Colin Powell has handed Bush his resignation. I don’t know whether this will prove to be good or bad. Atrios says “Thanks for nothing.”

But would we have been worse or better off the last four years had Powell not been fighting for some approximation of reason and prudence? Sure, he lost most of the battles, but so did we — liberals fighting the last few years. Powell failed to convince the military machine to apply the Geneva Convention to those taken prisoner in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of us failed to convince the military machine to refrain from invading Iraq.

Yes, Powell failed. The greatness of a once great man tarnished. And we as American people failed. The greatness of a once great nation… May we both and all have the good fortune to redeem ourselves.