Colin Powell 'Killer Lines'

[seafuryfan]

Recently while US Secretary of State Colin Powell was at
the UN, an Iraqi television reporter asked him a sarcastic question, and Powell, without missing a beat gave the following answer, and left him speechless.

" Mr Secretary, isn't true that only about 13% of all Americans
under the age of 25 know where Iraq is on a map?"

"Yes, that's true - but unfortunately for you - they're all
Marines."

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying that "Over the years the US has sent many of its great young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for is enough to bury those that did not return."

Powell's comment pretty much silenced the room

[SphereSpredda]

The first black President maybe????? He IS sharp as hell!

[fobotcso]

What spectacular put-downs!

[Woff1965]

Unlikely he will be President. There was a suggestion he would have stood as a Vice-Presidential candidate but Mrs Powell didn't fancy it on the grounds he would be too high a profile target for assassination.

Lots of right wing nutters, nutters and members of the Klan would love to put a bullet in him plus a lot of them work in the White House.

[Jackonicko]

Never mind Colin for Pres, what a pity the septics didn't elect John McCain as President. Honest, intelligent and packed with intergrity, and right wing enough for most of those who voted for Bush, while decent enough to win the respect of the Liberals, if not their unqualified support. Oh yes, and a fighter pilot too.

But perhaps too idealistic and insufficiently 'biddable' for those who pay the piper?

Am I alone in thinking him the best POTUS the yanks ever OR never had, Republican or Democrat?

[Hilico]

Perhaps there was once a time when the top politicians were such intelligent people that being able to issue lightning-quick retorts was a by-product of their ability.

And perhaps in these days of sound-bite TV, the lightning-quick retorts are all they require.

[Chuffer Chadley]

Indeed, the one-liners are great. But it still seems to me that he completely ballsed-up his most important (politically, at least) job to date- the 'persuasion' of the Securtiy Council et al over Iraq.

He is yet to convince me.

Ciao!

[Checkboard]

Over the years the US has sent many of its great young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for is enough to bury those that did not return.

... well, if you ignore the revolutionary war, in which the initial 13 states took England's holding west to the Mississippi river in 1783,

... and the Texan revolt in 1835 against the Mexican government (remember the Alamo!)

... the Mexican war 1846-48, claiming the South West (incl. California) and the territory north of the Rio Grande,

... and re-claiming the territory of the Confederacy (considered an independant nation) in the Civil War 1861 - 1865

... and the Indian Wars in the Western Territories 1817 - 1890

... and Cuba (given independance in 1902), Puerto Rico, Guam and the Phillipines (given independance in 1946) in the Spanish-American war of 1898 (icl American Samoa and the Midway Islands.)

... and the "theft" of the Hawaiian Islands in 1898 :hmm:

[DrSyn]

. . . . But enough of recent history, Checkboard. What about the old days?

[Checkboard]

:p hey! Just pointing out that the USA went through as much imperialist expansion as they could get away with - until they ran out of territory to expand into. While it wasn't their fault they were a bit late in the empire building game, they now control more territory than the UK ;)

[T_richard]

Checkboard

............they now control more territory than the UK........

This is coming from the Empire that the sun never sets on?? Am I mistaken about that?

Besides this is not about American or British imperialism. It's about "bon mots" or pearls of wisdom from Gen Colin Powell. Can you top his one liners?;)

[Jackonicko]

StbdD,

I didn't know you cared, sweetie. But having my ball (or balls) fondled by chaps (even lovely butch ones who get so macho and cross about mere banter) isn't really my thing. Sorry.

Did I use the word septic? Crikey! What a deadly insult. And yank as well. My oh my what a provocative post that was. Just as well I didn't throw around tired cliches about colonialism as well.

:rolleyes:

"Heck, I'm easy, I may have missed your point entirely so feel free to enlighten me about those nasty Yank savages."

Checkboard's point was that US foreign policy has sometimes diverged from the very rosy view expressed by Powell. Only sometimes, in my view, and generally the USA can be proud of having followed an ethical foreign policy (certainly historically better than us!) and of avoiding the most cynical realpolitik. But perhaps not in Grenada, Cuba, Vietnam, etc.

[Checkboard]

Hi StbdD!

I wasn't saying that modern countries like England, France, Spain, Holland etc etc didn't pursue territories amoungst the stone and bronze age cultures of the world - I was just pointing out that the USA wasn't born within it's current borders, as Mr Powell's statement implied. :D

Perhaps his comments about "not asking for land" would appear more ironic to you if you had American Indian ancestry? :hmm:

[Kiting for Boys]

Helibloke - I was told that the Irish fought for the British Empire, the Scots ran it and the English kept the money....

On Colin Powell, I recall a killer line that if his father had emigrated to the UK rather than the US and the young Colin had joined the Army, he might have made RSM.

At least the pronunciation would be correct.

[moggie]

Didn't I hear somewhere that Mr Powell's granny calls him "Coll-in", rather than "Co-lin"?

As for "only asking for enough land to bury their dead" - they didn't ask for the land that they took in the examples checkboard refers to, they took it! In much the same way that we (Britiain) took many other countries, I might add, before the septics get upset at a one sided point of view!

If you examine your own history (some of us may have more material to cover than others), no-one has clean hands.

I have an Irish ancestor who fought for the Royal Marines in the American War of Independence (Revolutionary War) - I believe he was credited with doing more for the American cause than the British!

[Jackonicko]

StbdD,

Do take a chill pill, dude! (I can't supply one, I'm afraid)

Or do you need to get laid? (Not my bag, baby, but I'm sure you'll find someone if you calm down and stop being quite so aggressive).

