The Confessions of Colin Powell

On September 9, 2005, A.B.C. news reported on the views of former Secretary of State Colin Powell. He told Barbara Walters that he felt terrible about his 2003 speech before the United Nations, where he talked about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Powell’s claims at the U.N. were uniformly false and misleading, and the episode ruined his reputation. “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. It was painful. It’s painful now.”


Powell placed the blame for his errors on lower-level personnel in intelligence. But in 2003, when he showed the U.N. this picture of a tiny, drone plane, it was difficult to believe that General Colin Powell truly regarded that plane as a “weapons delivery system” which threatened America.


The sad truth is that Powell was a loyal soldier, following the directives of his Commander-in-Chief. Unfortunately, his Commander-in-Chief, along with other Republican neo-cons, began planning in earnest to attack Iraq before George Bush, Junior was nominated in 2000.