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Colin Powell, former secretary of state, dies of COVID-19 complications

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Colin Powell, former secretary of state, dies of COVID-19 complications (msn.com)

Former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell died Monday morning due to complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement.

"He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment," the family said. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American."

Powell was 84 years old.

He served under four presidents -- Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- at the very top of the national security establishment, first as deputy national security adviser and then as national security adviser. Finally, he was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior ranking member of the U.S. armed forces and top military adviser to the president.

He was the first African American ever to hold that post and the first to be secretary or state.

During that time he helped shape American defense and foreign policy. He was in top posts during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the downsizing of the military after the end of the Cold War, the 1989 invasion of Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, the 1992-93 engagement in Somalia and the crisis in Bosnia.

"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell," Bush said in a statement. "He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam. Many Presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience. He was National Security Adviser under President Reagan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under my father and President Clinton, and Secretary of State during my Administration. He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice. He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon's first African American chief, reacting to the news on Monday, said he feels "as if I have a hole in my heart."

"The world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed," Austin told reporters on a trip to the nation of Georgia. "And I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor."

Powell retired from the Army after the Gulf War, and his supporters urged him to enter politics, touting him as the only candidate with the moral stature needed to unite the country and heal longstanding racial wounds.

After his retirement, from 1994 to 2000, Powell was engaged in several notable humanitarian and personal efforts. In 1994, he, former President Jimmy Carter and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., embarked on a peacekeeping mission in Haiti, in which they were able to help bring to an end to military rule and establish an elected government for the country.

In 1995, Powell published his autobiography, "My American Journey," in which he touched on everything from his military experiences to more personal matters. Powell was also a co-chair for America's Promise, a non-profit organization geared toward empowering young people, for which he served as chairman from 1997-2000.

The media spotlight first found the four-star Army general during the 1991 Gulf War, when, as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he appeared on television screens across the world. With his steady gaze, he conveyed intelligence, certainty and straightforwardness.

After the allied coalition expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait, Powell's celebrity grew, and his name became synonymous with integrity for many Americans across the political spectrum.

A decade later, as President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Powell played a pivotal role in another conflict. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the homeland, Powell worked to build an international coalition and used his long military experience to help design a strategy for the war on terrorism. He tried to prepare the country for a different type of war, one where the enemy might be hard to identify.

"I was raised a soldier, and you are trained, there is the enemy occupying a piece of ground. We can define that in time, space and other dimensions, and you can assemble forces and go after it," Powell said at the time. "This is different. The enemy is in many places. The enemy is not looking to be found. The enemy is hidden. The enemy is very often right here within our own country. And so you have to design a campaign plan that goes after that kind of enemy."

Throughout his service in the military, Powell never made his political leanings known. Although he served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it wasn't until 1995 that Powell announced that he had registered as a Republican. He formally supported the candidacy of Democratic presidential candidates Lyndon Johnson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

The reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump brought out Powell's political side in the last years of his life, when he called on voters not to support the incumbent, Republican president.

"I think he has not been an effective president," Powell told CNN's Jake Tapper in June 2020. "He lies all the time. He began lying the day of inauguration, when we got into an argument about the size of the crowd that was there. People are writing books about this favorite thing of lying. And I don't think that's in our interest."

"The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden’s parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania," Powell said in a video message at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States because those values still define him, and we need to restore those values to the White House."

After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Powell told CNN he "can no longer call myself a fellow Republican" and that "we need people who will speak the truth."

Powell spent his entire adult life in service to his country. He leaves behind his wife of 48 years, Alma Powell, and his son, Michael.

Rest in peace.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
I really liked him, especially since he could admit to and apologize for his mistakes.

May he rest in peace.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Nobody should forget that Powell was a key player in the Iraq War, one of the 21st century's biggest crimes against humanity. In my opinion, anyone who calls him a good person needs to think about the hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as the systematic torture that resulted from the invasion of Iraq.

I hope we never see a repeat of his or Bush's mistakes again. I don't wish for anyone to die of COVID-19, though. That's a tough way to go.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Always came across as a nice bloke.

I normally don't bring up such things in a thread like this one, but as an Arab who feels strongly about the Iraq War and the bloodshed it caused, I beg to differ and believe it's important not to glorify (even if with good intentions) individuals responsible for it:

His four years at Foggy Bottom (2001-04) were forever marked by the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Beforehand, Powell sought a more prudent policy, struggling for traction against hawks in the Bush cabinet while trying to sway allies for their support -- all to no avail.

He defended his support for the invasion until the very end of his tenure, and has endured the criticism ever since.

"I knew I didn't have any choice," Powell told The New York Times in July 2020. "What choice did I have? He's the president."

Colin Powell: war hero, historymaker haunted by Iraq - France 24
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
I normally don't bring up such things in a thread like this one, but as an Arab who feels strongly about the Iraq War and the bloodshed it caused, I beg to differ and believe it's important not to glorify (even if with good intentions) individuals responsible for it:
Fair enough
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I was alarmed when I first heard that he had died from complications of COVID despite being fully vaccinated, until I also learned that he suffered from a disease of the bone marrow that severely compromises the antibody response of the immune system, which of course is the target of the vaccine:

"Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells."
 

Wandering Monk

Well-Known Member
I was alarmed when I first heard that he had died from complications of COVID despite being fully vaccinated, until I also learned that he suffered from a disease of the bone marrow that severely compromises the antibody response of the immune system, which of course is the target of the vaccine:

"Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells."

He was a Vietnam Vet. Wonder if this is another Agent Orange death?
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
I'd take issue with that. His Powell memo sounded good, but, ultimately, he betrayed it -- or he was the world's biggest dupe,

He was certainly duped, like the rest of us, but at least he had the intestinal fortitude to call out the administration, warning Bush, "if you break it you own it"
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
He was certainly duped, like the rest of us, but at least he had the intestinal fortitude to call out the administration, warning Bush, "if you break it you own it"
I wasn't duped. UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter made it perfectly clear that there were no WMD. Why Are We In Iraq? — Alternative Radio

And there were a great many other refutations of the supposed intelligence Powell was reporting:
Iraq: A Failure of Intelligence — Alternative Radio
Iraq: Refuting the Bush Allegations — Alternative Radio
Iraq: Eyewitness to War — Alternative Radio

These are all from a single, weekly radio show I listened to. There were other, daily shows: Thom Hartman, Democracy Now!, &al, reporting much the same thing. How was the average progressive of the time aware of the lies and deceptions, But Powell was not?
Did he get his information from Rush Limbaugh, the CIA, or from watching Fox news?

He was either a True believer who had swallowed the government cool aid, or a dupe who was somehow unaware of the intelligence all the rest of us liberals knew.
 

pearl

Well-Known Member

ecco

Veteran Member
A man of honor

He was certainly duped...

He was neither a man of honor nor was he duped. He stood before Congress, the United Nations, and the American people and asserted, repeatedly, that Hussain had WMD.

Powell was not a dumb person. He was exceptionally intelligent. He could look at all the available intelligence and know that he was lying. However, he had the General's mindset - support the chain of command. In his case, the next level up was Bush who wanted a war with Hussain. He supported Bush's allegations. We attacked Iraq and completely lost sight of the real problem - Afghanistan and the terrorist organizations headquartered there.


Here is a good summary...
Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew About Iraq 15 Years Ago and What He Told the U.N.

LIE AFTER LIE: WHAT COLIN POWELL KNEW ABOUT IRAQ 15 YEARS AGO AND WHAT HE TOLD THE U.N.
The evidence is irrefutable: Powell consciously deceived the world in his 2003 presentation making the case for war with Saddam Hussein.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
He lied like a champ in front of the entire world, truly a master of his trade.

His supporters here on RF have also taught us the true meaning of "honor", i.e. that is has no meaning and is little more than an element of political propaganda to glorify imperialists and militarist oppressors.
 
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