Moggie,

I don't think he noticed that you used the term septic, so if we keep quiet perhaps he'll calm down and stop challenging everyone to fights. Do you think he's insecure about his masculinity/sexuality, or just 14 years old? ;)

[moggie]

Jacko, maybe we should offer to kiss and make up - then we will be able to judge by his reaction!

Do you want to do the kiss or wear the make-up!

[BlueWolf]

What a horrible thought, on either account!!:yuk: :yuk:
Top banter, though:D

[Jackonicko]

I guarantee that he won't think so......

Moggie, dahling. Same as usual I'd think.

[skua]

Moggie

You are right - he changed the pronunciation of his name when he was a kid. I am currently reading his (ghosted) autobigraphy, which is very interesting. He obviously has huge talent (as well as the vanity and self-confidence to rise to the top).


Skua

[Checkboard]

Of course you should always be damn careful about what you read on the internet - terrible place for mis-quotes and urban legends:

The first quote (about the percentage of Americans knowing the location of Iraq) is an urban legend (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/powell.htm). It was a Doonsbury comic strip joke, based on a real survey, which has since been mis-atributed.

The second quote has a fair basis in fact, though. What Colin Powell actually said: (http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/powell.php)

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace.

Much better statement, and I should have been careful enough to check the source before posting!:O

[moggie]

I know that very few septics can find Iraq on a map, but can you blame them? After all, they are all taught what the Iraqis did to the USAF at Pearl Harbour in 1953, so why should they care?

[West Coast]

I guess that's supposed to be funny.

[willbav8r]

And it is spelt harbor. Well, here anyway......

[Ali Barber]

I thought it was the Germans who bombed Pearl Harbo(u)r? I'm sure I saw it in a movie - Animal House - that was made by the Americans so it must be true!

[SASless]

Moggie....

That is the beauty of the new precision weapons....a school leaver somewhere in the good ol' USA can type the GPS coordinates into the system....and the dinosaur B-52 drives by somewhat close...and it is "doom on you time!" anywhere in the world. He doesn't have to know where it is....just be able to read well enough to type the letters and numbers.....by the way...you have the coords of your house handy?

West Coast....now that would be funny....Moggie typing away on his puter....strong whistling sound....and the kettle not on.....and "Bang!"....the Pub three blocks away goes up in smoke. We could blame it on the Ordnance Survey or tell the world that Moggie had dyslexia and swapped some numbers around.

Sorry, Moggie....if you don't find that funny! By the way...how many JDAM's the RAF drop this go around?

[BEagle]

Indeed so. But Someone decided that we wouldn't ever need heavy bombers again, nor would we need an East of Suez presence....... Got that right, didn't they.

Good speech from Tommy Franks; effectively telling the politicians that if you want to walk the walk, you've got to do more than just talk the talk.......

Two lumps please - and not in Boston Harbo(u)r!

[BANANASBANANAS]

Not from Colin Powell but stormin Norman Schwarzkop. Just prior to hostilities with the french refusing to sanction a UN attack on Iraq, he was asked how he felt about going to war without the french.

His reply?

"Son, Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion."

Exit one speechless interviewer.

[Captain Gadget]

The discussion about co-ordinates does bring to mind an Army aviation anecdote (no offence to the ARSSE brigade, I was just in the Army myself when I heard it...)

Sgt pilot and Cpl observer are told to go and pick up a bigwig in their helo. To this end, they are given the grid reference of a landing site, and a phone number to ring when they get there so that said bigwig may be duly alerted to their presence.

So off they go. On arrival at the grid reference, they find that it is a parade ground. Nothing at all unusual in this for our intrepid aviators (Army blokes, remember) - except that on this occasion there is a parade going on on it. A big one. Still, they've got a job to do, so after a fair bit of low hovering the assembly below is scattered to the edges of the square and the helo can at last land.

The Cpl observer hops out and runs to the guardroom to make the call. A couple of minutes later, he reappears, stony-faced.

'Let's get out of here', he says to the Sgt pilot.

As they lift off, the pilot asks his crewman what all the fuss is about.

"Sarge, we just landed at the telephone number and I just phoned the grid reference."

[BlueWolf]

Aha, Captain Gadget...

That sounds suspiciously like the time when - I think - the Infinite Improbability Drive on the starship 'Heart of Gold' delivered Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent, Zaphod Beelbebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android to a sector of the universe whose coordinates were exactly the same as the phone number of a flat in Islington where Arthur once went to party where he met a very nice girl whom he completely failed to get off with....(she of course turned out to be Tricia McMillan, or Trillian, who did in fact get off with Zaphod Beeblebrox, at an infinite improbability factor of something astronomical)

:D

[West Coast]

It was actually marvin the martian and he had a score to settle with us earthlings, something about ruining his view.

[BahrainLad]

Apparently, with Iraq, terror, Enron, economy, Sars, United, Halliburton on his mind, George Bush still manages 8 hours of sleep a night, quote "like a baby".

When Powell was told of this, he said, "I also sleep like a baby. Every four hours I wake up screaming."

[Checkboard]

Sorry, Norman Schwarzkopf didn't say " . . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.", Jed Babbin did (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/babbin.htm), a former deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, during a 30 January 2003 appearance on the political talk show Hardball.

[moggie]

SASless - don't give up the day job.

No idea on RAF and JDAM however, our indigenously designed/produced Storm Shadow performed faultlessly.

In English, it is "Harbour" - and a friend of mine who worked at the Pentagon on exchange found US produced maps dating from between the wars that spelt it that way.