of the american dream. the first black secretary of state, the first black leader of the us military. yet he was born to jamaican immigrants in harlem and was lost as a teenager. today, flags were lowered to half staff and the tributes have been lavish. he broke so many barriers and those barriers were not easy to break by any stretch. but he did it with dignity, he did it with grace. until saddam hussain�*s invasion of kuwait in 1990, colin powell was relatively unknown. after it, he became a household name, as america's first black commander of the us military. he developed the powell doctrine — don't start a war unless you know how you are going to end it. in many ways, he was a reluctant warrior, having been injured during the vietnam war,