[Beth Curran]

Hi Tom,

We've spent hours at work talking about the Admin, and we're all pretty
puzzled by Powell at present.  ("We" are a group of chemists and
microbiologists, 25 to 50 years old.  Not exactly a representative slice
of America, I suppose) It is clear that he has been responsible for
reining in some of Bush's excesses, possibly due to the fact that
there's no doubt that he would unseat Bush if he declared a presidential
bid.  We also estimate his intelligence level to be about twice that of
any other Cabinet member and a good 3 times that of our esteemed Prez.
Yet we're still wary.  For him to have agreed to an attack on a nation
which has not attacked us is strangely out of character.  Why didn't he
quit rather than be a party to this?  Is it because he's seen enough
evidence to convince him?  Or because he fears the hawks would go
completely out of control if he did?  Or because he's joined the Dark
Side and become a hawk?

One young Friends-educated person in the group, who's a little unworldly
but brings some startling insights into the conversation from time to
time, said that if Powell were in charge, he would have relied on
stepped-up covert operations conducted simultaneously with a public
peace campaign, for which he would have recruited Jimmy Carter.  One of
the two operations would surely have worked.

Bush is losing the support of his own party.  A key factor in the
failure of the Alaska drilling plan was the defection of a prominent
Republican away from the Bush platform.  Another is working to defeat
Bush's tax cuts for the rich.  Re-election on 2004 is not a given, thank
goodness - Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Tom Spencer
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 1:23 AM
To: powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [Powderworks] Re: Powderworks digest, Vol 1 #1009 - 6 msgs

Dear Beth,

My Oz opinion of Colin Powell is that he seems like
the best of a really bad bunch. If it wasn't for him
(and maybe Tony Blair?), the US might have attacked as
early as last year. But, of course, this is all a
guess at what's going on behind the scenes. Wouldn't
have the foggiest as to what he's really like. He
seems to be willing to go and cop the flack for Bush's
policy at things like the 2nd Earth Summit. But then,
he did some pretty bad dancing with the Japanese
Foreign Minister last year at another conference.

If I was a public figure of the Bush posse, I'd find
it very hard to be associated with a group that has
done what the Admin. has done -ripped up the Kyoto
Treaty, the 1972 ABM Treaty, the UN and the post-war
international order -with all of their profound
flaws-, not to mention the threat to drill in the
Arctic, just to name a few.

If it wasn't for Powell, things may have been much
worse. I heard a joke that Saddam Hussein is the man
most hated by the White House, apart from Colin Powell
of course. But I reckon that Powell lends credibility
to the Bush posse, which is bad if you accept as I do
that it is a very nasty group. It's interesting,
however, that the 'Impeach Bush' campaign refers to
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft, but not Powell.

Thanks for asking, Beth. What do you think of Messieur
Powell, and of the Impeach Bush campaign?

Tom Spencer

Beth Cur> ATTACHMENT part 3.3 message/rfc822
> From: "Beth Curran" <bcurran@columbus.rr.com>
> To: "'Tom Spencer'" <tr_espen@yahoo.com.au>,
> <powderworks@cs.colorado.edu>
> Subject: RE: [Powderworks] Deputy Dawg
> Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 20:48:06 -0500
> 
> Yo, Tom, you're forgetting the financial benefits of
> a war or whatever
> the hell this thing is.  There's nothing like a good
> aggressive military
> action against the unqualified to jump start a weak
> economy. Lemme tell
> ya, my retirement account has been scorchin' up the
> charts since this
> thing started.  Quite a moral dilemma for
> bleeding-heart liberal, eh?
> 
> I am curious about one thing, though - what's the Oz
> opinion of Colin
> Powell?  - Beth


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