[This column assumes that Colin Powell will endorse Barack Obama this morning on Meet the Press. That he hasn't already endorsed John McCain justifies his denunciation in any event.]

Colin Powell’s story of heroism as a soldier; personal story of achievement and message of conservative America values amidst derision as an Uncle Tom from the liberal Democrat Civil Rights crowd; and service under President Ronald were exemplary.

He was great at following orders in Vietnam; President Reagan’s orders as National Security Advisor and President George H.W. Bush’s orders during the first part of the 1991 Gulf War.

But when President Bush asked for his advice as Saddam Hussein’s army was fleeing a liberated Kuwait, he lost his way. At that moment, he rose above his pay grade and failed President Bush 41 and America.

Today, we are told, he is poised to endorse a man who considers making a decision on when a baby is entitled to human rights is above his pay grade.

Of course, lawyer Obama has decided, by his actions, that a baby has no right to life while in the womb and no right to life-saving treatment outside the womb if it survives attempted murder at the hands of an abortionist. Millions have perished due this notion thanks to Obama’s ideological lawyer allies that wear robes.

Powell’s decision to let Saddam remain in power in 1991 caused hundreds of thousands of adults and children to lose their lives and was a major rationale for Osama bin Laden’s conclusion that America did not have the stomach to win wars that require more than the 13-week period given TV pilots or that require more than 150 patriots sacrifice their lives.

In fact, his famous “Powell Doctrine” that states we should not go to war unless we can win quick with overwhelming force actually invites aggression that can’t be defeated Powell’s way.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs he had famously vowed, when asked about his military strategy against the Iraqi army in the Persian Gulf War of 1991:”First we’re going to cut it off, then we’re going to kill it.”

He failed to do so.

In 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s army was fleeing Kuwait, Colin Powell advised his Commander in Chief to let Saddam survive.

Fast forward to the bushlied era in September of 2006, former Secretary of State Powell wrote that “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.”

In response, I wrote that the Conservative World Beginning to Doubt Moral Basis of Colin Powell’s Acts and Omissions. An excerpt:

Colin Powell, in a rare departure from Armitage-aided anonymous leaks to the press attacking his Commander-in-Chief, released a public letter he sent to John McCain opposing President Bush’s request that Congress clarify the meaning of vague language in Common Article III, as pertains to prisoners of war, and, as recently ordered by a brain dead Supreme Court, to illegal terrorist enemy combatants as well, prohibiting “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”The letter reads in part: “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism,” Powell observed. “To redefine common article 3 [of the Geneva convention] would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.”

We are not “re-defining” the treaty. The treaty does not define “outrages”, “humiliating”, or “degrading.” Powell would allow anti-American World Court judges to define those terms to imprison American interrogators of Khalid Sheik Mohammad who extracted information that saved thousands of lives.

If an American criminal statute contained such language, the law would be thrown out for vagueness. One must be fairly put on notice concerning prohibited conduct for which one may be lose their liberty.

Powell’s policy would leave our military, CIA and innocent civilian lives at risk and have allowed Al Qaeda to have carried out many more terrorist acts inside the United States.

The public letter from Powell comes on the heels of years of silence despite his having information that could have prevented Scooter Libby from being indicted.

What happened to Colin Powell?

Any world that doubts the moral basis of our fight against terrorism has much larger problems that can be addressed by leaving in place litigation inviting vague language in a treaty.

Any student of the history of war teaches that you don’t strike the King unless you intend to kill him. Didn’t he learn anything from our own failures in Korea and especially the Vietnam War that he fought in and which Obama’s ideological allies lost via liberal democrats in the 1975 Congress?

Any man, whether its Louis Farrakhan or Colin Powell, that could endorse Barack Obama for President over John McCain, has lost their moral compass and good judgment. In Farrakhan’s case, he never had it. In Powell’s case, it appears he lost his after The Gipper left Washington.

His behavior in his last days in office and weeks and months after leaving the State Department, were despicable betrayals of the public trust with his leaks and defeatist rhetoric.

Let’s make sure we win one more for The Gipper. Reject Powell’s latest bad advice and elect John McCain, a man who learned the lessons of Vietnam.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson