Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell dies of Covid-19

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the first Black US Secretary of State, died from Covid-19 complications on Monday, according to his family. He was 84.

His family announced his death in a statement.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the statement read. “We want to thank the medical staff… for their caring treatment.”

Powell was fully vaccinated and was being treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, they said.

He had a long and illustrious career. Aside from being the first Black US Secretary of State, serving under the administration of US President George W. Bush, he served in two previous Republican administrations in senior positions.

Under US President Ronald Reagan he served as National Security Advisor from 1987 to 1989.

He rose up the ranks to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the administration of George H.W. Bush.

In 1991, Powell rose to prominence during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, during which an enormous US-led multinational coalition ejected Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from Kuwait, which it had invaded the previous year.

Powell was credited with restored public trust in the military, that had been shattered since the end of the Vietnam War, in which he was wounded serving as a soldier, and was also credited with overseeing a swift and decisive war with few American casualties.

He briefly contemplated running for the US presidency in 1996 but never did.

After he became secretary of state under the second Bush administration the trust the public had in him diminished somewhat when he delivered a speech to the United Nations in February 2003 making the case that Iraq posed an imminent danger given its possession of weapons of mass destruction.

He later expressed regret over that “blot” on his record.