In his interview with Larry King, journalist Bob Woodward has come out and said outright that Colin Powell is the best candidate for Secretary of Defense after Robert Gates steps down from that role in 2011.
General Powell, as Woodward has pointed out numerous times, is a walking embodiment of the history of American wars since Vietnam, its success and failures. Keep in mind that as Chair of the Joint Chief he told President George Herbert Walker Bush, that after killing Saddam’s army the United States needed to get out and leave things as they might then be. Also keep in mind that he delivered a speech at the United Nations that now stands as something of a shadow of Adlai Stevenson’s pointed and powerful denunciation of Soviet international politics.
Former Secretary of State, Powell might soon be the future Secretary of Defense of the United States. It makes sense: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, National Security Advisor, one time Presidential hopeful, and finally Secretary of State. Demotion or otherwise, the role of Secretary of Defense looks like his for the refusing.
But he won’t. Not if his Commander in Chief asks him to step up.