Powell quote

[Toad]

Remarks from Colin Powell, US Secretary of State

It's been posted before, BTW.

[Pongo]

Originally posted by funkedup
Hell the snopes transcript is even better.

The fact that Powell is not president is to me the strongest indicator that the two party system is completely hosed.

If you guys wont have him. I really wish he would come up here and run this country for a while.

[air_guard]

Originally posted by john9001
one more time , the whiteman did not take the land from the indian, the whiteman only wanted to share the land.

to this day the indian can (and does) own land in the united states, no one ever said the indian could not own land.

in addition to privately owned land the indian tribes own large tracts of land they can claim as soverign indian land


and before someone says the indian did not "own' anything, the indian tribes owned land and fought each other over control over the land, the worst tribe for taking land from other tribes was the souix, when the souix got the rifle and the horse they took land from other tribes and expanded their territory to the south west

Are you kidding ?
well the white man (we/us/euorpeans) did take the land and for sure didnt share it with the indians, strange to hear a american that have not read his own history.
and they got slaughtered by the "white man" too.
Did they really have a choise ?

and as a final it was not until the 60`s segretation of black and white was ended in some of the south states.


the south africans was slower they ended it in the 90`s

[Montezuma]

Originally posted by Sikboy

(Besides, Charlie don't surf)

We think that he should.

[N1kPaz]

Originally posted by john9001
one more time , the whiteman did not take the land from the indian, the whiteman only wanted to share the land.

to this day the indian can (and does) own land in the united states, no one ever said the indian could not own land.

in addition to privately owned land the indian tribes own large tracts of land they can claim as soverign indian land


and before someone says the indian did not "own' anything, the indian tribes owned land and fought each other over control over the land, the worst tribe for taking land from other tribes was the souix, when the souix got the rifle and the horse they took land from other tribes and expanded their territory to the south west

we commited war crimes against the indians that would make adolf hitler shudder. its the past and its over, but it DID happen. Our soldiers would cut the private parts from indian women and hang them on their saddle horn, they would cut the apple from indian men (both dead of course) and make tobacco pouches. You can argue that the indians were barbaric, and they were, but WE were supposed to be the civilized ones.

its over...but it happened. Hopefully we can make sure this sort of thing occurs less and less frequently in this world. Genocide is evil..no matter who does it.

im sorry if this pisses people off, but the indians were slaughtered.

[Dago]

I am afraid whoever started this little story took some liberties with it.  I suggest reading more of the transcript from the World Econmic Forum where Powell made his comment. You might discover it was the former Archbishop, he didnt mention G. Bush or empire building.

dago



QUESTION: Mr. Secretary of State, I'm George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. I'm now happily retired and here at the World Economic Forum. And I thank you very much indeed for your address and for all that you are personally doing to improve the state of the world.

 Mr. Secretary of State, at this conference, among the language that has been used has been a phrase, the difference between hard power and soft power: hard power and military power, and perhaps expressed in America as the only superpower with a grave responsibility to create and help to forward the cause of peace in the world; and then soft power, soft power which binds us all, which has something to do with values, human values and all the things that you and I passionately believe in.

 Here at WEF, we are thinking of creating a Council of 100 which includes business leaders, politicians, religious leaders -- trying to cross all of the boundaries of media and so on. That may be something that you may wish to give your support to in the days ahead.

 But I've got two questions, if I may. The first one: Do you feel that in the present situation, and I'm following on my colleague who just spoke, and regarding Iraq but also Palestine as well, that we are doing enough in drawing upon the common values expressed by soft power in uniting what is called West and the Middle East in Islam and Christianity, in Judaism and other religions?

 And would you not agree, as a very significant political figure in the United States, Colin, that America, at the present time, is in danger of relying too much upon the hard power and not enough upon building the trust from which the soft values, which of course all of our family life that actually at the bottom, when the bottom
line is reached, is what makes human life valuable?

 (Applause.)

 SECRETARY POWELL: The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of
 democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It's why we participate in all of these great international organizations.

 There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power -- and here I think you're referring to military power -- then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with.

 I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately
 after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft
 power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

 So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

 (Applause.)

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as
recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of
 whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in,
 and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace,
 to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not
 work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

[Glasses]

Powell should be Pres. of the US someday. I hope soon looks like we will need  his kind of leadership for many years to come.

[Kanth]

Many would like to have him run for president but he just refuses to do it.

Originally posted by Pongo
If you guys wont have him. I really wish he would come up here and run this country for a while.

[Cabby44]

All those mean, nasty people who killed Native Americans in the 19th Century  were 1st and 2nd generation Europeans, other Native Americans, and yes, some were even of African descent.  

Today's Indian Reservations are on some of the best and most beautiful land in the United States and are a  "Nation within a Nation".  No Native American is forced to live on a Reservation.   Native Americans live in peace with their neighbors.    Neighbors who pretty much have a rather ignorant and romanticized vision of them.

As for the Europeans and Africans of today,  their penchant for brutal genocide, racial hatred, tribal warfare, totalitarianism,  and political treachery hasn't changed much since the 19th Century.  They have, though, managed to be more efficient at it.........

Cabby

[Dowding]

lol Cabby - try to blame it on the Europeans all you want, US citizens were doing the killing and land-grabbing in the 19th century.

Talk about politically correct crap! The irony!

[lazs2]

I don't believe that any American indian tribes used the concept of land ownership until very recently... As such... we did not take anything from them.  
lazs

[Siaf__csf]

Even though I'm not an american, I'd vote Powell for president.

[BUG_EAF322]

Powell should be Pres. of the US someday. I hope soon looks like we will need his kind of leadership for many years to come.




Yes and he will do better than bush
At least he looks a lot smarter.


Maybe it's charisma or charm or what ever, bush ain't got it

[Animal]

Originally posted by BUG_EAF322


Maybe it's charisma or charm or what ever, bush ain't got it

Thats not Powell. Thats what Clinton had.
The aura that Powell emanates only comes from someone who is extremely profesional and respectable.

None of the US presidents in recent history have had it, at least not that I could sense it.

I would follow Powell to the fieriest pits of hell.

[Dead Man Flying]

For a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with his competence or political acumen, it's very unlikely that Powell will ever become president.

-- Todd/Leviathn