Earlier in his career, after having served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and National Security advisor to Bush I, Powell had identified the questions that needed to be addressed before commiting US troops:
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Is the political objective we seek to achieve important, clearly defined and understood? Have all other nonviolent policy means failed? Will military force achieve the objective? At what cost? Have the gains and risks been analyzed? How might the situation that we seek to alter, once it is altered by force, develop further and what might be the consequences?
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When he raised these questions before the decision to invade Iraq was made, he sealed his own fate with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and we are now suffering the consequences.