Colin Powell, who has died aged 84, undoubtedly accomplished much in his life. He was the US’s first black national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state. He was also the person who, as the representative of the US government, went before the United Nations in 2003 and said that the US intelligence community had evidence that proved Iraq had hidden weapons of mass destruction. It is this duality that will define his legacy.
“There can be no doubt,” Powell said, “that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more.” The US went to war in Iraq mere weeks later. We do not know exactly how many civilians were killed because of that decision, but we do know that between the invasion and October 2019, at least 184,382 civilians and perhaps as many as 207,156 died directly from the violence of the war.
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