On Monday (18th) local time in the United States, former US Secretary of State Powell died of complications of new crown pneumonia at the age of 84.
Born in bronx, New York, to a family of Jamaican working-class immigrants, Powell rose from community store clerk to warehouse floor cleaner, became the first African-American secretary of state, the top military official, and was recognized as one of the most outstanding leaders of the United States. However, a war in Iraq linked his life to killing and bloodshed.
In the eyes of many Iraqis, Powell was the "culprit" who had plunged their country and generations into the quagmire of war. As soon as the name is mentioned, many people will immediately have such an image in their minds: In 2003, Powell, as THE US secretary of state, came to the United Nations Security Council and held a bottle of unknown powdered "biological and chemical weapons" similar to "washing powder", declared that Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction", and proposed to launch a war against Iraq. Since then, the United States has invaded Iraq, which has ruined the country and is still struggling to rebuild.
↑ Powell with "laundry detergent".
Foreign media reported that the 76-minute speech became the most memorable event of Powell's career, and perhaps the one he regretted the most. Since then, he has repeatedly publicly claimed that this is "a stain on his resume".
Although his statement ultimately failed to persuade the Security Council to adopt a second resolution in support of military action against Iraq, it became a decisive moment for the discredit of the United States on the world stage and a turning point in U.S.-United Nations relations.
76 minutes to shame the rest of the life
"Every statement I make today is backed by reliable sources. These are not assertions, we provide facts and conclusions based on reliable intelligence. Powell said at a briefing on February 5, 2003. To underscore this, he played recordings of conversations between Iraqi military officers about UN weapons verification and showed pictures of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) equipment, underscoring the urgency of the Iraqi threat.
But in fact, Powell has "false evidence" in his hands. The content of the recorded conversations has been modified to make them more incriminating, and the pictures are from the "imagination" of Iraqi defectors who told the George W. Bush administration what the other side wanted to hear. The tube of white powder in Powell's hand has been ridiculed by Russian President Putin countless times in public: "Powell shook a small bottle of unknown substance, saying that it was chemical weapons evidence, and it was not good that it was washing powder!" To this day, "Powell, laundry detergent" is a set of search keywords linked together.
Just two years later, Powell, who had left the government, confessed that the 76-minute speech was a stain on his career. In an interview with the U.S. media, he said: "I have shown this evidence to the world on behalf of the United States, and this record will always accompany me." I'm in pain right now. ”
↑ After speaking on the Security Council, someone handed Powell a note that read, "Colin, you spoke very well. ”
In a 2011 interview with Al Jazeera, Powell again said he regretted providing "misleading intelligence" that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying it was a stain on his resume. He confessed at the time that many of the sources cited by the intelligence community were wrong, but he did not know it. But in a 2012 interview, he added: "The United States has had a lot of success [in the Iraq War]. ”
Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the United States at the time, said that for Powell, the circumstances created a conflict between preserving his reputation and fulfilling his responsibilities as secretary of state. He believes that when the U.S. Supreme Commander says, "Go to New York and give a speech," someone like Powell won't say "no."
"He should have refused at the time, and he may have reflected later that he should have resigned at that time." I think it broke him. For the rest of his life, he felt ashamed. I have great sympathy for him. Meyer said.
Becoming the "original sin" of the relationship between the United States and the United Nations has paved the way for the creation of "IS."
The war, however, did not move in the direction of the George W. Bush administration's initial projections. The war lasted far longer than the George W. Bush administration had predicted, and ultimately fueled the rise of the extremist terrorist group Islamic State (IS). In 2011, the Obama administration withdrew its troops from Iraq, but three years later, when IS invaded Iraq from Syria and occupied large areas, Obama had to send military advisers again to intervene in the country.
International experts pointed out that Powell's 2003 speech on Iraq marked a turning point in the relationship between the United States and the United Nations. Richard Goughn, director of the International Crisis Group, said: "Because of the Iraq war and the erroneous claims of weapons of mass destruction, the credibility of the United States in the United Nations has not yet fully recovered."
↑In December 2000, President-elect George W. Bush announced that he would nominate Powell as Secretary of State. On the far right is Vice President-elect Cheney.
He pointed out that diplomats from many countries around the world still regard the Iraq war as evidence that the United States cannot fully trust the United States at the United Nations, which has become the "original sin of the relationship between the United States and the United Nations", and Powell himself admitted this afterwards. Although he himself was completely misled and exploited by the George W. Bush administration.
Objectively speaking, it was not Powell's speech that directly triggered the war in Iraq, which had already been planned when he entered the UNITED Nations chamber. But in addition to having a serious impact on U.S. credibility, Powell's speech did "contribute" to the downward trajectory of the situation in the Middle East.
Even more ironically, in this speech, Powell mentioned jordanian-born jihadist Zarqawi 21 times in an attempt to prove the link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. But according to subsequent surveys by U.S. media, the speech helped raise Zarqawi's profile, giving the previously unknown man a large following and paving the way for his later creation of the Islamic State (IS).
According to foreign media reports, the news of Powell's death has once again aroused the anger of the Iraqi people. They argue that several officials in the George W. Bush administration are responsible for the catastrophic U.S.-led invasion that has resulted in decades of death, chaos and violence in Iraq. In the eyes of Iraqis, Powell's 2003 speech at the United Nations was key to the whole affair, saying that what followed had taken a heavy toll on Iraqis and those elsewhere in the Middle East.
The war opened Pandora's box, and after the withdrawal of AMERICAN troops, Iraq struggled to explore the road of "Iraqis and Iraqis". According to Xinhua News Agency, Iraq recently held its fifth National Assembly election since the end of the Iraq War. Due to high government corruption, high unemployment and lack of public services, the Mahdi government was forced to step down due to massive demonstrations in many parts of Iraq in October 2019, and the National Assembly elections in 2022 should be held earlier.
Mariam, a 51-year-old Iraqi writer, said, "He (Powell) has been lying. Because of his lies, we are caught up in endless wars. ”
Red Star News reporter Xu Huan
Edited by Zhang Xun
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