Actually, I think General Powell deserves credit and redeemed his legacy by stating he was on the wrong with that UN speech. What other public official has said, yes mea culpa on this tragedy??

There were some like myself who intimately followed the events leading to the Iraq War and we KNEW that was a political speech and a square peg was getting pounded into a round hole. My degree was in Middle Eastern studies and I've followed events intimately for a long time, before it became an industry, and learned a couple of Mid East languages along the way. In spite of better judgement, I worked at the State Department and remember the day General Powell left. There was real sadness throughout the Department from the rank and file to "upstairs", and in his last day there, a large crowd went outside to wish him a sincere farewell. Republican or Democrat or other party, there were people on all sides of the political spectrum who were sad to see him go.

I wouldnt attribute his rise to affirmative action, but if one wanted to -- well, then I would say this is one case where having protected categories in the government finally worked FOR the system, because in general protected categories is an abused system, failing to achieve what it was designed for - not that anyone really knows what that was supposed to accomplish without the aid of Google

It would be helpful if Mr. Ricks gave some specifics on who said this about GEN Powell and when. I googled and came up with zero hits on anyone coming out recently and connecting GEN P's rise with affirmative action. Once Mr. Ricks does that, we could read the materials and judge for ourselves whether the writer or speaker is just sore because GEN P "endorsed Obama."

But Mr. Ricks said the same thing about LTG (R) Ricardo Sanchez in "Fiasco." He suggested that LTG Sanchez was not really up to the job of Cdr, MFI, but got pushed up the ranks as good PR for Hispanics. So I don't understand the indignation that someone would suggest this about GEN P.

Mr. Ricks is pulling out some obscure commentator's opinion that no one cares about right now. Maybe Mr. Ricks just wants to make another anti-conservative smear, which is not really his style. Normally, he just comes right out with the pejorative "neocon." Or is this an attempt to shift the public focus from the disaster at Benghazi, which harldly makes this administration look good?

It is very possible that this is another shot fired in the Powell vs Neocon battle. After all, he opposed John Bolton's nomination as UN ambassador, and once remarked to the British Foreign Secretary in 2004 that the neocons in the Bush administration were "f***ing crazy."