. colin powell was a singular figure of our time. to my mind he had one of the most interesting public lives in recent memory. born to jamaican immigrants, grew up in the south bronx, served 35 years as a soldier, rosed to absolute highest ranks and today powell died at the age of 84 from covid related complications and what you will be reading and hearing about a lot i think rightly is how his career was marred as the new york times put it in a speech he gave in 2003 at the united nations where he made the bush administration s case for invading iraq. after the invasion, it became clear that iraq did not have the weapons of mass destruction, and much of his argument had been base ds on faulty intelligence. powell is one of the few people involved in the utter debacle and deception to at the very least publicly seek redemptions to enup to his role. he said quote i will regret it. i will always regret t. it was a
0 tonight s last word. the 11th hour with brian williams, starts now. good evening once again day 272 of the biden administration, and this evening flags at the white house, lives throughout washington and the u.s. facility throughout the country and around the world are at half staff in honor of colin paul who died this morning, general paul was 84 years old, he died of covid complications while battling both parkinson s and multiple myeloma. we will have more and much more of its life and legacy just ahead. tonight is also the eve of the first major legal showdown for the special house committee, investigating the january 6th riot and insurrection. and a little over 20 hours, the committee is scheduled to formally vote on whether to adopt a report recommending criminal contempt charges against trump advisor steve bannon, who had failed to comply with the subpoena. earlier tonight they released the report on ben interfusions. it outlines what the committee wants from him. and it rec
did not like war, i do not being a warrior. this is because he had been in vietnam. he knew the ugly side of war. he knew that war had to be the last resort and so when it came time and i mean, this again is this cycle in his life. he is secretary of state for george w. bush. and they invaded afghanistan and that was supported widely, but then they re on the verge of invading iraq and again, powell serves as the voice of do we have to do this? is there another option? and in the end, he made his case but in retrospect and discussions i had with him, he
really kind of sparked the iraq war, that the general has called a blot on his own service. take me inside that time, colonel. how the general reacted after delivering that speech and what followed, and how he saw his legacy after that speech delivered at the u.n. i think it s important to take a step back, when george w. bush summoned his cabinet and said that he was planning on invading iraq. general powell, then secretary of state, spoke up and said, mr. president, that is not something that you should do. if you do, you re going to be sorry. the president said, i m going to do it anyway. and he was then asked by the president to give that speech
nor al-qaeda and other groups that may make afghanistan their home again in the future. more up to the point, even if we are not interested in any of these nations and the brutal politics, they are interested in us. okay. fair enough. the idea that al-qaeda reconstituting in afghanistan does not sound good, it sounds quite bad. but let s remember how we got here. 20 years later. the generation of americans who lived through 9/11, were so shocked and traumatized by that day, by the mass murder and spectacular fashion of 3000 of our fellow citizens. the country lost its mind for while. under the leadership of the bush administration and rooted on by fox news, and lots of mainstream media, and on tv, we as a nation, collectively, our government with our consent did a bunch of awful things we should ve done, most notably, invading iraq, torturing people. opening guantánamo bay, which