Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Powell in line of fire

Friday, April 19, 2002 | 2:43 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

SELDOM HAS A SECRETARY OF STATE PLEASED ME as they went about their world travels. President Bill Clinton's Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher both found my pen to be a sharp needle. Albright, especially, acting as the "secretary of bombing," triggered my animosity. Neither of them was as bad or inept as the senior Bush's James Baker. He was a total loss as he played games more political than diplomatic.

So now it's Secretary Colin Powell who is in the line of fire. He spent many days and nights meeting with the leaders of several Middle East countries and even shuttled back and forth between Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. He came away from the mess with nothing solid according to many critics.

Syndicated columnist George Will wrote a scathing piece in Newsweek magazine. Will's column ended:

"Before Powell began his trip, one question was: What would happen if, during the trip, another suicide bomber struck? The question was answered last Wednesday, when a terrorist, with nails and screws packed around about 18 pounds of high explosive, killed himself and eight Israelis on a bus. The administration's response, delivered by presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer shortly after the body parts had been scraped off the pavement, was that the mass murder demonstrated 'the need for all parties to pull back, for Israel to withdraw and for the Palestinians and the Arabs to stop the violence, stop the killing.'

"The echo of the suicide bomb was a U.S. call for Israel to retreat. So, not surprisingly, two days later another suicide bomber built on this success. Terrorism works. That is the dominant lesson that U.S. policy is teaching seven months after September 11.

"Last week ended with the president diminished by issuing ineffectual demands to all parties in the Middle East. His secretary of State was on a spectacularly ill-advised trip to the Middle East, where, his agenda unclear and his talks punctuated by the concussions of terrorist bombs, he was held hostage to events. The president needs a new policy, and perhaps a new secretary of State."

The frustration felt by Will should be with the situation and our late responses but not with Powell. It's my opinion that our secretary of state entered a morass of hate and heat from which no immediate winners will emerge. Not only did Powell face the hate and heat, he worked night and day to solve problems that have existed long before he fought as a young infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. He waded into the problems with his sleeves rolled up. Our new secretary of state went to where the action is and didn't spend his long hours in the splendor many diplomats expect when representing the world's only super power.

We don't know exactly how much progress Powell made in his trip to the Middle East. Being more than a little familiar with that area, I didn't expect him to return with peace wrapped up in a box covered with an olive branch and doves circling overhead.

I was in Israel when Arafat triggered his first bloody intifada and also during the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein's scuds were coming into that country. Three Israeli elections have been my experience and so has time in Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. People have often warned me not to go into that area "because of the trouble." If a person waits for a quiet time in the Middle East they will never go there.

The last several weeks have been bloody and not quiet in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Powell went there and did his best to broker a peaceful settlement. We must remember that a secretary of state is only a messenger for our president. Powell did an admirable job while carrying only a bucket of water to put out a raging fire.

Today I give him a welcome home and congratulate him for his efforts. He is a class act and I'm proud to have him as a fellow American. There is no other person critics can name who could perform as well under fire as Powell did on this trip.