>> i will not be a candidate for president or for any other elective office in 19 -9d 6. >> reporter: powell became a household name during the first gulf war when he pointed at a map showing the location of the iraqi army. >> our strategy to go after this army is very, very simple. first, we're going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it. >> reporter: desert storm, as it was called, lasted just seven weeks, and in an interview on the 25th anniversary of the war, powell acknowledged it may have created a false impression that the next war would be just as quick. do you think desert storm created unrealistic expectations about what military force can -- >> it may have in the mind of some. it didn't in my mind. i understood the nature of that war, how limited it was, and it wasn't a model of what we could do in every other con flick that comes along. >> reporter: he developed the powell doctrine, a series of questions to be asked w. one of them, is there a