When Colin Powell Sold His Honor

I was in the UN headquarters when Colin Powell sold his honor and started a war on Feb. 5, 2003. There is nothing as nauseating as seeing a big man crushed to dust, especially when hundreds of thousands of people die as a result.

Otherwise, Secretary of State Powell was long the most credible figure in George W. Bush’s administration; he was far more respectable than hawks like Rumsfeld, Rove and Wolfowitz, despite ― or probably due to ― the fact that he was a four-star general and previously served as Secretary of Defense.

Powell had long held a low, almost anonymous profile. He made no false attempts to link the terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein — two people that the average American could barely distinguish due to Bush’s cleverly fuzzy rhetoric in his numerous TV speeches.

America was already a nation at war; absurd patriotism lay like a suffocating blanket over domestic debate; everyone who questioned Bush’s false claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were latté-drinking liberals with no balls.

Any hope of decency and honesty lay with Powell.

He then stepped up to the UN’s rostrum and sold the war. He even sold his soul. He sold his credibility. He stood before the world and stated that there were links between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and showed blurry satellite images from the CIA that allegedly showed weapons of mass destruction.

Powell was under enormous pressure from Bush; he had doubts but chose to stand behind his government. Afterwards, he tried to save his skin and claimed that he had been duped by the CIA — that at the time he really believed that the evidence was “solid.”

Powell lied.

I have always considered that the invasion of Iraq had already started then, on Feb. 5, because a man who could have made a difference chose not to. He became the direct opposite of American icons like JFK or Martin Luther King. They spread hope; Powell spread shattered illusions.

If Powell had chosen to launch his speech with the words “I cannot say anything that I myself do not believe in,” the whole of Bush’s war machine would have broken down, Bush would not have been able to continue ignoring the UN, the USA’s following decade would have been significantly brighter and the UN would have, in the end, found a shrewder method of handling the ruthless dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Colin Powell had the power to change the world’s path. He chose the lie. It was terrible to see. At the press conference afterward, I felt ill just looking at him.

It was an exhibition of a great man’s pitifulness, something we all can learn from. We are defined by our choices.