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Yes, but he was immunocompromised — he had multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma cells, which normally produce antibodies.
Colin Powell has died
131–140 of 236 posts
Re: Colin Powell has died
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
No an obituary and discussions of a person’s passing must take into account their failings, especially their greatest ones. Otherwise we will begin to forget those mistakes and be doomed to repeat. In particular the failings that lead up to the Iraq war are common place in US history so every effort must be made to remember and be wary of such mistakes (or lies rather).
That belongs in the history books, Wikipedia pages, and retrospectives of one's life. History will not repeat itself because you didn't properly and fully disparage a person beneath the news of their passing in a little-known internet news forum.
Would love to hear a why.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
No an obituary and discussions of a person’s passing must take into account their failings, especially their greatest ones. Otherwise we will begin to forget those mistakes and be doomed to repeat. In particular the failings that lead up to the Iraq war are common place in US history so every effort must be made to remember and be wary of such mistakes (or lies rather).
That belongs in the history books, Wikipedia pages, and retrospectives of one's life. History will not repeat itself because you didn't properly and fully disparage a person beneath the news of their passing in a little-known internet news forum.
I'll read a hagiographical obit on colon powel and his ilk as soon as the NYT and CNN start publishing individual obits and special coverage of every single innocent child they killed in the middle east. otherwise i don't care about murderous trash like him, like at all.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#134[flagged]
And immunocompromised due to multiple melanoma, a blood cancer that affects the immune system.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#135Re: Colin Powell has died
#136Colin Powell is a textbook case of "A thousand 'Atta-boys!' and one fuck-up!". He joined the Army in the 1950s, served through 2 tours in Vietnam, and made it all the way to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by the end of the 1980s, leading the military through Operation Desert Storm and the post-Soviet era. That's a rare career for ANY American, let alone a black one. But all that went "poof!" after his shameful performa…
I was 17 when we invaded Afghanistan and 19 when we invaded Iraq. Through the lead-up to both of those conflicts I remember watching scores of demonstrators marching outside the White House, chanting slogans against the wars. What did they know that Colin Powell did not?
I was a lowly undergrad polisci major at the time. I never demonstrated but it was clear as day to me that the preemptive invasion of Iraq would not be the cut and dry operation it was sold as -- and I can prove that I'm not claiming 20:20 hindsight because I kept the essay I wrote after hearing conservative NYTimes columnist William Safire speak at my school promoting the invasion in the weeks leading up to it. An excerpt:
> "His discussion on the war with Iraq is where I most disagreed with Mr. Safire. He spoke almost exclusively in terms of logistics and not potential realities. To him Iraq was a threat pure and simple and the United States had the obligation, the right, and the capability to neutralize that threat, with or without the UN. He offered troop estimates from potential allies in Turkey and the UK, and the explanations of the military superiority of the US as if anyone in the audience was wondering if the US had the means to militarily incapacitate Iraq."
And the concluding sentence:
> "Safire said quite effortlessly that Saddam is a threat that must be neutralized at all costs, but he doesn’t think the costs will be all that great. If he and Bush are wrong it will be one of the greatest political blunders in recent history."
Everyone knew that Iraq was a war of W's choosing and was mostly motivated by the influence of Cheney and Rumsfeld. The doves were uniformly against war as anything but a last recourse, and the idea of starting one on shaky pretenses was abhorrent to us. What we didn't know ahead of time was that the pretenses were even thinner than we imagined and there weren't in fact WMDs, which made the whole thing all the more farcical and tragic.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#137This is one of many obituary posts on HN I've seen a ton of hate and accusations on, along with questions like "why does everyone venerate the dead regardless of their acts in life?" Some of us have a different threshold than others for at what point a life is valuable, and the loss of that life tragic. While there can be a time and place for discussions of the 2003 UN performance, calling someone a war criminal, rag…
I have no real bone in this fight, buf if someone sincerely believe Colin Powell was a war criminal I am not sure I can blame them for expressing it. I have seen war criminals be celebrated after their death, and I found it disgraceful and disgusting. If they indeed are, then they should be remembered as such.
I have a couple of people that I wont have the dignity to shut up about when they die, because I want them remembered for the crooks they are.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#138Around half a million innocent Afghani and Iraqi civilians died in Afghanistan and Iraq during those wars. I dont understand why the American news media neglected to report on that. Another interesting observation: Halliburton ran the supply chain for both the Vietnam war and the Gulf wars. Not alot of sympathy from me for that guy.
I was against the Iraq war as well. It was clearly based on lies. It also lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. What surprised me and I noticed then when Donald Rumsfeld died. Both Iraqi and Afghanistan have nearly doubled their populations since 2001: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/iraq-populati... https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/afghanistan-p... I wonder if t…
Countries with little to no rights for women tend to have more children because the women have little to no access to contraception.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that really the standard for calling someone a war criminal? National leaders always lie about the reasons for war, whether they are the attackers or the defenders. No doubt that Colin Powell did the wrong thing when he lied to the UN, but let's not throw around the term "war criminal" to mean "someone who did the wrong thing."
His lies at the time legitimized a war where hundreds of thousands of people died.
That is not a war crime. Keep in mind that the Allies lied about all kinds of things during WWII in order to legitimize our involvement, and that we killed millions of people during the war. Countries always lie about war and people always die in war, those are just facts.
Re: Colin Powell has died
#140[flagged]
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7018e1.htm?s_cid=mm... In a multistate network of U.S. hospitals during January–March 2021, receipt of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines was 94% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization among fully vaccinated adults and 64% effective among partially vaccinated adults aged ≥65 years.
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