Not at all. Although I might be saying that Powell, as he has been since he made Captain, is out of his depth.
And, because he is not a threat, is simply tolerated by State and being used by that systemically un-and-anti-American domestic-enemy agency as a TDY Useful Idiot.
The State Brahmana, the straight-line bastard-offspring of the Communist Party of America, [Witness Alger Hiss, Compound to the Power of Infinity!] comprises two parts. At its core are the Absolutely and Actively Evil. These obscenely-elitist creatures hold our elected representatives in the utmost contempt and Absolutely believe it their duty to protect America's enemies from the likes of Our Beloved FRaternal Republic's President, George Walker Bush. Whose blind spot -- and indeed whose family's blind spot -- has long been accupied by former general Colin Powell.
Peripherally, state comprises its core manifestation of Evil's carefully selected power-and-ego-driven and mindlessly-dullard and/or likely to be easily-compromised and thus controllable [They are disproportionately sexually deviant] fifth and sixth raters, who man the stupendously Potentate-Palace-like outposts -- and report back to the Foggy Bottom-based Enemy Core.
Affirmative-action's most visible failure, Peter-Principle's Poster-boy, Powell, has but joined the ranks of the latter as a tolerable but nonetheless "TDY" useful idiot.
Never for even a millisecond forget that the Power Lust -- rampant in Powell -- is the Noxious Weed the florishes ONLY in the vacant lots of empty minds. We should especially not delude ourselves into believing that even one of Our Nation's enemies, foreign or DOMESTIC -- EVER forget that Truism.
[Don't believe me? Re-examine the 'photos and the film of such other execrablely-dangerous dullards as the Clintons, the Gores the Richard Hollbrooks, the Jimmah Carters and the Notat Albrights as they waddle along beside and are captivated such of the world's more obscene mass-murderers as the Kims and the Castros and the members of "china's" Jiang Gang. Look at their star-struck facial expressions and their body language. Absolutely and desperately-dangerously captivated -- every last one of them. For decades and still, almost every day, I see the same enthralled look on the faces of those of our "representatives" I meet here in Asia and elsewhere in the world. Every day!]
Never forget, either, that in the conduct of its government-to-government International Affairs, America's worst problem derives from its greatest attribute.
In despotic, totalitarian, gangsters-posing-as-politicians run "countries," the "government" is by far the number one employer. Streets ahead of even the second best "job" offerer and, more often than not, the only employer worthy of the application of that title. [In America there are more than a quarter million more attractive employers -- and many many more honest "jobs" to be had]
Any and all of those foreign "governments'" representatives who get to deal with the mind-numbed robots ever sent out by State to "represent" US, are the intellectual creme de la creme.
Thus, even in such hell holes as Syria and North Korea and Burma/myanmar -- let alone in "china" and Russia and Singapore and Indonesia -- "our representatives" are used by the foreigners -- and by the domestic enemy at State's core -- as conduits between those two enemy strongholds for Our Nation's enemies' points of view. Like their close allies, the CNN "reporters," they are noteworthy only for their mindless toeing of our enemies' propagandists' lines -- and for their willingness to carry home to our domestic enemies, our foreign enemies' instructions.
Like the one passed from Damascus that saw to it just last weekend that the obscene spectacle of Powell, properly enthralled of course, sitting down with that manifestation of evil's "government" happened on Syria's orders and on Syria's timetable.
And on Tony Blair's, Gerhardt Shroeder's, Jacques Chirac's -- and Vladimir Putin's!
Best ones -- Brian