Ten years ago today Secretary of State Colin Powell made his case to the United Nations to go to war with Iraq on the assumption that weapons of mass destruction were held there. Last year in an interview with TIME’s Belinda Luscombe, Powell said:
I feel bad about any loss of life on either side of the conflict, but I think it was a justified decision based on what we knew at the time. I did it, and as I say in the book (It Worked For Me), I had to move on. I was still Secretary of State. I couldn’t go in a corner and go fetal.
In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. has spent over $800 billion and 4486 American soldiers have died.
Check out the beginning of Powell’s address to the U.N., and his later interview with TIME, below:
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Other TIME “10 Questions” interviews can be viewed here.