hollow. So now he has a book to hawk. Don't they all. Am awaiting a tell all by Judith Miller. CP should retire; I'm sure he has Long Term Care insurance thanks to the taxpayer.
I'm sorry. Am I really listening to someone instruct me on how to foster trust in an organization ...who compromised himself utterly to sell a war of complete irresponsible idiocy to us?
Mr Powell, you could not have selected a better title for your book than a cynical, glib myopic slogan such as "It worked for me!"
Looted treasury of one trillion dollars, 4484 of our own fallen soldiers, close to 1500 civilian contractors and 32000 wounded - all based on cooked up intelligence. 4 star liar for the bush/cheney.
On the one hand, General Powell kept repeating that we had "rock solid" intelligence about WMD in Iraq and he felt "completely comfortable and confident" with the decision to invade. On the other hand, he admitted that he couldn't explain how the intelligence turned out to be so wrong. Honestly, how could he not know the reasons for such a massive failure? To add insult to injury, he trotted out that tripe about not regretting the ouster of Hussein, as if that makes all the blood and treasure worth it.
It was pretty sad, too, when Diane pointed out some of the criticisms of Powell regarding loyalty coming from the likes of Rumsfeld and Cheney, and again he couldn't explain it. All Powell could offer was "that's the way they . . . I guess that's the . . . that's the line they came up with in order to say what they say. I can't account for it." It's not that I give much credence to what Rumsfeld and Cheney say about Powell, but such statements make these guys appear a bit dysfunctional, as if they can't even get good "intelligence" on each other, let alone on Iraq.
I respect Powell's service to the country and I'm certain he had the best intentions, but I can't say that I respect and admire him as I did before. For what it's worth, I put Rumsfeld and Cheney on a lower rung of Hell. :-)