I wouldn’t blame Colin Powell if he wrote a big tell-all book dishing dirt about his time as George W. Bush’s Secretary of State. He might as well cash in because his once-vaunted reputation has been permanently besmirched by his association with the president and his men. He kept quiet while the civilian leadership — Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumseld and others — went to war with misguided and tragically faulty plans.

Powell broke his silence on the pre-war incompetence and malfeasance today on British television:

POWELL: I have always been one who favored a larger military presence in an operation to make sure that you can deal with the unforeseen, but in the case of the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, you had institutions being destroyed, you had ministries being burned down, and I have said on many occasions I don’t think we had enough force there at that time to impose order. That’s what we were responsible for, because when you have taken out a government, a regime, then you become responsible for the country.

[snip]

POWELL: I made the case to General Franks and Secretary Rumsfeld before the president though that it [sic] was not sure we had enough troops, and so the case was made. It was listened to. It was considered. And those responsible for the troop levels, Mr Rumsfeld and General Franks, and the joint chiefs of staff, which include the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, believed they had the appropriate troop level.