A Man Alters the Course of His Life

Something like that could have happened only in an American movie: heart-breaking, liberating scenes after an endless showdown; the last, decisive force; and then a change for the better: a typical movie personage alters the course of his life, because old tricks and purposes no longer satisfy him, and so he throws himself dramatically onto his opponent’s side. He does all that in order to come to terms with himself, having spent a long time on the wrong course and having finally noticed that something wasn’t right with all those tricks and purposes. “This is something I should have done a long time ago,” these newly righteous fellows always say, as they follow the script of another run-of-the mill scenario.

Surrounded by cameras, Colin Powell repeated precisely this scenario. Powell is a Republican, former Secretary of State, and most importantly, the politician who, in February 2003, explained before the U.N. Security Council why the United States should start the war in Iraq. Powell justified that decision with evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; that evidence was later proven wrong. Last Sunday, on the American television, this same Powell announced that he would give his vote on November 4th to the Democratic candidate Barack Obama: “And he knows,” Powell said, “that this is a moment where we all need to come together as one nation — young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Republican and Democrat.”

An End to Rumors

Whoever watched Powell, a son of Jamaican immigrants and a 71-year-old retired soldier, on Meet the Press, observed a politician who spoke out and liberated himself – a politician who finally reached the state of self-realization. Notwithstanding his speech at the U.N. Security Council, there was a time when the Powell Doctrine existed; it stated that military forces should be deployed only as a measure of last resort. In fact, since 2005, Colin Powell has been describing his presentation at the U.N. Security Council as a blemish on his career. In that respect, however, he has been mostly alone. When asked again, in May 2008, about the fate of weapons of mass destruction, President Bush responded only: “I was told that they had weapons of mass destruction.”

It is against the backdrop of this laconic and vague political rhetoric, devoid of any form of responsibility, that Colin Powell declares his word. He got involved with Iraq; now he wants to make a contribution to the reconstruction of America. He is trying to change his life. He wants America to change its life. For this reason, he needed a show – just like the one he staged on Sunday.