Colin Powell - Saint or War Criminal? By Martin Deane 15th NOV 2004

After the near beatification of Ronald Reagan recently, it falls to the peace movement to do the honours once again on the occasion of Colin Powell's recent resignation. Colin Powell was the official moderate, and national security adviser, under Reagan. Let's take Africa. During the Reagan years, there was a policy called constructive engagement.

There was very strong opposition to apartheid across America and Congress even passed legislation banning aid and support for South Africa. The Reaganites - and Colin Powell was a key player - as he was in making War on Iraq happen despite no evidence - they to find devious ways to get around the congressional legislation in order to in fact increase their trade with South Africa. The reason given was that South Africa was defending itself against what was identified during Powell's tenure, 1988, as one of the "more notorious terrorist groups" in the world, namely Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Let's also remember that this was during the First War on Terror as announced by Reagan. During those eight years, U.S.-backed South Africa, British-backed as well, killed an estimated million and a half people just in the surrounding countries, Angola and Mozambique, putting aside what was going on in South Africa. That's in Reagan's years and with Powell being a high official, and at the end, the national security adviser (with John Negroponte his deputy, now ambassador to Iraq).

Over Nicaragua we remember President Reagan, who proudly declared, "I am a Contra," and then went on to compare the Contras as "the moral equivalent of the founding fathers." This was the mercenary CIA-backed army that mercilessly attacked Nicaragua, the death toll 30,000. These led to condemnation of America by the World Court in 1988, For "unlawful use of force", the closest law gets to defining international terrorism. So did two UN security council resolutions, save the US veto. This history was all blocked at once so one may forgive people forgetting. Looking back at the Reagan presidency doesn't mean we actually have to look back. Many of the same people who populated his administration are in the George W. Bush administration now: James Baker, Elliot Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Colin Powell, John Poindexter, John Negroponte, to name a few.

That was one part of the massive international terrorist campaign that the Reaganites carried out in the 1980's under the pretense they were fighting a war on terror. They declared a war on terror in 1981 with pretty much the same rhetoric that they used when Bush re-declared it in September 2001. It was a murderous terrorist war. It devastated Central America, had horrendous effects elsewhere in the world.

In the case of Nicaragua, it was so extreme that they were condemned by the World Court, by two supporting Security Council Resolutions that the U.S. had to veto. They then rejected the court judgment and then escalated the war to the point where finally the effects were extraordinary. Per capita deaths in Nicaragua would be comparable to about 2.5 million in the United States, which as they have pointed out is greater than the total number of casualties in all U.S. wars, and what's left of the society is a wreck. Since the U.S. took over again, it's gone even more downhill. Now the second poorest in the hemisphere after Haiti. Recent health administration statistics show that about 60% of children under two are suffering from severe anemia caused by malnutrition and probable brain damage. It's a real victory. You can understand why Colin Powell and others are so proud of it. We know about Powell's showcase event at the UN Security Council last year, failing to persuade the UN of a good case for attacking Iraq. The most dramatic case was Turkey. In Turkey 95 percent of the population was opposed to the war and everybody was surprised: By a slim, small vote the parliament voted to go along with 95 percent of the population. Colin Powell immediately told them, they're gonna lose all their aid, Paul Wolfowitz, the great visionary, condemned the Turkish military because they didn't intervene to prevent the government from this horrible mistake. He ordered them to apologize to the United States and recognize that their task is to help America.

This is the real calibre of Colin Powell, a soldier following orders. The others are hardliners, apparently, so we know what to expect for the next four years. Perhaps justice is merely the triumph of history over spin. Regards,

Martin J Deane Martin is Secretary of Hull Stop the War www.stopthewar.fsnet.co.uk

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