Iraq invasion a blot on Powell’s sterling legacy

Colin Powell, the first black US secretary of state and top military officer, died on Monday at the age of 84 due to complications from Covid-19.

Powell was one of the US’s most prominent black figures for decades. He served three Republican presidents and reached the top of the military as it was regaining its vigour after the trauma of the Vietnam War.

A moderate Republican and a pragmatist, Powell was the top US general when US-led forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991. He became a celebrity during the war with crisp televised briefings, at one point saying of Iraq’s army: “First we’re going to cut it off, then we’re going to kill it.”

But Powell, as secretary of state under president George W Bush, will forever be associated with his controversial presentation on February 5 2003 to the UN Security Council, making Bush’s case that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons weapons of mass destruction. Powell admitted later that the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the Bush administration and represented “a blot” that will “always be a part of my record”.

Powell endured four stormy years as the top US diplomat, often outmaneuvered by vicepresident Dick Cheney with whom he had served closely under the first president Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

In a brief statement, the Powell family said he had died on Monday morning from Covid-19. Condolences poured in, including from Bush. “Many presidents relied on Gen Powell’s counsel and experience,” Bush wrote in a statement. “He was such a favourite of presidents that he earned the presidential medal of freedom twice.”

One of his chief accomplishments was his development of the “Powell Doctrine” on the use of US force, which arose out of the ambiguous objectives and erratic troop build-up of the Vietnam War era. The doctrine states: war should be a last resort; force, when used, should be overwhelming; there must be strong public support for it and a clear exit strategy.

In 2008, Powell broke with his party to endorse Democrat Barack Obama, the first black person elected to the White House. Illustrating his deep misgivings about the evolution of the Republican Party as it moved to the Right in recent years, Powell endorsed Democrats Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and Joe Biden last year against Donald Trump. Powell called Trump a liar who presented a danger to the US.