he could have been the man who rose to that very pinnacle in 1995. both parties were recruiting him. both parties had set up an apparatus and had an office in every state in the union. and most wanted him as they wanted eyes. now, for example, post war to any decided not the wrong time. and the 2nd is the fact that he was a great american and always will be remembered by historians as a great american. that blemishes he called on his career, the presentation of the united nations, which represented the ultimate blemishes support for war. that truly was a sad and disastrous strategic decision from united states. but nonetheless, his legacy will persevere and i think historians will look on him positively not unlike the way they look on our towards marshal, in terms of military leaders. he was a great american. if a look at the 2 black american men who resume to the very top of the military and political life in the united states colon power bought a car bama both of really a sense of essential decency which has been very strong in terms of the reputation in the case of general po and lucas time, say to state where you stood alongside them as you did when he was chair of the joint staff. a was a sense of what share some of this may close salesman, around the presidency. it took advantage of, of that decency and that optimism about human nature, that general power radiated. when i 1st went to work for him in 1989, i consulted a young lady who's been working for laurie garrett sectors and navy at the time. but new power era rather well, and i knew she did, and around her fire in a town home in alexandria, virginia, she said to me, may be where it is now you would. and i said, what do you mean? and she said he can be incredibly naive about the people around him because he believes sometimes are too long and they're decent to i found that to be true. and if he had a weakness, that was almost like the achilles heel if you will. it was a fact and he thought, george bush, even dick cheney on shell and others and testified to this, to me and personal conversation on a number of occasions were fundamentally good human beings. they were just short of criminals in my view. and i'm not so sure he didn't come to that observation too late, but i'm not so sure he didn't come to some or observations. same, i could say for george tenet, the director of the cia, he had assembled around him, some of the most malevolent characters in my view and post world war 2 american history. and he was not even about some of them. but foster care powers military rec, portan, isn't for the united states. and african american can rise to the, the very top of the, of the military. as long as you did, of course, it become known for the adoption or military doctor, according to very few generals, as, as was to pro, hold port. and what message does that given the american military equality and met toxic. we thought now and i and others around us, other black journals like jewelry, specs for example, before that it was monumental achievement in that regard. but i think both of us out myself fell off in that estimation rather rapidly after the secretary. and the reason we did was because we monitored what our army and the other services too were doing with regard to what people have called affirmative action. but it wasn't infirmary the actions moultrie, simply making sure a promotion board had black officers to promote it's a constant battle on conchee, and especially when you have the record of this minority dismal that it is in this country. and the 2nd great appointment site for state, you mentioned which panel cheney rumsfeld, they were all political operators. you, you mentioned the naive it t as a as part of attractive, but nonetheless, aspect of general pose character. did he have the ability to show down that group of people? what was it said? very difficult with a young, relatively experienced president, clued his remarks to the national war college, the pre eminent military college and our structure. i 991. when he was chairman of the joint staff, he stood on the stage and bought all those carnal parade before him, sailors, soldiers, marines, airman. and he said they call me the political general. yes, they call me the political journal. guilty, guilty as charged and i'm the chairman and they a that was his own estimation of his ability to survive in such an environment. but as i said before, and one just not even today, but that was a huge part of it is belief in the basic decency and humanity and truthfulness and honesty of other people around him at that level of power was debilitating. he didn't understand when someone like don around sal lied to it repeatedly. he made excuses for i'm sure he didn't understand when a former protege of his condi rice refused to discipline the national security decision making system. because she understood if she did, she'd be taking the side of pow on occasion. and if she took her side against her shell and cheney, she would earlier late the president that she would sour her chances of being pals replacement whenever that might come. he didn't understand that 3 or 4 of these little cooperators all. busy motivated by other than the things he was motivated by were too much even for his political skills. how would you rate us has greater success as a cyclist state? do things really and most gotten a little writ in our mediate. one would be the global h i v h program which he managed to convince and i must say, president bush was inclined to beacon over chinese and others objections to add to the global h i v agent and be the u. s. h bonds. incredible is one of the reasons why bush is still revered in africa. and then the 2nd one would be something that, as i said, just