August 22, 2003
Westwood Federal Building Los Angeles
Duration 3:59 min.
Stream Kovac
http://www.killradio.org/stream.php/stream.m3u?sf=http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/ron_kovac_8_22_03.mp3 Thought this might be of interest.
Ron Kovac challenging Colin Powell
Colin Powell:
A Hawk With Smooth Talons
by Paul Rockwell
Oakland, California
Powell’s Propaganda Challenged
In September 1995, Colin Powell conducted a national tour to promote his autobiography, “My American Journey.” In “Target Iraq: What The News Media Didn’t Tell You”, media critics Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich recount an incident that took place in San Francisco. As Powell praised U.S. military invasions abroad, a middle-aged man, hunched in a wheelchair, shouted from the back of the room: “You didn’t tell the truth about the war in the Gulf, General.” Powell ignored the interruption. He continued to speak about the glory of the wars that brought him fame: “It is very rewarding to see this change in attitude toward the military.”
The man in the wheelchair was Ron Kovac, author of “Born On The Fourth Of July.” Struggling to be heard, he raised his voice: “I want the American people to know what the General hid from the American public during the Gulf War. They hid the casualties. They hid the horror. They hid the violence. We don’t need any more violence in our country … . We need leaders who understand the tragedy of using violence in solving our problems.”
Regarding the issues of race, Powell is duplicitous. He supports affirmative action. Far more important, however, is Powell’s support for world empire, international white supremacy. Powell’s ascendancy is associated with the suffering and deaths of thousands of innocent people of color -- civilians in Grenada whose psychiatric hospital was bombed; the Black Panamanians who lost their lives in Panama City; half a million Iraqi children killed by air raids and years of sanctions. When asked about the number of Panamanians killed by U.S. intervention, Powell said: “It isn’t a figure I think about.”
Under the Bush doctrine, countries of color, nations of the Third World, have no sovereignty, no rights, which the Anglo powers are bound to respect.
Colin Powell is hardly a moderate. He’s a hawk with smooth talons.
Paul Rockwell is a writer in the Bay Area
rockyspad@earthlink.net Published in In Motion Magazine March 11, 2003.