Going Down or Getting Low in History.

Years ago I participated in an oral history interview based on my experiences -- limited as they were -- about my time in Afghanistan.

The interviewer, a Ph.D., asked a host of open ended questions and I answered them as best as I could. This was a few years after my time downrange. My responses are filed and perhaps a future historian will give them a cursory glance. Who knows what will become of them. Perhaps they can be found here.

At the end of the interview, when the tape recorder was turned off, I told the interviewer that I purposefully did not talk about my commanding officer. I noted that he was, well, a jerk. Moreover, I didn't want posterity -- if I had anything to do about it -- not know that he existed. He's still in the service and should he continue to get promoted, my worries for the fate of the Republic will increase proportionally.

The point is that I talked about what my team did in Afghanistan. I kept it straight and to the point and kept any editorializing to a minimum. Let the historians of the future develop the nuance and determine what we did was right or wrong or stupid or brilliant.

That was obviously not the case with Lawrence Wilkerson. Here's a gent who will go down in history as Colin Powell's attack dog. A former Army colonel, he served as then-Secretary Powell's chief of staff at the State Department. Obviously he maintains a great affinity for his former boss and has decided to say the awful things about President Bush that Colin Powell cannot say. Even at this stage of Bush's presidency, it will still garner one a fair amount of publicity.

Most recently for an "oral history" project regarding the Bush Presidency, for Vanity Fair magazine, he said of the President:

"It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin-like president - because, let's face it, that's what he was - was going to be protected by this national-security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire..."

Mr. Wilkerson does himself, Secretary Powell, and history a disservice. He was a cog in the machine and should have limited his testimony to the facts and his experiences. There are other forums for maintaining the sainted legacy of Mr. Powell. (Although you do have to admire Mr. Wilkerson's slash and burn approach to the GOP and to zing Ms. Palin in the process.)

Perhaps this is all driven by guilt -- by letting the big guy down in the clutch. The folks over at Wikipdedia noted:

Wilkerson was responsible for a review of information from the Central Intelligence Agency that was used to prepare Powell for his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council. His failure to realize that the evidence was faulty has been attributed on the limited time (only one week) that he had to review the data.

Mr. Wilkerson seemingly forgot the first lesson every officer learns -- take one for the team. To blame a lack of time shows that Mr. Wilkerson wasn't much of a time manager -- or a chief of staff.

For this transgression, he walks the earth, belittling the current President and himself.

UPDATE: The whole VF endeavor seems to be a hit piece.