hasn't got play. and that is his preservation of a good relationship with china throughout the 4 years. even though the secretary france and the vice president was tempting to start a new cold war, principal group change way beyond the president and taiwan who was seeking independence referendum and crossing one of the asian grandma. we actually had to do that almost every week for 4 years. defeat the vice president, she temps, to get taiwan to be a cautious bailey with beijing and began a really hot new coal looking up to the presentation, the infamous presentation, united nations, which of course played a very substantial and pattern how is it possible that the wasn't deal of suspicion about some of the information that general po and yourself were being fed by the intelligence services and others . you're looking at the director of central intelligence. 247 almost for 7 straight days and night. and the director of central intelligence has marshall the french israelis, the germans, jordanians, and a host of others. to convince file that father machine does have certain weapons of mass destruction, i am, most importantly, again, i can't overemphasize this, does have an active nuclear weapons program. this is what happened and only later do we understand that tenant cherry pick the french. he was stopping to cherry pick jordanians, he was talking to and so forth and was not representing those intelligence. and he's at all as state intelligence. he was representing people we could, could jo, within their ranks to give him some sort of confirmation of what he was telling about. i think in a lot, i think he out, right. why others have said to me know, he was convinced himself there was such a wealth of circumstantial evidence. i don't think so. i think he lied. i think he wanted to lie because the 1st client, the man who preserved him as director through presidential change, an unheard of thing in many respects. he was serving that 1st client and he read that 1st client mind very well. he wanted to go to more and 10, it was going to give him the evidence to do. and power got caught in that you can say we both were naive and not being able to challenge the director of central intelligence and all these other assets that were mark, convince powell, and indeed convinced surprised to vice president being one of them that father did have weapons structure, but i would argue my log into my grade. that is pretty hard to stand up all this. well. so the intelligence expertise, so to speak, marshall again you can you tell us to your knowledge at least that the british prime minister, tony blair, at that time commit himself to stand shoulder to shoulder with president bush and warner rack the year before the united nations presentation do you have any insight and prior commitments have been given by the british prime minister to the american president? yes, blair was doing things and i remember vividly a couple things he did that he directed his intelligible community to do that on managed an amplified what bush wanted to do in terms of presenting the intelligence on sodom or say, and terms or ensuring the president said that he would be with him. and finally, kind of wilkerson, would it be reasonable to say that colon powell is the greatest president that america never heart? absolutely. i think sometimes with great sadness brings tears to the corners of my eyes. how different 20020012002 would have been, has been elected and served 2 terms. we would not have had what we had. we certainly would not have had that strategic catastrophe. iraq and whomever followed . whoever followed colon probably would have been in a different set of circumstances to whether they went through $911.00 or de, went through it would have made a difference perhaps, but it would have been a different world. it would been a different empower. i'm. it's sad to think about try this after the break, but i'll, i'll be speaking to come to law. this woke us all about the current state of american politics to what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy confrontation, let it be an arms race is on, often very dramatic development only personally and getting to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successfully, very difficult time. time to sit down and talk with i think we'll put it up on those particular coordinate. healy believe you could call them push and push it in for her. even though sure somebody may sound like a few minutes a little bit. 3. see what i still love the sublet. we started at the paradox local, near and boom, for very few believe a little bit of your hope. all right, so um what you, what would be if, if you know what you discussed, i will wrap on it for you. well, thank you bye. here for a little for pretty whittaker leah from a brochure project from the start in brewer. welcome back. one year ago, with the very foundations of the american public, was shaking and the aftermath of the storming of the capitol perspective on these events. alex's into being colonel lawrence wilkerson, the former chief of staff, to the late general colin powell come a lot of focus on what now, just a year after the, the storming of the capital, the assault on the settle of american democracy stands, the republic credit that i think not, and just your use of the expression, quote, the sort of dual democracy on quote is really inaccurate. i think the congress of the united states, the legislative branch in which our founding fathers most power, will reside because it is the direct representative of the people which is after all democracy supposed to be all about is the font. but how can it be kind of focus on that? just a year after the pot fossil pop, tragic tape to popular uprising by an