he was a man who rose to the pinnacle of military power and just short of the pinnacle of civilian power and the largest most powerful empire in the world. and he could have been the man who rose to that very pinnacle in 1995. both parties were recruiting him. both parties had set up an apparatus. they had an office in every state in the union and most wanted him as they wanted out, for example, post world war 2. and he decided not to run time. and the 2nd is the fact that he was a great american and always will be remembered by historians, a great american. that blemishes he called on his career, the presentation of the united nations, which represented the ultimate blemishes support for a war. that truly was a sad and disastrous strategic decision from united states. but nonetheless,

his legacy will persevere and i think historians will look on him positively not unlike the way they look on our towards marshal, in terms of military leaders. he was a great american. it's a little too black american men who wrestled to the very top of the military and political life and the native states colon power bought a car bama both of really a sense of essential decency which has been very strong in terms of the reputation in the case of general po and luke, it's time to state where you stood alongside them. as you did when he was chair of the joint chiefs of staff. it was a sense in which some of this may co salesman, around the presidency. it took advantage of, of that decency and that optimism about human nature, that general pow radiated when i 1st went to work for him in 1989. i consulted

a young lady was working for laurie gary sectors and navy at the time. but new power era rather well, and i knew she did, and around her fire in a town home in alexandria, virginia, she said to may be, where is no, you would. and i said, what do you mean? and she said he can be incredibly naive about the people around him because he believes sometimes far too long and they're decent. i found that to be true. and if he had a weakness, that was almost like the achilles heel if you will. it was in fact and he died george bush, even dick cheney on shell and others and testified to this to me and personal conversation on a number of occasions were fundamentally good human beings. they were just short of criminals. in my view, i'm not so sure he didn't come to that observation too late,

but i'm not so sure. and he didn't come to some or observations. same i could say, for george tenet, the director of the cia he had assembled around him. some of the most malevolent characters in my view and post world war 2 american history. and he was not eve about some of them. but the foster care powers military rec porton is for the united states. and african american can rise to the, the very top of the, of the military as long. i'm the date, of course, become known for the adoption of military doctor. according to very few generals, as, as was the pol how port and what message does that given the american military quality and met toxicity. we thought now and i and others around us, other black journals like jury specs, for example,

before that it was monumental achievement in that regard. but i think both of us out myself fell off in that estimation rather rapidly after the secretary. and the reason we did was because we monitored what our army and the other services too were doing with regard to what people have called a firm and of action. but it wasn't from the action in moultrie was simply making sure a promotion board had black officers to promote. it's a constant battle conchee. and especially when you have the record of this dismal that it is in this country. len and the 2nd great appointment, a site for state. you mentioned which panel cheney rumsfeld. they were all political operators. you mentioned naive a t as a as part of attractive, but nonetheless,

aspect of general pose character. did we have the ability to show down that group of people? what was it said? very difficult with a young, relatively experienced president, clued his remarks to the national war college, the pre eminent military college, and our structure by 991. when he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he stood on the stage and bought all those carnal parade before him. sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen. and he said they call me the political general. yes, they call me the political general guilty, guilty as charged. and i'm the chairman and they, and i was, is own estimation of his ability to survive in such an environment. but as i said before, and it was just not even today, but that was a huge part of it is belief in the basic decency and humanity and truthfulness. honesty of other people around him at that level of power was

debilitating. he didn't understand when someone like don rumsfeld lied to it repeatedly, he made excuses for i'm sure he didn't understand when a former protege and his condi rice refused to discipline the national security decision making system. because she understood if she did, she'd be taking the side of pow on occasion. and if she took his side against her shell and cheney, she would alienate the president that she would sour her chances of being pals replacement whenever that might come. he didn't understand that 3 or 4 of these little cooperators all. busy motivated by other than the things he was motivated by were too much even for his political skills. how would you rate us has greater success as a cyclist state? do things really and most have gotten little writ in our mediate. one would

