A Note on Colin Powell
His Dubious Role In the Iraq War Will Always Be a Central Part of His Legacy
When I think of Colin Powell, I do not think of his personal story. I think of his role in American Empire. I think of Powell, as Marc Lamont Hill pointed out on Twitter:
Powell died this morning from complications of Covid-19. He was a trailblazer, as the press coverage makes clear, being the first African American to serve in three of its highest foreign policy positions: national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.
It is an impressive resume, to be sure. But in Powell’s case — as in the case of nearly all men and women who have served in similar positions — the trail being blazed did not lead us into a new era of multilateral diplomacy and peace. Rather, Powell’s tenure in government was marked by repeated military engagements — in Panama, twice in Iraq — and a focus on using extreme force when force was needed. In fact, Powell’s appointment as Secretary of State, while groundbreaking on a racial level, was part of a larger militarization of the American foreign policy structure under George W. Bush that predated Sept. 11, 2001.
So, I don’t necessarily think of Powell the trailblazer, or Powell the centrist who backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton after serving both Bushes and Ronald Reagan.
When I I think of Powell, I think of this photo of him at the United Nations in 2003, when he allowed himself to be used by the Bush administration as the face of its lies, as the face of its efforts to convince the United Nations to buy into its belligerence and endorse a war with Iraq. Powell told the U.N. that Iraq was seeking mobile nukes and had purchased the needed materials.
“Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world,’’ Mr. Powell declared.
It was a defining moment, for him. For the Bush administration. While the U.N. was not swayed, the American public was — to a degree. As the Pew Research Center wrote on Feb. 14, 2003, a little more than a week after Powell’s speech, Americans “reacted very favorably,” and the “flurry of polling conducted over the past week indicates that he made convincing points to the American public about the dangers posed by Saddam’s Hussein’s regime.”
Increased margins of support for using force were apparent in six of the seven nationwide polls conducted last week. Further, almost all measures of opinion moved in the direction that must have pleased the Bush Administration. There is even increased support for unilateral military action against Iraq.
The war would start a month later and drag on for more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens would die, the nation would descend into civil war, and the carnage would spill beyond Iraq’s borders. Powell, who later said he made a mistake, that the pronouncement would forever be a blot on his record, is as complicit as any member of the Bush team, despite his private concerns, and despite evidence that he was handed contrived intelligence. Powell had misgivings, but in the end played the good soldier, a role that ultimately facilitated the Bush-Cheney effort. He helped break Iraq, as he might have said, so he owns it.