COMMENTARY: Many of General Colin Powell’s achievements outweigh any particular ‘Blot’ in his long, stagnant career | News

If you were born after 1995 and are not particularly interested in 20th century American history, General Colin Powell maybe a floating question mark for you – a name that dominated the headlines at the start of your week but seemed unfamiliar. You know you’ve heard the name before, but you’re not sure where and in what context.

But if you have any reverence for the history that Barack Obama made as our first Black president, you shouldn’t appreciate Powell at all, who died early Monday morning complications from COVID-19 at age 84. Born in New York City in 1937 and raised in the Bronx as a first-generation Jamaican American, Powell’s story is a prime example of determination. of immigrants who came to America and indulged in dreams within its borders.

By Powell curriculum vitae was a historic first: He was the first black United States Secretary of State, a position he held from 2001 to 2005. He was the first Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, under presidents. Bill Clinton and George HW Bush. He was the country’s first Black National Security Adviser, under the President Ronald Reagan, in which he was instrumental in ending the Cold War with Russia. He was the second black man to hold the position of a four-star general in the United States Army. He is one of only two people to have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice.
RELATED: The 5 most memorable events in Colin Powell’s illustrious career

He accomplished all of this in a historically conservative (read: racist) US Army. Powell was first commissioned in 1958 – just a decade after the President Harry Truman segregate the Army – and spend decades literally leveling up; it would be 41 years of his career (including two tours during the Vietnam War) before he became a general. Powell was involved in most of the U.S. military conflicts in the second half of the 20th Century, and was actually the architect of several, including the Persian Gulf War in the early 1920s. 1990 and the 1989 US Invasion of Panama.

Unfortunately, the career blemish that Powell would cling to until his death was a speech he gave to the United Nations in February 2003 in which he justified the need to bring down the mob. Iraqi autocracy. Saddam Hussein with its now notorious claim to be “weapons of mass destruction.” We now know that none of those have been found in Iraq, but it led to a protracted, malevolent war that officially ended in 2011 but its impact has led to unrest. in the area still exists to this day.
RELATED: General Colin Powell: Biden, Obama, others Remember his leadership and longtime friendship

Powell himself called the defense of the war and the speech that followed, “blot” on his profile. He’s not entirely forgiven for that blame, but many conveniently forget that there were plenty of cooks in the kitchen with the Iraq War, including Presiden. Mr. George W. Bush, Vice president Dick Cheney and Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld (a trilogy that many would consider to be true “Axis of Evil“). There are also members of Congress – many of whom are still comfortable in their gigs collecting checks – and, yes, even the press.

But Powell is the face – the Black face – used by many as a photograph at the center of the dart table during the Iraq War to this day. Take a look at yourself… there are a lot of headlines about Powell and the Iraq War as well as about his actual death.

Since Powell is a soldier dyed in fleece, anyone with American imperialism, wars of obvious origin or the blood of young soldiers and innocent civilians on our hands is welcome. can choose a worse target than him. However, to be a leader in the US Government is to have blood in your hands. Dots. Obama included.

If that’s the metric you want to measure Powell from, I wouldn’t argue. However, I choose to commemorate him as an outstanding leader, the first to accomplish many great things that black people thought was unthinkable when he accomplished them.

Dustin J. Seibert is a native Detroiter living in Chicago. He loves his mother a little more Music and only exercised every day so that his French fry didn’t catch up with him. Find him at wafflecolored.com.