Colin Powell has died from complications of Covid-19 at the age of 84. His family wrote on Facebook, “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.” They noted he was fully vaccinated.
He had a close relationship with Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. In 1988, Stevens suggested Colin Powell should be the vice presidential candidate with George H. W. Bush. Stevens was the first person to ever suggest to Powell that he should have presidential aspirations.
That was back when Vice President Bush was running for president after the Reagan era; he chose Dan Quayle as his running mate, rather than Powell, who was Reagan’s National Security Adviser.
Later, in 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush asked Powell to become his running mate, but Powell was not interested. G.W. Bush ultimately chose Dick Cheney.
Powell, who became the first black Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, showed such wisdom and leadership during his time in Republican Administrations, that many people were on board with the idea of him running for president. He was popular with Republicans and Democrats alike.
Prior to Barack Obama’s election as president in 2008, Powell and his Secretary of State successor, Condoleezza Rice, were the highest-ranking blacks in the history of the federal executive branch, according to Wikipedia.
The Powell-Stevens friendship endured for decades. When Stevens was investigated for corruption in 2008, Powell testified as his trial, saying he knew Stevens “extremely” well and describing Stevens’ character as “sterling.”
Prosecutors from the Department of Justice, who were later found to be corrupt, accused Stevens of lying on Senate financial disclosures about renovations to a cabin he owned in Girdwood.
Powell testified that he had known Stevens well for 25 years.
“As we say in the infantry, this is a guy you take on a long patrol,” the retired four-star Army general told the court.
“There was never any suggestion that he would do anything that was improper,” Powell said. The two had worked on military appropriation issues for many decades.
Stevens has always been honest and upfront — “someone whose word you can rely on” — when he worked with him on Capitol Hill, Powell said.
In Stevens Powell explained that “I had a guy who would tell me when I was off base. I had a guy who would tell me when I had no clothes on. Figuratively.”
Powell told the court that Stevens has always put country first. When Powell once told Stevens the military needed to reduce forces in Alaska, Stevens didn’t like it but listened and agreed to support the draw-down for the good of the country.
“He fights for his state, he fights for his people but he always has the interests of his country at heart,” Powell said.
In 1999, when Stevens was awarded the Eisenhower Leadership Award, he said, “I am filled with awe and trepidation when the list of past recipients of this award is read. I was a foot soldier in Ike’s battle to “Wage Peace.” To follow President Bush, Colin Powell, Bob Dole, Lloyd Bentsen, and Brent Scowcroft is an honor that takes my breath away.”
For some Republicans, Powell was too moderate to become the presidential nominee for their party. He was not as conservative as Reagan. Some called him a “Rockefeller Republican.” He had come out in favor of gun control, some abortions, and banning prayer in school.
But in 2016, even though he was not a candidate, he received three electoral votes from faithless Democrat Party electors from Washington state who did not want to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton.
Born in New York City in 1937 to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Brooklyn, Powell had attended public schools in New York and City College of New York. A member of ROTC, he received a commission as an Army second lieutenant in 1958. He served two tours in Vietnam and rose through the ranks until being named Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command in 1989.
During this time as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he oversaw the the invasion of Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1990–1991.
He was known for the Powell Doctrine: The military should be used only if the condition met three criteria that included national security interests, the willingness to use overwhelming force, and widespread public support.
His work after retirement in 2004 was as an author, public speaker, and chair of America’s Promise, a nonprofit organization to build the character of America’s youth. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and honorary degrees from universities and colleges throughout the country. His autobiography, “My American Journey” was a best-seller.
Neither Powell nor Stevens were conservatives. Both were pro abortion and Stevens was an extreme “pork politician”….. Hypocrites will say, “but it was for Alaska”.
I agree with you, Marlin.
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In fact, I think that Ted Stevens was arguably the WORST thing to ever happen to Alaska.
His incorporation of the Natives, his federal pork spending, the vast spending on Bush Alaska, inuring most Natives into welfare dependency … his legacy was and is destructive and damning in so many way.
