Colin Powell made a shocking revelation on National Public Radio last week. While he would not give a date when all the troops would be home, Powell said that Americans could begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqis take on a larger security role. Bush later refuted these comments in an extensive interview with the Washington Posts.

Powell has been seen as the red headed stepchild of the administration.

Members of the Bush Administration have long sparred with Powell. Powell has been seen as the red headed stepchild of the administration. This is mainly because many of them are afraid that it might be racist to call him a black sheep. Many members of the administration come from the business world and are afraid that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and decorated combat veteran could not act in a brutal enough fashion to handle the War on Terror.

In his Washington Post interview, Bush said that the US military would pull out of Iraq “as quickly as possible.” He went on to say, "The way I would put it is, American troops will be leaving as quickly as possible, but they won't be leaving until we have completed our mission."

"Well, we had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 election," Bush said.

Bush went on to say that the American people had backed his management of the war on terror at the ballot box. "Well, we had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 election," Bush said. "And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and they chose me, for which I'm grateful." Unlike his other speeches about the election, Bush did not mention the service record or liberal attitudes of John Kerry.

Many wonder why Bush would go out on such a limb as to challenge the opinion of a man who is quite obviously superior to him in every respect. The answer is simple: Jealousy. Powel not only rated an NPR interview before Bush’s inaugural event, but also Powell’s chief deputy Rich Armitage has been on NPR recently as well. Bush was obviously upset at only rating a Washington Post interview, as it is well known that he does not read newspapers.

Bush took heavy flack when, in 2003, he claimed that he did not read the newspapers, but was very unhappy with the way they had covered his administration. Bush said that he preferred being briefed by Condoleezza Rice to reading the newspaper, which led many analysts to believe that he needed Rice to read the paper to him. Despite these allegations of illiteracy, a recent poll showed that 76% of the country was satisfied that Bush could read at a fourth grade level.

posted by NewsBlog 5000  # Monday, January 17, 2005