I have a dream.

In my dream, Secretary of State Colin Powell comes out from hiding and somehow skews up the courage to serve his country in the best way possible: He resigns.

So starts an article written by Harley Sorensen of SFGate.com

His thoughts got my thoughts going. I agree with him that Colin Powell has somehow distanced himself from this administration and yet is still perceived as a “company” man.

But where Sorensen’s article stopped, my thoughts began and they centered around one major topic:

How one way or another, Powell will prove to the world that the Bush Administration is in shambles.

Even without a book to push, he talks. He tells all. He tells how the Bush administration used him as a front man, a token, while ignoring his experience and wisdom.

Sorensen’s dream starts by Powell resigning before the election, jumping onto the talk show circuit to spread the word about how poorly this administration is run, and handing the election to John Kerry. It won’t happen. In my opinion, four star generals will never let history regard them as collaborators. Should Bush win a second term, Powell will remain silent until after the president is sworn in and then resign.

Why?

According to Sorensen:

The writing is already on the wall. History will record how Powell embarrassed himself and his country with his humiliating appearance before the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003. That was the day, you’ll recall, that Powell detailed many of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, none of which has been found to exist.

That was the day Powell’s world reputation was flushed into the East River. Powell’s shoddy performance at the U.N. had all the credibility of a news release by Baghdad Bob, Iraq’s reality-challenged minister of information.

With his reputation in tatters, Powell had two obvious choices: he could resign in disgrace or he could brazen it out and hope to rehabilitate himself. He chose the rehab route.

That’s good. Even a failed politician deserves a second chance. Powell’s rehab strategy so far has been to keep a low profile. That is working, at least to the extent that it keeps him from making new blunders.

I disagree here with Sorensen. Powell hasn’t kept a low profile because he’s saving his reputation. He’s been kept on a short leash for his disagreements with Rumsfeld. (Bob Woodward’s books Plan of Attack and Bush at War both mention in detail how Powell did not feel that Rumsfeld respected his opinion and, in fact, actively worked to squeeze him out of the planning and execution of the Iraq invasion). Add that to the faulty intelligence he was given to deliver to the UN and you have two very sound reasons Colin Powell will be a civilian soon.

Let’s face it, Powell was used as a mouthpiece, not a Secretary of State at the UN. His ideas of building coalitions have been shouted down before and after Iraq, and never has his office been perceived as weaker than in this administration. Powell has every reason in the world to leave and, in my opinion, will in January.

When he does, Sorensen’s dream will still not come true. Powell will suffer in silence, he will not turn on his “allies.” What his resignation will do is to open the flood gates. Anyone with future political aspirations will want to distance themselves from the administration as quickly as possible.

This will be noted and brought to the country’s attention by the press and the chase will be on. Many of these politicos will speak without their names being mentioned. They will become “reliable sources,” guiding the reporters to sensitive documents and events Bush would prefer we never know. There will be outcries of a “liberal press” creating news to embarrass the president, but in the end they will be proven as true. Dan Rather will be redeemed and the Republicans will not have the cake walk they hope for in 2008.

OK, maybe I’m dreaming now but my scenario is more likely to occur than Sorensen’s.

Sorensen does have a more idealistic ending to his dream than I do:

Powell isn’t stupid. He knows how corrupt the Bush administration is. He knows the war against the Iraqi people never should have been started. He knows that the rich in America are getting disgustingly richer while the poor are slowly dying in poverty. He knows that the Bush administration has been the worst in American history. And, if he has a soul at all, he has to feel tremendous pangs of regret that he’s tied in with such an unprincipled bunch.

In my dream, Colin Powell has a soul. In my dream, he says, “Enough!” In my dream, Powell lets go of all the anger and frustration and humiliation he’s accumulated over the past four years. In my dream, Powell saves America and the world from four more years of George W. Bush.

In my opinion, an ending like Sorensen’s so filled with morality and altruistic value could only happen in Hollywood . . .