United States: Colin Powell, former secretary of state, died of coronavirus

The career soldier who became Secretary of State under George W. Bush died at the age of 84 as a result of Covid-19 on Monday, October 18.

Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, died at the age of 84 from “complications from Covid-19,” his family announced Monday (October 18th). He is notably known for having defended the American intervention in Iraq in 2003 during a controversial intervention at the UN.

Son of Jamaican immigrants who grew up in the Bronx in New York, he had a military career , participating in particular in the Vietnam War, before entering politics. Between 1987 and 1989, Colin Powell was the National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan, before becoming Secretary of State during George W. Bush’s first term .

It was at this time that he made himself known to the general public, defending, on February 5, 2003, at the UN the American intervention in Iraq against Saddam Hussein’s regime. During his intervention he assures us that the country has biological as well as nuclear weapons and shows a capsule presented as containing anthrax.

Colin Powell gives up being part of the government during George W. Bush’s second term and even supports Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 polls. In 2013, he recognizes that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction  at the time of his speech to the United Nations.

Former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Colin Powell, died at the age of 84 from “complications from Covid-19,  ” his family announced Monday. He was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital, located in the Washington suburbs, where US presidents are often treated. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, and grandfather, and a great American,” they said in a statement, adding that he was ”  fully vaccinated  .”

Prior to becoming the head of American diplomacy between 2001 and 2005, during the first term of George W. Bush , Colin Powell was the first African-American to have served as chief of staff of the armed forces, from 1989 to 1993. Advocate of the war in Iraq , it was he who had given the speech before the UN Security Council on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) allegedly held by Iraq. Arguments which then justified the American intervention in Iraq.

The former geologist later admitted that this speech was “a stain” on his reputation: “It is a stain because I am the one who made this presentation on behalf of the United States to the world, and it will still part of my balance sheet. ”

Greetings from Joe Biden

Colin Powell represented “the highest ideals of diplomacy and the military,” said President Joe Biden on Monday . The ex-soldier was “a patriot of unparalleled honor and dignity” but also “a dear friend”, declared the Democratic president. Colin Powell had “repeatedly put the country ahead of himself, before the party, before everything else” and “this had earned him the respect of the American people.”

He had distanced himself from the Republican Party from 2008, supporting the candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, then Joe Biden, who told him “to be eternally grateful”. “Having broken racial barriers many times, paving the way for others,” he was invested throughout his life for the “next generation of leaders,” said Joe Biden.

He was a four-star general in the army. Former US Secretary of State under George W. Bush Colin Powell died at the age of 84 from “complications related to Covid-19,” his family announced Monday, October 18.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, and grandfather, and a great American,” they said in a statement posted on social media, adding that he was “fully vaccinated.”

Colin Powell died at Walter Reed Hospital, located in suburban Washington, where US presidents are often treated.

Joe Biden said Colin Powell represented “the highest ideals of diplomacy and the military.” Former President George W. Bush, meanwhile, hailed Colin Powell as a “great servant of the state”, “highly respected”, in a press release.

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