Alaska Natives have civil rights, economic and political power they DID NOT have before Ted Stevens.
Alaska Natives only recently accrued collective generational wealth through the ANLCSA and establishment of the Native Corporations. Carl Marrs of CIRI pioneered Alaska Native Corps as big business. ASRC soon followed and the gold rush was on as every other Native corp joined the fray. Incorporation is capitalism. The American way. Isn’t that what all White men claim to want for everyone? Apparently, the answer is “No,” unless you get your cut FIRST, right? Or — better yet — not unless you get it ALL.
Sophie, Sophie, Sophie, why are you ALWAYS on the wrong side of logic, reason and decency here?
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No, I will repeat it: Ted Stevens was the WORST thing to happen to Alaska in its history, bar nothing. His pernicious, damaging and destructive legacy will live on and continue to wreak havoc and misery on Alaska for decades after his death. And what was that legacy? It was subjecting Alaskan Natives to the neo-feudalism of corporatism, funneling a vastly disproportionate share of federal tax dollars to Alaska for decades, and thereby transforming Alaska from being a resource-producing state to a federal welfare colony. Just look at the current alcoholism, sexual abuse, spousal abuse, homelessness, and suicide rates among Alaskan Natives, and tell me that they are better off today than they were 50 years ago.
Conveniently you mention Alaska’s King Kong status among States as a recipient of Federal money. Why would you do that? It doesn’t reinforce your position.
Yes, you drove on those roads. Yes, you flushed your toilets and turned on faucets.
Yes, you sent and received mail.
Yes, you eat food and wear clothing you bought in the store.
EVERYTHING you can touch with hands or feet — or look at — if it is infrastructure, or goods, or systems of commerce — if something wasn’t here, Stevens made it happen.
If something needed to get better, he made that happen, too.
These facts make YOU a Ted Stevens FEDERAL WELFARE BENEFACTOR all these years.
Jeff — you’ve been one of Ted’s Alaska Welfare Queens just like everybody else all along.
Did I say benefactor? I certainly meant RECIPIENT!
Sophie, nothing you state in your rambling diatribe negates the points that I raised earlier. If anything, your screed only reinforces my points instead.
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You really are not very good at trying to think logically, rationally and analytically, are you?
(That was a rhetorical question, by the way — the answer to it is quite obvious to everyone here.)
That is savage. Some people have the aptitude to make it happen, others are a critiquing bunch whose self importance knows no bounds. He may have not made some decisions that were perfect, but he did his best for a state and country he loved. Who can ask more of a man.
he did what was best for ted & ben…
And what was best for the corporations whom they both served.
Ted Stevens had a vision for statehood and Alaska. Progress thus far would not have been possible without Senator Ted’s efforts before those against the guaranteed US Constitution started colluding with globalists who desire to subsume Alaska and mineral wealth on the sly. Wake up Alaska!
Both were war hawks. Both were members of the uniparty.
It’s worth mentioning Powell was double vaxxed.
It’s worth mentioning GENERAL Powell had BONE CANCER. He’s yet another UNNECESSARY immuno-suppressed victim of you anti-vax domestic terrorists
It was blood cancer. However, what a pity that the author of this column neglected to include this essential information. General Powell’s death was NOT a failure of the vaccine. He had Multiple Myeloma, a brutal cancer of the blood which decimates the immune system.
If the patient’s immune system is not already completely destroyed by the cancer, the chemotherapy further ravages it. People with these kind of cancers, even if vaccinated, don’t have a chance. For them Covid is an enemy that takes no prisoners. That is why it’s important, for their sakes, that others be vaccinated.
The campaign against Covid-19 vaccination has slipped to a revolting low when using the death of a hero whose body was compromised by cancer to say that the vaccine is ineffective.
Regardless of what category you put Stevens in, he was good for Alaska. He can try to be little that all you want but the facts remain. Powell was good for America under Bush the younger. After he came out of the closet and showed his blue belly coat, not so much.
