I don't like Colin Powell

I dislike Powell. I've heard that it was he who counseled George Bush Sr. not to pursue Hussein in the first Gulf War, effectively setting the stage for the second. I thought he was a lousy operator in the Middle East during his tenure as Secretary of State. I managed to make it through only a few chapters of Bob Woodward's book about the Gulf War, before I realized that it was actually Colin Powell's book -- written when the war seemed to be going badly -- and intended to exculpate him from any association with the war. It was a most disloyal act, and he did it while he was still Sec'y of State. Now that he's no longer Sec'y of State, his disloyalty to the President is becoming even more transparent:

Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is emerging as a behind-the-scenes player in the battle over John R. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, privately telling at least two key Republican lawmakers that Bolton is a smart but very problematic government official, according to Republican sources.

Powell may be right, and Bolton may be the wrong man for the office, but I certainly wouldn't bet any money on Powell's instincts. His only true, infallible instincts are for self-protection and self-aggrandizement. Otherwise, at least as to the matters I've cited above, he's been wrong, wrong, wrong.