Colin Powell

Re “Colin Powell Surrenders to Partisan Politics,” Commentary, Sept. 8: The author and eternal liberal, Bill Press, in his sour-grapes column alleges that retired Gen. Colin Powell has sacrificed his principles by joining the Republican Party. Press says of Powell: “He’s just another political hack”; he is “almost un-American”; “he stepped off his pedestal and into the partisan muck”; and Powell “whistles in the dark” because of his differences on many Republican platform issues.

Press has never been encumbered by facts in his opinions and this column is no exception. Powell’s principles remain intact in spite of his differences with some of the Republican Party platform issues. Principles are still an important asset, a concept that Press may find difficult to understand. Gen. Powell understood it when he chose the Republican Party over the Democrat Party.

BOB BALL

Anaheim

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I too was struck by the statement attributed to Powell in the news article of the same day, “Forced to Play Catch-Up, Bush Retools Strategy,” in which, in accusing the Clinton administration of cutting the defense budget too deeply, Gen. Powell states, “Only now are they starting to invest again, but it’s too late, and they’re not investing enough.”

The use of the expression “but it’s too late” demands a modifying phrase that defines what Powell means by “too late.” Is it too late to ever fix a serious problem caused by the cuts in the defense budget? If so, what are the consequences? Is it too late in the political sense, in that the Clinton administration is rectifying an error but Powell won’t accept the administration’s atonement? Mistakes do happen. I am certain that mistakes were made during Desert Storm that have not yet been rectified.

Politics, too often, is full of half-truths, shallowness and character assassination. Gen. Powell, please measure your words and do not become a caricature of the image that you have previously projected. Government service is an honorable and necessary job. Politics, as too often being currently practiced in our country, is not. Help to raise politics to a higher levels. It’s not “too late.”

FRANK SWEENEY

Valencia