RIP General.
I wonder if he died of clotting, like my aunt, who was vaccinated.
He basically had cancer of the blood and it destroyed his immunity. So when he came in contact with covid he was a sitting duck. He did well to last this long. He should have been a bubble boy basically.
In fact it is the opposite. The COVID vaccines complicate the body’s natural immune system response to fight cancers. The vaccine made him a sitting duck, and failed to protect the general from the Covid virus itself.
Brian,
Are you just talking nonsense again, or do you have any studies to back up what you’re saying?
The reason he lived as long as he did was because he was General Colin Powell, First Black:
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff;
Chairman, National Security Council;
Secretary of State
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gained immediate access to the COVID-19 vaccine when first EUA were approved. He had multiple myeloma for at least four years before passing (according to Bob Woodward’s last interview of him this year). He also had Parkinson’s Disease for over a decade. The physicians at Walter Reed Medical Center extended General Powell’s life with the COVID-19 vaccine and protocols. PERIOD.
Right, he died but it could have been a lot worse. Good thing he took the jab, or he might have died with even more complications (say the vaxxed to the unvaxxed).
Nurses are reporting that patients undergoing cancer treatment are seeing their cancer explode after being vaxed.
Vaxed victims are losing immune function by the week. Go to Brighteon and watch The DEVOLUTION of covid vaccine efficacy.
Go to Brighteon and watch
Countdown to ZERO IMMUNITY… vax victims losing immune function by the week.
and
The DEVOLUTION of covid vaccine efficacy.
Also, nurses all over the world are reporting an explosive acceleration of the cancer in their patients undergoing treatment, who were otherwise considered to be responding well.
Powel was an honorable man .
He would have made a good president.
May he rest in peace.
May his family find peace and happiness.
Perhaps but I knew them as a politician who wore a uniform. General Schwarzkopf made him look good.
Nice article, referencing them both, thank you.
Too bad you left out that he was suffering from cancer, multiple myeloma, a blood cancer impairing the body’s ability to fight infection, when noting he was vaccinated, but died from Covid.
No need to politicize the death of a man of lifetime service.
Colin Powell had been fighting cancer since 2003. I’m so sick of people saying its Covid complications when in fact the man has been under care for cancer for years with a compromised immune system. He was FULLY vacinated for Covid 19. “fully vaccinated”His family said in a statement. However, his immune system was already compromised due to a multiple myeloma he had been fighting for years. Peggy Cifrino, an assistant to the former secretary of state for many years, clarified that he had been successfully treated for cancer of the white blood cells of the bone marrow.
Powell was an honorable man. But a Conservative Republican? NO! He was a big government man who was personally recruited by George H.W. Bush, a big government president and new world order liberal. Powell served under George W. Bush, along with Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld, only because H.W. Bush set up these recruitments for his son, W. Bush after the 2000 election
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My hero was Storming Norman Schwarzkopf, who was the architect of Operation Desert Storm, who was ready to invade Baghdad within 48 hours of extracting the Iraqies from Kuwait. But Powell intervened and prevented the invasion by Schwarzkopf, citing overreach under a previous agreement by the US to the United Nations. Schwarzkopf’s battle plan would have saved the US hundreds of $billions if not $trillions and set us in a different trajectory in the Middle East for decades…….BUT FOR the interference by Powell….. and the mysterious personal and financial relationships between the Bush family and the blood royalty in Saudi Arabia.
Of course HW was new world order. He was know as the gate keeper. He may have been the last living person that knew it all from Roswell to Kennedy.
May he rest in peace, but I will not glorify this man because of his ties to the Deep State in the Pentagon and many political circles. He made some very controversial comments after leaving the military. Something happens to the top brass in the military where they are in it for profit and not so much for our wonderful men & women in uniform. The Industrial War Machine exists and is very corrupt. Ethics and people become casualties where power and money are involved.
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