A war that should not be

The following letter was published on March 7, 2003 by
The Cape Cod Times
Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Powell's lost himself in rush along warpath.

Resolution 1441 is echoed so often by the reluctant warrior, so to say.

I admired Mr. Powell before he started beating the drums of war with the Bush administration. When I look at his eyes now, in my view they reveal his inner conflict.

My guess is he was contemplating resigning after the president voiced his opinion on affirmative action. That type of move would have been devastating to the Bush administration and the Republican Party.

It seems Powell's loyalty to those who pushed him ahead, mentioned in his book, and his party supersedes the moral high ground in his consciousness. I can see in his eyes the loss of himself in the drive down the warpath carved out by the right-wing extremists of his party. This drive lacks empathy for all the soldiers and innocent civilians who will die in a war that should not be.

I truly believe now is the moment for the Democratic Party to embrace a core Social Democrat with "Emotional intelligence," as Daniel Goldman called it in his 1995 book of the same name. Emotional intelligence has a lot to do with empathy, which seems to be lacking in many in the current administration's spokesmen.