Thoughts Re Courage

One of the most disappointing political occurrences in recent memory (to me) was the failure of Colin Powell to stand up and be counted during the run-down to the Iraq war. Instead, former General Powell put form before substance and blind obeisance before logic in claiming that the presence of non-existent Iraq weapons of mass destruction justified U.S. military intervention. He must have had many sleepless nights for this act of non-courage, as well he should. This singular act comes to mind this morning because I am reading about the former U.S. district attorney in Missouri who was replaced before the 2006 elections by a Bushie from Washington who indicted four people for alleged election fraud four days before the most pivotal Senate election in the country. Like several of the other prosecutors who were similarly removed, this man now comes forward after the fact and claims that he was removed for political reasons, i.e. his failure to aggressively puruse claims of alleged fraud by Democrats which would give the Republicans a strong election issue. The question (and the thought) I have is where in the hell was this guy (and the others) when it really counted? Courage requires doing the right thing at the right time. It rings hollow that all of these people come forward after the fact and claim they were forced from office for political reasons. In fact, if true, the reasons were wholly or partially illegal and the time to step forward would have been when things were happeninig, not after the fact. My writings over the past few months have been sprinkled with a plea for a person or persons with qualitities of statemenship to emerge from the morass of political animals. Just think what would have resulted if, instead of being a bush puppet, Powell would have stood up in front of the world order and declared that the U.S. had only evidence of dubious value. ditto Tenet's new book. How come we hear these things now? A new book is necessary for these events entitled "Profiles in Lack of Courage."