Editing Colin Powell (section)

===Defending the Iraq War===
At the 2007 [[Aspen Ideas Festival]] in Colorado,<ref>See [http://www.aifestival.org/ Official website: Aspen Ideas Festival ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712175130/http://www.aifestival.org/ |date=July 12, 2007 }}</ref> Powell stated that he had spent two and a half hours explaining to President Bush "the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers". During this discussion, he insisted that the U.S. appeal to the United Nations first, but if diplomacy failed, he would support the invasion: "I also had to say to him that you are the President, you will have to make the ultimate judgment, and if the judgment is this isn't working and we don't think it is going to solve the problem, then if military action is undertaken I'm with you, I support you".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aifestival.org/library/transcript/Powell-Lehrer_transcript.pdf|title=Conversation with Colin Powell|publisher=Aspen Ideas Festival|date=July 2007|access-date=February 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227081751/http://www.aifestival.org/library/transcript/Powell-Lehrer_transcript.pdf|archive-date=February 27, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In a 2008 interview on [[CNN]], Powell reiterated his support for the 2003 decision to [[2003 Invasion of Iraq|invade Iraq]] in the context of his endorsement of [[Barack Obama]], stating: "My role has been very, very straightforward. I wanted to avoid a war. The president [Bush] agreed with me. We tried to do that. We couldn't get it through the U.N. and when the president made the decision, I supported that decision. And I've never blinked from that. I've never said I didn't support a decision to go to war".<ref name="edition.cnn.com">{{cite web |title=Powell: Support for Obama doesn't mean Iraq war wrong |publisher=CNN |date=October 19, 2008 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/19/powell.transcript/ |access-date=August 25, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020123714/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/19/powell.transcript/ }}</ref>

Powell's position on the [[Iraq War troop surge of 2007]] was less consistent. In December 2006, he expressed skepticism that the strategy would work and whether the U.S. military had enough troops to carry it out successfully. He stated: "I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into [[Baghdad]] for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work".<ref>{{cite web |first=James M. |last=Klatell |title=Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq |publisher=CBS News |date=December 17, 2006 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/powell-we-are-losing-in-iraq/ |url-status=live |access-date=February 13, 2011 |archive-date=January 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130111311/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/17/ftn/main2274583.shtml }}</ref> Following his endorsement of Barack Obama in October 2008, however, Powell praised [[David Petraeus|General David Petraeus]] and U.S. troops, as well as the Iraqi government, concluding that "it's starting to turn around".<ref name="edition.cnn.com"/> By mid-2009, he had concluded a surge of U.S. forces in Iraq should have come sooner, perhaps in late 2003.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009420450_apuspowell.html |title=Powell says Iraq surge should have come earlier |work=The Seattle Times |date=July 5, 2009 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2011 |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628183346/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009420450_apuspowell.html }}</ref>