As someone who is married to an Iraqi, I believe I have some insight into how Iraqis might think of this man who is being celebrated today as a war hero by some, and as someone we should at least respect for his accomplishments and his “remorse” over the 2003 Iraq war by others.
This is not about celebrating his death, but about putting it in proper historical context. Colin Powell willingly served a neocon administration that lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and Iraq playing a role in 9/11. He presented laughable evidence at his infamous UN speech—other countries saw through these lies immediately and refused to go along with Powell and his neocon buddies.
Powell knew the “evidence” he had before him was a bunch of concocted nonsense. But either he was a coward who, in a position of power, refused to go against the American imperial war machine, or he felt the war would go well and he would be lauded once again for a war that the US won. His contorted regrets for presenting fake evidence to the UN came only after the foreign policy establishment viewed the Iraq war as a failure. It has nothing to do with the any remorse for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis he helped to murder.
Powell represented an imperial American war machine. The 1991 Persian Gulf War, which most people regard as a just and legitimate war, destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure. Powell presided over this destruction as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He oversaw the destruction of Iraq’s electricity grid, its water treatment plants, and its industry. Iraq was never able to rebuild and the resulting public health crisis in Iraq caused the deaths of thousands of children (Madeleine Albright said the price of dead children was “worth it”).
I won’t pay my respects to this man, who served American empire in its mass murder of brown people around the world. You may disagree with my assessment, but if you do, please tell me why my partner, who lost family as a result of the 2003 invasion, and whose family became refugees, should regard Colin Powell as anything but a war criminal. In the celebration of Powell’s life, one important thing is missing—the stories and perspectives of his victims.