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A Canadian Reader Nominates Colin Powell for BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week. You Got That Right!

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by A. Grainger

Hi BuzzFlash,

Although Mr. Powell made his comments too late for BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week I would like to give him honorable mention for Friday's 'lightning trip' to Baghdad to celebrate the first anniversary of the occupation, er..."liberation" of Iraq. (see article below)

"Iraqi Journalists Disrupt Powell Briefing: Killing of Pair Prompts Walkout"

The whole picture was heavy with irony, as he intoned Bushy platitudes to US troops. The place is guarded with concentric rings of security that must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour. A significant number of military personnel were removed from their duties for the event, presumably leaving gaps elsewhere. This security was needed to keep the grateful Iraqis from blowing their new master to bloody ribbons, which they do outside the 'Green Zone' on a regular basis.

During his stay, dozens of Arabic journalists walked out on his news conference to protest the murders and arrests of their colleagues by American soldiers, specifically the deaths on the previous day of journalists Ali Abdel-Aziz and Ali Khatib. Bremer, trying to out-hypocrite his boss, said loftily, "That's what we came here to fight for.", and called it a 'celebration of Democracy'. But Powell was not to be outdone. He said he regretted the deaths but was "confident it wasn't deliberate."

Apparently he has ordered an 'urgent review' of the incident, although it hadn't even been mentioned by the military up to that point. Speaking in a building still sporting Hussein-era plaques, to a mostly empty auditorium, he proclaimed that it was also the anniversary of the gassing of the Kurds in 1988, omitting the fact that he was National Security Advisor and supporting Saddam Hussein at that time for Ronald Reagan!

I found the whole setting surreal and the hypocrisy of this man breathtaking in its audacity. But then, that describes much of the political climate you guys live in down there these days.

A. Grainger
London Canada

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION