Colin Powell Dead

[Milchshake]

A trailblazer in someways, a conventional republican in most other ways.

Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. He was 84.”General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” the Powell family wrote on Facebook.”We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” they said, noting he was fully vaccinated.

Powell was a distinguished and trailblazing professional soldier whose career took him from combat duty in Vietnam to becoming the first Black national security adviser during the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and the youngest and first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush. His national popularity soared in the aftermath of the US-led coalition victory during the Gulf War, and for a time in the mid-90s, he was considered a leading contender to become the first Black President of the United States. But his reputation would be forever stained when, as George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, he pushed faulty intelligence before the United Nations to advocate for the Iraq War, which he would later call a “blot” on his record.

Oh ya, that minor blot...

[Themius]

The last time I saw him. He was on msnbc saying Jim Crow was just as bad for white people as it was for black people because a white woman couldn’t serve him and she was confused why because she was from jersey. Yeah totally equal.

[Mihalik]

Colin Powell was a run of the mill Republican and just as much a war criminal as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest.

He just got the historical whitewash because occasionally he was willing to admit reality, plus comparatively to the post 2016 Republicans he seems positively sane and decent.

[XDurionX]

How many people died because of this man. At least he admitted his mistake.

[Shadowferal]

He was military. So not many here would appreciate that.

[downnola]

Live video of Henry Kissinger achieving immortality by draining the life of lesser imperialists.

[Breccia]

plus comparatively to the post 2016 Republicans he seems positively sane and decent.

As I posted in another thread, he dropped the Republican Party when Trump's rabid fanbase took part in a murderous insurrection. Just a reminder: even someone who came up with manufactured evidence to invade Iraq found the murderous insurrection too far.

[uuuhname]

*crab dance*

[Milchshake]

Live video of Henry Kissinger achieving immortality by draining the life of lesser imperialists.

/prays "Gods, please let Liza Minnelli outlive the Devil Kissinger"

https://twitter.com/LiZaOutlives/sta...78737962127367

[Adam Jensen]

And Facebook and Twitter are already chock full of idiots using this to claim the vaccines don't work.

I hate people sometimes.

[Breccia]

And Facebook and Twitter are already chock full of idiots using this to claim the vaccines don't work.

At this point, I'm tempted to say "fine, then don't get one" and wait till after the holidays to ask where to send the flowers.

[beanman12345]

And Facebook and Twitter are already chock full of idiots using this to claim the vaccines don't work.

I hate people sometimes.

They don't work in the ways we need them to in communities, when people are refusing to take them because, well, really the only reason people who have easy access to vaccines aren't taking them is low IQ's, or maybe like the hundred people in the US who might be actually be allergic or whatever, and then they transfer their shit onto the immunocompromised. They do work if we get the vaccine rates high enough to protect people like Colin, hence the low IQ mentioned on those who haven't gotten their shot who can.

[Mihalik]

Live video of Henry Kissinger achieving immortality by draining the life of lesser imperialists.

I'm absolutely convinced Kissinger will never die. His current raisin state is a just a transitory condition before he fully metamorphoses into an Elder God.

[fwc577]

How I felt when I saw the news:

[Shadowferal]

How I felt when I saw the news:

Pretty sure Trump will feel the same when Miley bites it.

[Paranoid Android]

His testimony or whatever in front of the UN Security Council was very disgraceful. I guess I sort of have/had respect for the man, but when I saw him trying to sell a war it killed much in my belief in the guy. He spoke out a little on Trump but just like any old school or whatever you want to call these Republicans Powell and Bush Administration helped nudge this along.

[Shadowferal]

Colin Powell's legacy was defined by his role in the Iraq War — a 'painful blot' on the record of America's most celebrated soldier

A soldier turned statesman: General Colin Powell made history on many fronts.

He was the nation's first African American national security advisor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.

You could argue that by the time of his retirement in 2005 he was one of America's most respected military figures.

But to the world, he was perhaps best known for one of his biggest blunders, towards the end of his career in public life.

