Is Colin Powell Finally Speaking Up?

One appearance on Face the Nation contradicting some of Bush's assertions does not represent a major effort to get Bush to accept reality but it may be a step in the right direction for former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Think Progress caught two interesting points in Colin Powell's interview; here's the first:

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he agreed with the Iraq Study Group that the situation in Iraq is “grave and deteriorating.” He disagreed with incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ assessment that the U.S. is neither winning nor losing in Iraq. “We are losing,” Powell said.

And here's the second catch by Think Progress:

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he did not support surging tens of thousands more troops in Iraq, a plan that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) supports and that President Bush is expected to carry out. “I have not seen a case that persuades me that [Iraqi security] would be better” with more forces, he said.

Powell also pointed out that the military has no more troops to send. ...

So, according to Powell, we're losing and more troops won't make much difference. Unlike the right wingers who are trying to trash the Baker report that came out of the Iraq Study Group, Powell says the report is largely an accurate analysis of the situation. Besides finding people they can bully into telling them what they want to hear, Bush and Cheney, who are very fond of cherry picking, can still find a general or two to defend their policies and a few out-of-it politicians from the past to trot out for public relations. But the heavy weights of the last thirty years are nearly unanimous that Bush's Iraq policy is a disaster and that it's time to talk and time to find an exit.

Powell Reportedly Says Iraq in Civil War

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said a number of things in recent months that are critical of the Bush Administration, but a word of caution: most of these criticisms have been out of the public eye and simply reported by others. Think Progress catches the latest criticism from Powell by way of Hala Garani of CNN:

GORANI: Well, within the context of the leaders conference in Dubai and also within the context of this debate, this semantics debate, over whether to call what is going on on in Iraq a civil war, the former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he thinks we can call it a civil war and added if he were still heading the State Department, he probably would recommend to the Bush administration that those terms should be used in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground.

The Bush Administration is in meltdown and considerable damage has been done to our foreign policy. We need to hear not just Democrats but also rational Republicans who can clarify what is going on. If everyone knows what the real story is, it limits the unhelpful and time-wasting games that Bush is still capable of playing and that are likely to damage the United States even further. I hope Colin Powell starts making his statements in the public eye where we can all hear it loud and clear rather than at these semi-private functions. He knows his reputation has been damaged by his service under Bush; to repair that reputation requires raising his profile.