Grievous unto us  

PG/Bertrand Russell at Half the Sins of Mankind had this to say about my criticism of Colin Powell's State Dept underlings:

[F]rom a bureaucratic perspective, Powell was in the wrong. He is in the employ - even as top management - of an entity that is being sued for at least $33 million and a loss of official reputation. If Michael Eisner had had a fit of lunacy and declared Mickey Mouse to belong in the public domain during the Eldred case, we all would have applauded him for his integrity, as we do now with Powell. But Disney's legal team would have squashed his words immediately as not representing the company's legal position. The State Department must do the same.

The problem with this analogy is that Colin Powell doesn't represent the interests of an amoral corporate machine. In this situtaion, the American people and their government actually have some interest in making things right, or at least owning up to the wrongs committed. If what Powell said really wasn't the position of the State Department, it certainly should be - lawsuit or not.