So Secretary of State Colin Powell has decided to resign. Good for him. The trouble is he completely lost all his credibility by not resigning a long time ago.
Powell’s problem has always been that he’s a very principled man, but loyalty to his Commander-in-Chief is his most basic principle. That’s too bad, because he was sworn to serve and protect the country, not the president.
Powell should have resigned when the “enemy combatants” went to Guantanamo, with the understanding that the president, by allowing that to happen, was in violation of the Geneva Conventions and was putting U.S. troops at risk of being treated the same way.
If not then, Powell should have resigned when the Bush administration asked him to lie in front of the U.N. about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Though he claims now that the intelligence he used for that hearing was the best available, his military experience and the word of the international inspectors should have told him otherwise. The Powell we get in Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack knew better, understood that Iraq was not going to be the cakewalk that Bush and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz envisioned, knew that if we broke it, we’d own it. Instead of allowing his resignation to send a message to an administration deaf to his reasoned warnings, instead of trumpeting it before the World and the American people, Powell decided instead to shill for his Commander-in-Chief.
We’re still paying the price for Powell’s misplaced loyalties. So I think it’s good that Powell is resigning. It’s just far too late to matter much now.
From Gold-Star Correspondent Hezekiah Allen Taylor:
“Experts note that the casual use of antibiotics for everything including the flu and the common cold – against which antibiotics are useless – is fueling the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Even antibacterial soaps containing triclosan have come under fire for creating an environment where triclosan resistant bacteria can flourish.”
I grew up on a farm where you got dirty and covered in every type of bacteria/nastiness. We didn’t go to the doctor, and I’ve only had antibiotics twice in my lifetime (after the only two surgeries I needed). I attribute my general good health to this one fact: I do NOT let the doctor prescribe me ANY antibiotics or pills unless absolutely necessary (and they try a LOT, especially with my migraines). The body needs to be able to fight off infection/disease/pain itself, and throwing it out of whack with drugs only makes it harder to come back in the future.
If we keep on this drugged-up, “pill-poppin’ for health” track, you’re going to see a major plague from drug-resistant diseases in the very near future. Why doctors aren’t letting cold and flu patients get over this stuff themselves is just beyond me. Most of you will NOT die. My advice for Western civilization: Suck it up a little. Yeesh.
And I haven’t even delved into what excess doctor trips/prescriptions and hospital visits do to increase your insurance premiums. You may not go to the doctor unless you have to, but I guarantee you can name someone who goes if they have a freakin’ hangnail. And then gets put on antibiotics for possible infection.
More on resistant bacteria:
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