Former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, who was an influential adviser to Colin L. Powell when Powell was secretary of state, has weighed in on today's midterm elections, saying they offer the United States a chance to win back lost allies around the world.
"The message I think from the electorate is that fear doesn't work. You've got to go back to what is traditionally ours, and we've got to go back to those things that made us important in the eyes of the world," Armitage said yesterday in a speech in Canberra, Australia, according to Reuters.
Armitage was the No. 2 man to Powell from the beginning of the Bush administration until their resignations in 2005. A former Navy officer, Armitage was seen as part of the wing of the Bush administration more cautious about invading Iraq. He recently acknowledged that in 2003 he was a source to the news media of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. |