Washington ? As Secretary of State Colin Powell began his destined-to-fail Mideast trip, we wrote:

“It was only after (Vice President Dick) Cheney came back empty-handed that (President George) Bush reluctantly turned to Powell. Powell has long been the odd man out on policymaking in this administration.

“The likely outcome is that Powell will join the long line of American interlocutors who tried but failed to forge peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Dennis Ross, a talented and dutiful State Department official who served Republican and Democratic presidents, spent a decade of his life trying to coax peace in the region. Just as victory seemed close, the process collapsed, and a fresh wave of violence took its place. Onetime Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and CIA Director George Tenet fared no better.

“If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is such an intractable problem, did Bush set him up for failure? Can Powell emerge from the mission without doing damage to his reputation?”

Regrettably, the answer is “no.”

The president looked magnanimous when he proclaimed the mission a success, but he also appeared disingenuous because virtually all other observers concluded that Powell had failed.

As a previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell surely understands that the first principle of war is the “Objective.” And the objective of our Mideast policy is peace, but it is only possible to make peace with peacemakers. Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, is not a peacemaker. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would like to be a peacemaker, but his use of force without a commensurate humanitarian follow-up is not conducive to the process.

Powell’s first inclination, which was to not meet with Arafat, was correct, but the wily chairman talked the talk of nonviolence, and the meeting ensued. By all accounts it was a disaster. In press conferences, both men appeared grim-faced, defensive and resigned to another round of bloodshed. It was a meeting Powell should never have attended. After all, with Arafat having turned down the Barak proposals last year, which offered more than any Israeli prime minister had offered before, what could Powell offer?

It is hard to believe that Powell willingly participated in such a fruitless undertaking with Arafat, the great ruiner of Western reputations. We are therefore left to conclude that he, the obedient soldier, was doing as he was told. The question now is what can he do to recover? Will he go public, claiming foul, claiming he was set up? Will he resign and turn on the administration as did Labor Secretary Robert Reich when he left the Clinton administration? Will he begin his own diplomatic efforts from his perch at the Department of State and wait for the administration to come around or fire him? Will he say of the Republican Party what President Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, that he isn’t leaving the party; the party left him? Or will he simply remain at his post and do his duty like a good soldier?

The answer is that Powell, himself, does not yet know the answer. But if he concludes that he has been deceived and sacrificed, he cannot possibly last where he is. Perhaps, like Gen. Douglas MacArthur, he will simply fade away. We doubt it.