His four decades of service – as the nation's top soldier, a diplomat and a trusted adviser to presidents on both sides – will be forever overshadowed by his speech to the United Nations Security Council in 2003, while he was serving as secretary of state.

Despite his own misgivings, he made the case for the invasion of Iraq, citing spurious evidence Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent danger to the world.

The invasion of Iraq, the start of the second Gulf War, came just six weeks later, led by the man who was hailed for ending the first.

It was a pivotal moment that shaped American foreign policy for a decade.

The weapons of mass destruction were never found. The blight on Powell's record tarnished America's global reputation and launched the beginnings of a costly and calamitous war in Iraq.

For a man whose namesake philosophy – the Powell Doctrine, based on his experience serving in Vietnam – argued the US must have clear military objectives for war, it stung as a personal failure, one he later described as "a blot" on his record.

"I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record," Powell said in 2005. "It was painful. It's painful now."

He admitted in a later interview the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the second Bush administration.

Even so, Powell achieved a great deal for the nation as a trailblazer, considering himself not just a role model for black soldiers but also for prejudiced whites.

In recent times, he shot back into the national headlines, as cities across the country went up in flames during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd.

After National Guard troops used tear gas to clear protestors from Lafayette Square and Donald Trump threatened to use military force against them, Colin Powell took to the airwaves to blast the then-commander-in-chief.

He said it would harm the relationship between the military and US citizens and even went so far as to call Trump a habitual liar who had drifted away from the Constitution. It was his most public disavowal of the ideal underpinning the GOP leadership, though he was often outspoken.

During the televised comments, he endorsed Joe Biden for president, breaking from his original Republican roots, which spanned the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush.

[Yuujin]

I want to know what was on his private email server.

[tehdang]

Colin Powell's legacy was defined by his role in the Iraq War — a 'painful blot' on the record of America's most celebrated soldier

A soldier turned statesman: General Colin Powell made history on many fronts.

He was the nation's first African American national security advisor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.

You could argue that by the time of his retirement in 2005 he was one of America's most respected military figures.

But to the world, he was perhaps best known for one of his biggest blunders, towards the end of his career in public life.

His four decades of service – as the nation's top soldier, a diplomat and a trusted adviser to presidents on both sides – will be forever overshadowed by his speech to the United Nations Security Council in 2003, while he was serving as secretary of state.

Despite his own misgivings, he made the case for the invasion of Iraq, citing spurious evidence Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent danger to the world.

The invasion of Iraq, the start of the second Gulf War, came just six weeks later, led by the man who was hailed for ending the first.

It was a pivotal moment that shaped American foreign policy for a decade.

The weapons of mass destruction were never found. The blight on Powell's record tarnished America's global reputation and launched the beginnings of a costly and calamitous war in Iraq.

For a man whose namesake philosophy – the Powell Doctrine, based on his experience serving in Vietnam – argued the US must have clear military objectives for war, it stung as a personal failure, one he later described as "a blot" on his record.

"I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record," Powell said in 2005. "It was painful. It's painful now."

He admitted in a later interview the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the second Bush administration.

Even so, Powell achieved a great deal for the nation as a trailblazer, considering himself not just a role model for black soldiers but also for prejudiced whites.

In recent times, he shot back into the national headlines, as cities across the country went up in flames during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd.

After National Guard troops used tear gas to clear protestors from Lafayette Square and Donald Trump threatened to use military force against them, Colin Powell took to the airwaves to blast the then-commander-in-chief.

He said it would harm the relationship between the military and US citizens and even went so far as to call Trump a habitual liar who had drifted away from the Constitution. It was his most public disavowal of the ideal underpinning the GOP leadership, though he was often outspoken.

During the televised comments, he endorsed Joe Biden for president, breaking from his original Republican roots, which spanned the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush.

Yes. It’s important to note that he considered that speech a permanent stain on his record. And it was his job to question the evidence presented to him by the intelligence agencies.

Also, a good autobiography. He was raised in poverty, the son of immigrant blue collar workers, and rose to Secretary of State.

[Slirith]

And nothing of value was lost