“It is clear to at least half the world, some four billion people, that the United States is not the power that it once was. Our reputation is in tatters in the world.” ~ Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired colonel of the United States Army, has had a long and notable career in both military and governmental roles, including serving in the Vietnam War. Col. Wilkerson acted as a special assistant to Colin Powell during the Gulf War when Powell held the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he served as Powell’s chief of staff when Powell became Secretary of State. Following his departure from government, Col. Wilkerson taught at the College of William & Mary and George Washington University.
Col. Wilkerson’s areas of expertise include national security, history, diplomacy, the defense budgetary process, U.S. nuclear policy, the Vietnam and Iraq wars, the contemporary Cold War involving China and Russia, and U.S.-Iranian relations.
He spoke recently with Judge Napolitano on the Judging Freedom podcast. In this interview, Col. Wilkerson revealed, perhaps for the first time, that he served as a confidential source of critical information, jeopardizing both his career and his personal freedom in a thwarted attempt to prevent a major national crisis. The two had the following exchange:
Napolitano: “Were you in a position to advise the President and the Secretary of State on whether or not Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when President George W. Bush was hell-bent on invading no matter what the intelligence community told him?”
Wilkerson: “If you’ve ever seen the movie by Rob Reiner, Shock and Awe, I’m one of the sources in there because midway through this—and it really was my experience out at Langley—I became a source for [Warren] Strobel and other people at the particular newspaper [chain] Knight-Ridder … that was exposing all these lies, and in that movie I’m played by this old dude who looks a lot like me.”
We have drawn attention to Col. Wilkerson’s achievements many times on the Solari Report, including in our July 7 Pushback of the Week [/pushback-of-the-week-july-8-2024-colonel-lawrence-wilkerson/] for his commitment to alerting the public about the repercussions of the U.S. political leadership’s denial of reality. He is now our Hero of the Week for his brave and persistent advocacy on critical issues facing our society today.
Lawrence Wilkerson (Wikipedia)
COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: US Empire Failing | Interview with Judge Napolitano (YouTube)
US As Guilty As Israel For Gaza Assault: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson | Dawn News English
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on Gaza, Ukraine and Russia, and China (YouTube)
Eisenhower Media Network: The U.S. military “could not beat either Russia or China in a sustained war”
Shock and Awe (Wikipedia)
Knight Ridder (Wikipedia)
Related Solari Reports:
Pushback of the Week: July 8, 2024: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson
Let’s Go to the Movies: March 29, 2018 – Wilkerson on Israel
The National Security State: What’s Next? with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (March 2018)
Colonel Wilkerson: The Empire Is in Trouble (December 2015)
National Security: Looking Ahead with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (May 2015)
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on National Security (May 2011)
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