Tributes are continuing to pour in for former Republican US Secretary of State Colin Powell who died of COVID-19 related complications. A statement posted on Facebook by his family confirmed his passing despite being fully vaccinated, adding that they lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather, and a great American.
General Colin Powell is regarded as one of the foremost national security figures in the United States over the last three decades, rising to the high office as Secretary of State – becoming the first black person to hold the position that made him the highest-ranking black American to serve in the Executive, that is until the historic election of former President Barack Obama in 2008.
A statement from the Powell family confirmed his passing Monday morning due to COVID-19 complications despite being fully vaccinated. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather, and a great American.”
This is a view echoed by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. “The world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed. Alma lost a great husband and the family lost a tremendous father. And I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor. He has been my mentor for a number of years. He always made time for me, and I could always go to him with tough issues. He always had great counsel. We will certainly miss him.”
Powell’s storied career includes serving in combat in Vietnam, becoming the country’s first black national security advisor to then-Republican President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s, later named the first black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the highest military office in the United States in the early 1990s and later appointed the first black Secretary of State in 2001 – the highest-ranking black government official at the time in the history of the country.
A statement from former President George W. Bush says he and former first lady Laura are deeply saddened by his death, calling him a great public servant who earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, someone highly respected at home and abroad. Listen to Antony Blinken – the current US Secretary of State.
“Secretary Powell was beloved here at the State Department at C Street and at our embassies and consulates around the world. He came to the State Department after a long and storied career in the US armed forces. He was General Powell – former Chairman of the Joint Chief when he walked into the Oval Office to be sworn in as our nation’s top diplomat. After that, he was Mr. Secretary. He gave the statement department the very best of his leadership. His experience, his patriotism. He gave us his decency and the State Department loved him for it.”
Powell’s career highlights:
His illustrious career was complicated when he became the face of the Bush Administration’s international effort to invade Iraq in 2003 over faulty intelligence pointing to the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – addressing the UN Security Council in the midst of international outrage against the invasion.
“What you will see is an accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behavior. The facts on Iraq’s behaviour demonstrate that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort, no effort, to disarm as required by the international community.”
He also broke ranks with the Republican Party in 2008 when he endorsed and later voted for Barack Obama in the Presidential election and again when he endorsed Democrat Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020.
Meanwhile, several local media in the US also report that Powell was battling cancer when he succumbed to COVID-19 complications after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2019 – a cancer of the plasma cells that are central in making antibodies that protect us from infection. Given his advanced age, he was in an especially high-risk and vulnerable group to a breakthrough infection of COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. General Colin Powell was 84.