be the global h i v h program which he managed to convince and i must say, president bush was inclined to beacon over chinese and others objections to add to the global h b a and b, the u. s. age funds. incredible is one of the reasons why bush is still revered in africa. and then the 2nd one would be something that, as i said, just hasn't gotten play. and that is his preservation of a good relationship with china throughout the 4 years. even though the sector and france and the vice president one attempting to start a new cold war, principal group change way beyond the president and taiwan, who was seeking independence referendum and crossing one of beige and red lunch. we actually had to do that almost every week. for 4 years, defeat the vice presidency temps to get pie one to be a cost smelly with

a drink and began a really hot new coal. looking up to the presentation, the infamous presentation, united nations, which of course, played a very substantial and pattern how is it possible that the wasn't deal of suspicion about some of the information that general power and yourself were being fed by the intelligence services and others? you're looking at the director of central intelligence, 247, almost for 7 straight days and nights. and the director of central intelligence has marshall the french israelis, the germans, jordanians a host of others. to convince file that machine does have certain weapons of mass destruction. i am, most importantly again, i can't overemphasize this does have an active nuclear weapons program. this is

what happened. only later did we understand that? can cherry pick the french? he was stopping to cherry pick jordanians, he was talking to and so forth and was not representing those intelligence. and he's at all as state intelligence. he was representing people we could, could jo, within their ranks to give him some sort of confirmation of what he was telling about. i think in a lot i think he outright why others have said to me know, he was convinced himself there was such a wealth of circumstantial evidence. i don't think so. i think he lied. i think he wanted to lie because the 1st client, the man who preserved him as director through presidential change, an unheard of thing in many respects. he was serving that 1st client and he read that 1st client mind very well. he wanted to go to more and 10, it was going to give him the evidence to do. and power got caught in that you can say we both were naive and not being able to challenge the director of central

intelligence and all these other assets that were mark to convince powell and indeed convinced surprised to vice president being one of them that father did have weapons of mass destruction, but i would argue my log into my grade. it's pretty hard to stand up all this well, of intelligence expertise, so to speak. marshall again, you can tell us to your knowledge at least that the british prime minister, tony blair, at that time commit himself to stand shoulder to shoulder with president bush and warner rack the year before the united nations presentation. do you have any insight as to where prior commitments have been given by the british prime minister to the american president? yes, blair was doing things and i remember vividly

a couple things he did that he directed his intelligence community to do the augmented and amplified what bush wanted to do in terms of presenting the intelligence on sodom or say and in terms of ensuring the president said that he would be with him. and finally, kind of wilkerson wouldn't be reasonable to say that colin powell was the the greatest president that america never heart. absolutely. i think sometimes with great sadness brings tears to the corners of my eyes. how different 20020012002 would have been, has been elected and served 2 terms. we would not have had what we had. we certainly would not have had that strategic catastrophe. iraq, by and whomever. bolling who ever fallen colon probably would have been in a different set of circumstances to whether they went through $911.00 or went to it

would have made a difference perhaps, but it would have been a different world. it would been a different empower. so it's sad to think about try this after the break when i, i'll be speaking to come the longest focus about the cabin state of american politics with

so called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the u. s. officials were basically designed as techniques to break down the human mind. if you force a human being to stay in a certain position doesn't take very long to the pain involved, to become absolutely excruciating, but nobody's lean finger on you. you are doing it to yourself and we started adopting those techniques when i was using i prefer mia is already beginning to evidence that these old techniques are now being used on immigrants and children, whatever you do or more comes home. nobody has been held accountable for the torture that happened in the past. the moral authority that made america will sacrifice the shimmer of effective interrogation.

welcome back. one year ago, with the very foundations of the american public, was shaking and the aftermath of the storming of the capitol. perspective on these events. alex's into being colonel lawrence wilkerson, the former chief of staff, to the late general colin powell cuddle, loves focus on what now, just a year after the, the storming of the capital, the assault on the settle of american democracy stands, the republic quinet, that i think not and just your usually expression, quote, the syllable of democracy on quote is really inaccurate. i think the congress of the united states, the legislative branch in which our founding fathers most power, will reside because it is the direct representative of the people which is after all our democracy supposed to be all about is the form. how can it be cut wilkerson,