outgoing president. we can have opinion polls showing present, come the favorite to become the next press. the f can not be in any universe. good question. i watched cnn's report on it last night and i was stunned at how graphic they were able to be about how much he has come back. and now he will likely be the candidate for the republican date. probably be the president in 2024 . it's astonishing, but it shows you how broken our democracy is not just january. the sick is necessary for that. this whole process is, and i don't understand that what we have right now is we have the 3 bodies of power in the united states. equal power in the constitution, a whole power, the supreme court, the legislature, and exactly in the hands of or about to be in the hands of what you just described . and i'm not, i'm not be too exaggerating with regard to the supreme court. the supreme court is now in the hands of what i would call the corporate complex in america. they're also in the hands of what i would call opus de like, can follow susan. it's astonishing what we've allowed to happen to this body of our government, which above all is supposed to be independent and stand aloof from politics and from partisan mongering, if you will. and yet here they are representative of the very thing i'm talking about. so i meant the future or this democracy if it even can make all of them, obviously on the path that it's walking right now. i don't see how it's going to be the president joe biden, and the can't be any more streetwise president in terms of knowing, is a way of own our own congress. and given his experience, how can it be unfold the power of the presidency? all the, the knowledge that president biden as accumulated over the years, but they, he cannot navigate apparently successfully his way around that all we still to get the best to come from a job, but this is an interim. and what i just said, in some respects, it, as trump would say, donald trump would say it's an astonishing interregnum. it's an illegal interregnum . what happened is biting is against what i just said is against the court on the one hand and the legislature on the other. as long as the legislatures in my hands of mitch mcconnell, which is really true still is, he's not going to be able to get anything done. and as he is enabled, unable to get anything done, his polls are going to drop and drop and drop. and the american people are not gonna reward him with any kind of claim, let alone reelection, or is brenda his successors reelection whether it be higher. so remember, so we're headed into that and he's going down like the titanic as we head into. but how about the republican party, the grand old party, i mean, cannot be your limit to your view that the former president trump also represents the future. the must be forces before republicanism, say, well, perhaps, as a no tentative way forward. i think there are some republicans around the periphery, if you will, particularly out west where environment, clean water and such motivate them are not fully engaged, but they aren't gonna survive unless they appear to be. and that appearance is going to coat and glue everyone together. i think we're looking at a republican party is become exactly what george washington predicted. the factions call parties would become more interested on a 247 basis and it's all survival. it's all power. broadening said, is the country the country be damned from that perspective. and that's what we're looking at, and we're looking at it in all 3 branches. go and put this old us meeting for american geo politics. as, as the level still and dominant superpower and ben doesn't mean the america is going to confront china and asia, confront russia and europe, confront americans in america was what's happening with the, the geopolitical rule of the, of the world super. we don't need this tension with china. we don't need this tension with burton and russia. much of it is our own fault or missteps that we made from bill clinton on what we've got it and what we're doing rather than trying to tampa down these latest diplomatic standing is we're exacerbating the so called pseudo color revolution and conflict started the perfect example that reminds me what we tried to do in order. this is not the way to do that. and yeah, they're doing it. it's almost as if they have this stereotype and biden would be the one to patch way from the last days of the cold war. and the early days in post cold war period says, as bush said in the 2002 national security strategy, george w bush. we can't allow anybody an inch. we have to smack them if they take an edge toward our prerogatives. and by the way, we identify whether it be in ukraine caused on anywhere in the world. but anyone is going to gain a march on us. we stop them, stop them with sanctions from the military. however, we can do it. but this is the behavior of an empire trying to preserve the status quo, at any consequence. it's a disaster all most is and could surpass greatly work to turn nuclear the domestic one. you've expressed concern about the suggestion from some elements and the military that nuclear weapons could be a feasible, practical weapon for conflict is a real issue. so body of thoughtless amalgam the in power circles. and then the united states, it is and i've been privy to a number of places thing. thanks and actually within the military ranks. well, i think we know pretty well from experience and thank tank re, if you will, that escalation is inevitable. and so you start using it to wrap and you're going down that road to annihilation. whether you do it with china or you do it, russia or whatever. we still russia are arsenals together, probably number over 8910000. that's clearly enough