America says goodbye to Colin Powell, one of the most influential and controversial figures in US politics of recent decades. A career, his, which peaked with his appointment as Secretary of State in the first administration of George W. Bush. It was then that with an intervention before the UN Security Council, in February 2003, Powell de facto paved the way for the invasion of Iraq, waving a vial containing a white powder and accusing Saddam Houssein’s regime of possessing weapons. chemical. A truth later denied by the facts. Powell was 84, and he was fully vaccinated. But it was still crushed by some complications related to Covid. The virus, family members explain,
For years now in retirement, Powell’s last political outing dates back to last January, when after the assault on Congress he stated that he no longer recognized himself in the Republican party, definitively repudiating the leaders considered hostage to a figure like Donald Trump, against whom he had voted in 2016 and 2020. But already since 2008 his intolerance towards the Grand Old Party had emerged with the endorsement given to Barack Obama, who defined a figure of change capable of transforming the country. After all, he too with his professional and human life has contributed significantly to the change. In fact, with Powell not only a 40-year protagonist of US foreign policy is leaving, but also a symbol of the American dream and the emancipation of the African-American community.
Born in Harlem to parents who emigrated from Jamaica, raised on the rough streets of the Bronx and graduated from New York Public University, Powell, thanks to his indisputable leadership skills, has climbed the social pyramid reaching the top of the US military and of world diplomacy. He thus became the first African American to hold the roles of National Security Advisor with Ronald Reagan (whom I help negotiate the end of the Cold War with Michail Gorbachev), Chief of Staff of the US Armed Forces (directing Operation Desert Storm in the first Persian Gulf War) and secretary of state from 2001 to 2004. The difficult relationship with two other strongmen of the presidency of George W. Bush,
“America loses a great servant of the state,” the former president paid tribute to him. The greatest legacy of him remains the doctrine that bears his name, elaborated in the early 90s with the end of the Cold War and developed starting from the first war in Iraq. A doctrine which, while Powell was nicknamed ‘the reluctant warrior’, emphasized the use of ground forces to defend national security interests. A line that led to the two Gulf wars and the invasion of Afghanistan after the attacks of 11 September 2001 and which is now being questioned, with President Joe Biden who, with his escape from Kabul, has effectively closed a era.
