This is a great interview with Colin Powell. I don't necessarily agree with all his views but wouldn't it be great to have a leader like him taking the lead in policy issues nationally and internationally. Take some time to read this if you can.
Excerpts from the interview:
About the administration's "war on terror":
Let’s show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That’s why I want to see Guantánamo closed. It’s so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we’re worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.
About whether he'll vote for a Democrat like Barack Obama or a Republican:
That’s right. I did not. Because I’ve been voting now for almost fifty years, and I’ve always supported the person I thought was best. I’ve voted Democratic, I’ve voted Republican. I’m going to vote for the best person.
About the supposed "Chinese threat":
My friends in China tell me, “We know you love the idea of Jeffersonian democracy, but we don’t know how to manage 1.3 billion people using such a system, and we’re not going to try.” Their political system will become more liberal over time. But in my lifetime, it will not become what we call a democracy. And I’m not sure I lose any sleep over that. I want the 1.3 billion Chinese people under some kind of control that allows them to better their lives economically and not fall apart. We need to be patient.
America could not survive without immigration. Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy. That’s the country my parents came to. That’s the image we have to portray to the rest of the world: kind, generous, a nation of nations, touched by every nation, and we touch every nation in return. That’s what people still want to believe about us. They still want to come here. We’ve lost a bit of the image, but we haven’t lost the reality yet. And we can fix the image by reflecting a welcoming attitude—and by not taking counsel of our fears and scaring ourselves to death that everybody coming in is going to blow up something. It ain’t the case.
Read the full interview here:
