. 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