Sunday, April 18, 2004
Vice President Dick Cheney
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Vice President Cheney,
I’m sorry to hear that you and Colin Powell aren’t speaking to each other.
I guess it was a personality clash. Bob Woodward says you were a "powerful, steamrolling force obsessed with Saddam and taking him out." I think Colin Powell is a little more laid back than that. You probably had the same goals--just different styles.
I wonder if you got this burr in your saddle to get Saddam after one of your heart attacks. The reason I ask is that Powell said, “Cheney has a fever. It is an absolute fever. It’s almost as if nothing else exists.” Sometimes we do and say all kinds of things we don’t mean when we’re sick. Maybe if Powell understood that he’d be a little more forgiving.
Maybe his feelings got hurt because you and Rumsfeld and Condi Rice all knew you were going to war, and he felt left out. Also the Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar knew two days before Powell. Everybody knew except poor Colin Powell! He was left in the dark! Maybe that’s why he’s so mad. Sometimes you just have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
Have you thought of mediation? It’s kind of like couple’s therapy. You could have a trained mediator come in and help you “share your feelings” and “fight fair.” She might start with a “feelings” exercise where you say, “If I was the weather, I would be...” Maybe Colin would be overcast and you’d be a tsunami. Explore!
She could teach you to say, “When you do (x), this is how it makes me feel...” This would help each of you to learn to “own” your feelings. She could teach you to do “active listening.” If Colin Powell said, “I’m really angry with you because you left me dangling in front of the entire international community and you ruined my reputation and started a war without telling me and I’m the FRIGGIN’ SECRETARY OF STATE!” You would say:
“I hear you that your angry because you feel your reputation has been ruined and you feel left out.”
Then it would be your turn, and you might say, “I’m really angry with you because you have been nothing but a roadblock to our overthrowing the Evil Dictator, and if it weren’t for you, we could have taken out the entire Axis of Evil by now, and we’d still have four more years to deal with the rest of the world!”
And he might say, “I hear you that you’re angry because you would have liked to have been more aggressive than I was, and you feel that I am slowing you down.”
You see? By the end of your session, you’ll be hugging and you can both have a good cry, and then you can be friends again. I think if you and Colin Powell go to mediation, yes--it would be good for the country, but just as important, it would be a great opportunity for you to “work through your issues” and take some some positive steps in personal growth!
Sincerely,
Carl Estrada