Hare: I was wrong about Powell. He lied
Sir David Hare has rewritten his play "Stuff Happens", because he no longer feels that Colin Powell who was "represented as a liberal hero", is deserving of that role.
"In the [subsequent] US production he was a tragic hero. I now believe that Powell was lying when he presented [the weapons of mass destruction] evidence to the UN.
"This is, I admit, very contentious, and is in the face of repeated denials by Powell," he added. "But I think he had grave reservations about whether the 45 minutes claim was true ... he was tricked into going to the UN by George Bush."
The role of Colin Powell is one that historians will long argue over.
I, like many others on the left, had always regarded him as the acceptable face of the Bush administration.
However, when the moment for genuine dissent came, he rolled over and played dead.
Now I know, from reading many of Powell's statements, that he puts loyalty to leadership before any other quality. As an ex-army man there may even have been some honour in his mind to holding such a position.
However, there were many of us who admired his apparent stance to stand up to the lies of Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz. The disappointment when he capitulated and went to the UN with such shaky "evidence" was profound.
There are times when loyalty is a good and honourable thing, but there are times when dissent would serve the greater good.
At the defining moment of his life, Powell's nerve failed him.
He remains, in my opinion, a good and noble man; but in order to be a great man would have required him to put conscience before duty.
He didn't. And that failure will forever taint the memory of his time in public office.
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