that just a year after the pot fossil pop, tragic, a popular uprising by an outgoing president. we can have opinion polls showing present, come the favorite to become the next president. i have an ass can not be in any universe. good question. i watched cnn's report on it last night and i was stunned at our graphic. they were able to be about how much he has come back, and now he will likely be the candidate for the republic. i'm going to probably be the president in 2024. it's astonishing, but it shows you how broken our democracy is. not just january, the 6 is necessary for that. this whole process necessary to understand that what we have right now is the 3 bodies of power in the united states. equal power in the

constitution, equal power, the supreme court, the legislature, and exactly in the hands of or about to be in the hands of what you just described . and i'm not, i'm not be too exaggerating with regard to the supreme court. the supreme court is now in the hands of what i would call the corporate complex in america. they're also in the hands of what i would call opus de like, can follow susan. it's astonishing what we've allowed to happen to this body of our government, which above all is supposed to be independent and stand aloof from politics and from partisan mongering, if you will. and yet here they are representative of the very thing i'm talking about. so i meant the future for this democracy if it even can recall democracy

on the path that it's walking right now. i don't see how it's but how can it be the president joe biden and the can't be any more streetwise president in terms of knowing, is a way of own our own congress and given his experience, how can it be all the power of the presidency, all the, the knowledge that president biden as accumulated over the years that they, he cannot navigate apparently successfully his way around that all, we still to get the best the come from jill, but this is an interaction them. and what i just said, in some respects to it, as trump would say, donald trump would say, it's an astonishing interregnum. it's an illegal interregnum, but what's happened is biting is against what i just said is against the court. on the one hand and the legislature on the other, as long as the legislatures in my hands of mitch mcconnell, which is really true still is,

he's not going to be able to get anything done. and as he is unable, unable to get anything done, his polls are going to drop and drop and drop. and the american people are not gonna reward him with any kind of claim, let alone re election, or is brenda his successors. reelection whether it be higher. so remember, so we're headed into that and he's going down like that panic as we head into the home. but the republican party, the, the grand old party of it cannot be unanimity of view that sir, that former president trump also represents the future that the must be forces with an republicanism. a say, well, perhaps, as a no tentative way forward. i think there are some republicans around the periphery, if you will, particularly out west where environment, clean water and such motivate them are not fully

engaged, but they aren't gonna survive unless they appear to be. and that appearance is going to coat and glue everyone together. i think we're looking at a republican party is become exactly what george washington predicted. the factions, as he call parties would become more interested on a 247 basis in it's all survival. it's all power. broadening said, is the country the country be damned from that perspective? and that's what we're looking at. and we're looking at it in all 3 branches and put this old us meeting for american geo politics as, as the level still and dominant superpower and ben doesn't mean the america is going to confront china and asia, confront russia and europe, confront americans in america, was what's happening with the, the geopolitical role of the,

of the world super. we don't need this tension with china. we don't need this tension with burton and russia. much of it is our own fault for missteps that we made from bill clinton on. what we've got it and what we're doing, rather than trying to tampa down these latest diplomatic initiatives standing is we're exacerbating the so called pseudo color revolution and conflict started. the perfect example reminds me what we tried to do in order. this is not the way to do that and yeah, they're doing it. it's almost as if they have this stereotype and biden would be the one to patch way from the last days of the cold war. and the early days in those cold war period says, as bush said in the 2002 national security strategy, george w bush. we can't allow anybody an inch. we have to smack them if they

take an edge toward our prerogatives. and by the way, we identify whether it be in ukraine cause on anywhere in the world, but anyone is going to gain a march on us. we stop them, stop them with sanctions, with military, however, we can do it. but this is the behavior of an empire trying to preserve the status quo, at any consequence. it's a disaster almost as and could surpass greatly or to turn nuclear the domestic one. you've expressed concern about the suggestion from some elements and the military that nuclear weapons could be a feasible, practical weapon for conflict is a real issue. so body of thoughtless, amalgam the and power circles and in the united states it is and i've been privy to

