RIP Colin Powell, The Last American Hero

RIP Colin Powell, The Last American Hero

– By Ed Kociela –

Over the course of his 35-year military career, Colin Powell was awarded a chestful of medals and ribbons, but he will be remembered more for his humanity than his time spent carrying iron.

We lost Powell Monday when he died at Walter Reed National Medical Center from complications of COVID-19. Powell, 84, was battling multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that destroys the immune system. Cancer weakened his system to the point where it was unable to see him through COVID-19 even though he was fully vaccinated. It is a painful reminder of just how deadly this virus can be, especially for the elderly or those with weakened immune systems.

The history books will most certainly archive the many illustrious accomplishments by this son of Jamaican immigrants who was born in Harlem to a family of simple means. He was a man of humble beginnings who put his back into his work to become a four-star general in the U.S. Army, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first African-American to serve as Secretary of State, and a man both parties courted to make a run for the presidency. He was wounded in Vietnam when he stepped on a punji stick during his first tour of duty, then single-handedly saved three soldiers from a helicopter crash he survived.

He’s no tin hero. In fact, he is arguably the last American hero, a man who lived with unshaken loyalty, bathed himself in humility, and was never afraid to speak the truth, particularly when the well-being of his comrades in arms was on the line.

He was unique among his peers, loathe to allow the heat of the moment to influence his clear and steady thinking.

I normally do not hold much sympathy for public figures who get caught up in the maelstrom of politics and power, but I genuinely felt sorry for Powell after he was duped by then-Vice President Dick Cheney and the George W. Bush war Cabinet that was gung ho about invading Iraq, so gung ho that they manufactured reasons to invade Iraq – the first being that Saddam Hussein had accumulated weapons of mass destruction and was developing nuclear weapons, the second one tying Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Powell’s loyalty ran deep and he was persuaded to take that argument and present it to the world during a presentation to the United Nations that tarnished his career. There were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq and, as we later learned, the terrorists had was rooted deeply in Saudi Arabia – which had favored nations status to the Bush family and Cheney. The administration used him and his cache of integrity to push a lie that resulted in inexcusable deaths and loss of treasure. Powell looked back on the situation with sadness, telling interviewer Barbara Walters that it represents “a blot…(that will) always be part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now.”

And, even though he presented the administration’s case, he still was not sure that military involvement was the right course.

“Once you break it, you are going to own it, and we’re going to be responsible for 26 million people standing there looking at us,” he told George W. Bush in the days before the invasion of Iraq. “And it’s going to suck up a good 40 to 50 percent of the Army for years. And it’s going to take all the oxygen out of the political environment.”

He leaned heavily on what was called the Powell Doctrine, developed when he worked for W’s father in the run-up to the first Gulf War. It as a treatise that suggested that military intervention be limited unless the powers that be determined issues of national security were on the line, that there was widespread public support for such action, and that overwhelming force was employed to make any war go as quickly as possible, reducing casualties all around.

He was always an advocate of exhausting every diplomatic avenue before sending men and women into harm’s way. When the United States plunged headfirst into the Bosnian crisis he was opposed to the incursion. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Bill Clinton appointee, asked, at the time, “What’s the point of having this superb military you are always talking about if we can’t use it?” In his memoirs, Powell said “I thought I would have an aneurism. American GIs are not toy soldiers to be moved around on some global game board.”

And, although he rose through the ranks under three Republican presidents, he separated himself from the party by endorsing Democrats in the last four presidential elections and emerged as one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics, calling him “a national disgrace” who should have been removed from office through impeachment. He officially left the Republican Party after the Jan.6 insurrection.

In a way, I am happy that Powell did not enter politics. It would have, in my mind, tarnished his legacy. Besides, he wasn’t good at running with the big dogs who took advantage of him, guys like Cheney who told Powell, after convincing him to deliver the faux news of WMDs in Iraq before the U.N., that it was better for him to do it than any of the others on the Cabinet because “You’ve got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points.”

We will miss Colin Powell because people of integrity have been in the minority for some time now.

He was one of a kind.

He is our last American hero.

Rest in peace, Gen. Powell. You will be missed.

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