It was interesting to hear of the endorsement of Barack Obama by General Colin Powell. I've always had a great admiration for Colin Powell for several reasons. He was a man of principle and truly an American man of the world. With his foreign service experience, he, more than anyone else in the government of the US know more about what's going on in the world and has the greatest sense of things that went wrong and how things can get better. His endorsement of Barack Obama might not do much to the polls as I suspect that many on the far right conservative side would view this as a race card, even though Powell denies this. There will always be the question, what if Obama was white, if Powell would endorse McCain instead. I think the answer would've been no. But in this elections everything is a factor and though I don't believe race was the reason why he got the endorsement, the racial tinge of the election campaign sensitizes everyone. The claim in McCain's ads trying to link Obama to terrorists was very disconcerting and a terrible charge given 9/11. One can only ask the question if this would've been issued if Obama was white. On the campaign trail, there is always the mention of Barak's middle name, Hossein, which has some asking questions regarding his ethnicity, trying to determine if he is Arab. Raising such issues only incorporates the question of race.
Colin Powell, a Republican, was always independent minded but always a good soldier. I thought he served the Republican party well and even when he was asked to run for president, I may voted for him, not because he was black, but because I thought at the time the country needed someone to improve the image of the US as a world leader and General Powell was the best choice. When he was asked, he was going to be up against Bill Clinton. Guess what? Black people would've voted for Bill Clinton at that race as he was widely loved and respected by them and the economy at that time was very strong.
What I think made another difference was the embarrasment caused by George W Bush in having General Colin Powell deliver the fateful presentation to the UN about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction. We all know those were never found and questions as to if it was an excuse to invade Iraq still abound. It has been noted that right after the terrorist bombings of New York, the neo-conservative Donal Rumsfeld in a meeting with Colin Powell and other cabinet menbers, made the suggestion to go into Iraq. Colin Powell, aware of the neo-con hype and the hawkish nature of these politicans, rolled his eyes up as to say "here we go again". I guess someone was listening as soon after the "intelligence" came into play and the US began its war with Iraq even after the full knowledge that Al Quida operated its bases in Afghanistan and the Taliban were the supporters of such efforts. We amazingly are still dealing with the fact that its Afghanistan was underfunded and undermanned as a target of the war and of more significance was Iraq. Both wars continue to drag on costing billions of dollars each month.
My view is that Colin Powell's endorsement is signalling the way for the whole world to celebrate the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the US. Should Barack win, the whole world will celebrate. It still sees the efforts in Iraq as one for the control of oil in the Middle East, especially since the very premise of invading Iraq was never substantiated. Barack Obama means a break from this and a way to begin the healing process. For obvious reasons, right wing neo-cons continue to ask for "victory" in Iraq which does not ressonate with the world at large. From this election campaign, there is no doubt that what John McCain wants is for the war to continue. The rest of the world wants it to stop. To ask for it stopping to mean not until the US wins means it drags on, killing the US economy as it continues to do. Think of how much progress could've been made with the 10 billion dollars spent each month on this war.
This is about an African American endorsing another African American. Its about a distinguished American, a former Secretary of State, a former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff endorsing the best candidate he thinks American needs at this time with the premise that the country needs a generational change.
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