Colin Powell
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Colin Luther Powell (born April 5, 1937) was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving from January 20, 2001 to November 12, 2004. At the time, he was the highest ranking African American government official in the history of the United States.
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- In September 2005, Powell was asked about the speech during an interview with Barbara Walters and responded that it was a "blot" on his record. He went on to say, "it will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now." [1]
- "The sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction ... And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq ... "
- "You break it, you own it."
- Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted in Plan of Attack, a book in which he was a key source, as cautioning President Bush before the war that he would “own” Iraq, 17 October 2004 [3].
- "We want to see both sides not take unilateral action that would prejudice an eventual outcome, a reunification that all parties are seeking."
- Powell to CNN International during a three-nation trip to Asia, 27 October 2004 [4].
- "There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy."
- Powell to Phoenix TV according to a State Department transcript, 27 October 2004 [5].
- "This may sound a little improper, but when the Vice President and I are alone it's Colin and Dick."
- "I'm sleeping like a baby, too. Every two hours, I wake up, screaming." (Upon hearing that President Bush was "sleeping like a baby" on the eve of war with Iraq.) [6]
- "That's not really a number I'm terribly interested in."
- Response to his estimated number of Iraqis killed during US invasion
- "The policies — determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live — were an antidemocratic disgrace...I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well placed...managed to wangle slots in reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."
- "My American Journey", Colin Powell's autobiography
- "Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war [Vietnam], vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand."
- "My American Journey", Colin Powell's autobiography
- "Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible."
- "The Powell Principles", (McGraw-Hill 2003)
- "Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."
- "The Powell Principles", (McGraw-Hill 2003)
- "If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude."
- "The Powell Principles", (McGraw-Hill 2003)
- "Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes."
- "The Powell Principles", (McGraw-Hill 2003)
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- "They're a bunch of fucking crazies."
- To British Foreign Secretary, describing neo-conservatives in the Whitehouse.
- "I'm not reading all that shit!"
- Colin Powell to 9-11 commission, 31 November 2003.
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