Powell: 'bastards won't drive me out'

Colin Powell, the beleaguered Secretary of State, has delivered an angry riposte to the Pentagon hardliners responsible for his recent string of policy defeats - insisting to allies that he "won't let those bastards drive me out".


Colin Powell: does not intend to quit before the next presidential election
Despite his frustration at President Bush's tendency to side with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, on issues ranging from the Middle East to the International Criminal Court, Gen Powell is making it clear that he does not intend to quit before the next presidential election.

"He won't resign because to do so would be tantamount to admitting defeat," said a senior Washington official. "He would only go earlier if he thought he had lost the president's confidence and there is no sign of that. He thinks it is better to carry on and have some influence from inside the administration than to leave and have none."

Gen Powell's blunt observations, which are being discreetly and deliberately circulated in Washington by senior State Department officials, are the first clear sign that he acknowledges the damaging criticisms he has taken from a combination of Mr Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, and Dick Cheney, the vice-president.

Friends of Gen Powell say that he is buoyed by his personal popularity rating, which he reaches for "like a comfort blanket" as proof that he is still in step with most American voters. He also receives strong support from his combative deputy, Richard Armitage, a former navy Seal who, like his boss, saw extensive military action in Vietnam.

The two men are said to share a contempt for the Pentagon's civilian chiefs, despite a superficial cordiality in public. "They are combat-hardened and that affects their outlook," said one official. "There's no love lost on either side."