to probably destroy the human race, and if not to actual blast and radiological fall out through the nuclear winter that would occur after such an exchange to the work societally you've known for your acute her a observations. i'm quite pessimistic analysis of the developments and american politics and geo politics. can you point to any signs of optimism and hope and the american body polity? other developments were where she tugged into the say, well below. perhaps that's going to it to take the greatest. deborah, catholic experiments and world history on to her, our new and better plane. i can, and it's called the d most, it's called the people i'm involved in and i know other movements that are ongoing right now. one is a constitutional amendment to partially eliminate citizens united the decision by our supreme court disastrous decision, they put so much polluting money and politics. and we've got 2122 states already. you need 3 quarters of the states to ratify constitutional women. and i've had people say, well, i mean like, but i'm in the constitutional law. on contrary in the 20th century, we amended it several times. if you know your history, allow women to vote, to put prohibition in place to an all prohibition. we have done it before, we can do it again. and there are other things like this that are coming from the grassroots and the grass tops. that give me a great deal of hope that our to proceed not dead yet. and then eventually we will achieve some of these purposes and it will be long after i'm great probably, but we'll see a resurrection of what is supposed to be the essence of democracy. the people now there's a counter that 75000000 others seem to be on this circuit of, i'll believe anything. donald trump says, most of which is a lie, but they can be countered. there is a small majority of americans who don't feel that way. and i'd say it's between 55 and 60 percent and another 10 percent is probably persuadable if you do the right things and present them with the right opportunities. i think we get it back. it's going to take a fight that's going to take some time, but i think we can get it back. i'm not optimistic. and alternately, we will. that's just me though. i'm fully willing to stand back and say i under estimated the people they didn't do it. i won't be here to do that, but i'd like to anticipate the possibility or a revolutionise good full estate from time to time in a positive direction. cardinal loans wilkerson. thank you so much for joining me. once again on the alex salmon show an extra meal. the evil that men 2 lives after them, their good is oft in towed with their bones by any standard common powers, an outstanding and grain breaking military leader and 2nd tier state. however, he knew himself that his career would be forever tarnished by the infamous presentation to the united nations in justification of the war in iraq. for all that, there are few have a dispute that people have his caliber. * indecency, i'd in fundamentally short supply in america and then just about every other nation's politics. meanwhile, i me a year after the part farcical impact tragic champion attempt at a popular qu, remarkably, it has a democrat incumbent who is it b and the former president could prowls around my reliable plotting his political comeback. it is the scene of near desperation to many democratic lawmakers are looking to the attorney general medic, garland, or new york attorney leticia deems to provide salvation by prosecuting the donald for insurrection or possible bank and insurance fraud. with trump now a solid favorite to become the next president. it might be better to work out how to confront and defeat the former president, politically. for now, for myself, alex and all that issue. thank you for watching. stay safe. i'm hope to see you all again next week. ah. with is your media reflection of reality? in the world transformed? what will make you feel safe? isolation, whole community? are you going the right way or are you being led to somewhere? direct? what is true? what is great in the world corrupted you need to descend, ah, so join us in the depths or remain in the shallows. so called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the u. s. officials were basically designed as techniques to break down the human mind. if you force a human being to stay in a certain position doesn't take very long to the pain involved to become absolutely excruciating, but nobody's lane finger on. you are doing it to yourself. we started adopting those techniques when i was station in mosul. among them were stress position, sleep deprivation, a therm. yeah. there's already beginning to be evidence that these old techniques are now being used on immigrant children. whatever you do or more comes from home. nobody has been held accountable for the torture that happened in the past. the moral authority that made america with the shimmer of effective interrogation. ah, the russian cupboard boxing sputnik v, demonstrate strong protection against the recently amount on the phone strain according to a new italian study. it also produces more antibodies on the funds, a jap, criminal negligence. that's at least our rushes for ministry describing the work of some western journalists seeking to mislead the public into believing russia was for invited ukraine, for continuous denials from officials in moscow. with declassified video shows the seconds before a u. s. a drone kills 10 afghan civilians, many of them children who are playing on the street and one of the most appalling incidents in the box withdrawal from the country. joe bought no, says he makes no apologies whatsoever, but it is all just pending.

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