Friday 5th November 2021
Trump is missing
Powell pays his final respects to Biden
At the funeral service for Colin Powell, many Republicans and Democrats pay tribute to the first black US Secretary of State. In addition to President Biden, ex-Presidents Obama and Bush also pay their last respects to the victim of the corona pandemic. Donald Trump is not there.
The United States bid farewell to the late former Secretary of State Colin Powell with a funeral service in the capital, Washington. The ceremony at Washington National Cathedral included President Joe Biden and his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Former Foreign Ministers Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton as well as high-ranking military officials such as Chief of Staff Mark Milley were also invited.
“Today my heart aches because we have lost a friend and our country has lost one of its greatest and most loyal soldiers,” said Albright in a speech about the former four-star general. “But even as we look at the extent of our loss, we can almost hear a familiar voice telling us, no: telling us not to be sad anymore, to look back from the past to the future and back to the future Taking care of the country’s affairs and making the most of our lives. “
“Eyesore” Iraq war
Powell, respected across party lines, died on October 18 at the age of 84 from complications from coronavirus. He was the first black Secretary of State in US history from 2001 to 2005 under Republican Bush. His term of office was overshadowed by an appearance before the UN Security Council in 2003, where he presented alleged evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify a US invasion of Iraq. It later became clear that the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Powell himself later described the appearance as an “eyesore” on his résumé.
Before his time as Secretary of State, Powell, who was born in New York in 1937 as the son of Jamaican immigrants, had a successful military career and made it to the rank of four-star general. In 1987, Powell became the first Black National Security Advisor under President Ronald Reagan.
Two years later, Reagan’s successor, George Bush, made the highly decorated general the first African American to be Chief of Staff of the US armed forces. For many, he became the face of the Gulf War in 1991 – and so popular that he was even traded as a possible presidential candidate.
Mockery of Donald Trump
After retiring from the armed forces in 1993, Powell became involved in helping disadvantaged youth before finally becoming Secretary of State in 2001. Politically he distanced himself more and more from the Republican Party over the years. Powell, who is, among other things, liberal-minded on social issues, complained about a shift to the right by the conservatives and in recent years made election recommendations for the Democratic presidential candidates Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden.
Ex-President Donald Trump did not attend the funeral service. He had commented on Powell’s death in his own way. “He made a lot of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!” Said Trump. It was wonderful to see how Powell was treated so well by the “fake news media” after his death. He hopes that one day he will also receive this, it said in Trump’s announcement on October 20.