a number of places thing. thanks and actually within the military ranks. well, i think we know pretty well from experience and thank tank re, if you will, that escalation is inevitable. and so you start using inter wrap and you're going down that road to annihilation. whether you do it with china or you do it russia or whatever. we still, russia are arsenals together, probably number over 8910000. that's clearly enough to probably destroy the human race. and if not to actual blast and radiological fall out through the nuclear winter that would occur after such an exchange kind of work. so finally, you're not in for your acute observations, quite pessimistic analysis of the developments in american politics and geo politics. can you point to any signs of optimism and hope and the american body

polity? other developments were, when you turn into the say, well, you know, perhaps that is going to take the greatest democratic experiment to world history onto a new and better plane. i can, and it's called a much, it's called the people i'm involved in and i know other movements that are ongoing right now. one is a constitutional amendment to partially eliminate citizens united the decision by our supreme court disastrous decision that but so much polluting money and politics . and we've got 2122 states already. you need 3 quarters of the states to ratify a constitutional amendment. and i've had people say, well, i mean like when i'm in the constitution law, all contrary in the 20th century, we amended it several times. if you know your history allow women to vote, to put prohibition in place to an all prohibition. we have done it before,

we can do it again. and there are other things like this that are coming from the grassroots and the grass tops. that give me a great deal of hope that autobiography is not dead yet. and that eventually we will achieve these. i think we get it back. it's going to take a fight. it's going to take some time, but i think we can get it back. i'm not optimistic. and alternately, we will. that's just me though. i'm fully willing to stand back and say, i underestimated the people they didn't do it. i won't be here to do that, but i'd like to anticipate the possibility or revolutionise good fl estate from time to time in a positive directional criminal lawrence wilkerson. thank you. so much for joining me once again, on the alex allen. chil, any for me on the evil that men, 2 lives after them. their good is oft encode with their borns by any standard

colon powers, an outstanding am groundbreaking, military leader, and secretary of state. however, he knew himself that his career would be forever tarnished by the infamous presentation to the united nations in justification of the war in iraq. for all that, there are few who would dispute that people have his calibre. * indecency, i'd in fundamentally short supply in america, and then just to buy every other nation's politics. meanwhile, i me a year after the pipe farcical, impart tragic champion attempt at a popular qu. remarkably, it is a democrat incumbent who is at b and the former president who prowled around my reliable plotting his political comeback. it is a sane of near desperation to many democratic lawmakers are looking to the attorney general medic, garland, or new york attorney leticia deems to provide salvation by prosecuting the donald

for insurrection or possible bank and insurance fraud. with trump now a solid favorite to become the next president. it might be better to work out how to confront and defeat the former president, politically. for now, for myself, i spent all issue. thank you for watching. stay safe. i'm hope to see you all again . next week, ah ah no other shares are happy to report pleasant sounding lies. our politicians are

constantly telling us pleasant lies. i'm a show. we dare to delve into unpleasant truth. a gothic will put it up on those particular courtney. eli, please. keith is going to push and push it. if i heard you both, i should somebody, somebody from a few minutes. got that. it was 3. see what i still love with it at the but i booked a very few believe about what we did get hope. all right, so um what you will be with you a follow this up on your way, i'd like it. but here for a little of, for pretty weaker lia. from a brush your project from if that are in your bruise.

so called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the u. s. officials were basically designed as techniques to break down the human mind. if you force a human being to stay in a certain position doesn't take very long to the pain involved to become absolutely excruciating, but nobody's lane finger on you. you are doing it to yourself. and we started adopting those techniques when i was stationed in mosul among them, wordpress positions sleep deprivation inducing hypothermia. there's already beginning to be evidence that these old techniques are now being used on immigrant children. whatever you do or more me comes home, nobody has been held accountable for the torture that happened in the past. the moral authority, the made america leader sacrifice,

but the shimmer of effective interrogation with the headlines issa criminal negligence, that sy rushes for a ministry is describing the work of some western journalists seeking to mislead the public into believing russia wants to invade ukraine, despite continuous denials, from officials in moscow also this our up the russian k vaccine. sputnik, they demonstrate strong protection against the recently emerged omicron strain according to a new italian study and also produces more anti bodies than the fire and jab and to serving the classified video shows the seconds before us drone care was 10 afghan civilians them at 7 of the miners,

as children walk around on the street and one of the most supporting incidents in the porch to august withdrawal from the country.