Powell's Service Examined

A year ago, more than 100,000 anti-American demonstrators stomped through the streets of London as President Bush met with Prime Minister Tony Blair about the troubled aftermath of the Iraq war.

But at a nearby hotel where U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to speak, people who said they despised Bush stood waiting, hoping to win Powell's autograph.

A former four-star general, hero of the Persian Gulf War and the first African American secretary of State, the 67-year-old Powell leaves office as he came: deeply respected and the most popular man in the Bush administration. Yet many analysts consider Powell -- a man who reaped success throughout his life -- a disappointment in a job that once seemed perfect for him.

"Never has a secretary of State taken office with such great expectations and left with such meager results," said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Democrats and moderate Republicans loved what they believed Powell stood for, viewing him as a leading voice of moderation in an administration known for hawkish positions. But some fault him for failing to halt what they saw as a rush to war in Iraq, for making the administration's case for war before the United Nations and for failing to resign when he lost major foreign policy battles.

"He's a good soldier, and a good soldier who oversees unwise policies does not fare well in the history books," said Michael Krepon, former president of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

Two foreign diplomats said they felt sorry for Powell, believing he lost the battle with administration hawks over Iraq policy and fought to an uneasy stalemate over Iran and North Korea.

"He would have been a great secretary of State of another president," said a senior European diplomat."There was a kind of mismatch, a casting error," between Bush and Powell, the diplomat added.

Many liberals think Powell's reputation was tarnished after postwar revelations contradicted his presentation to the United Nations Security Council in which he asserted that Iraq possessed banned weapons.

But so-called neoconservatives in the administration whose views on foreign policy dominated Bush's first term viewed Powell as a reluctant cheerleader for the president's agenda. They made no secret of their desire to see Bush replace Powell at the president's earliest convenience.

So for liberals and neoconservatives alike, said Philip H. Gordon of the Brookings Institution,"he has failed, because for the liberals, he's just shilling for this neoconservative administration, and for the neocons he's not really on the team."

As Powell's star fell, his future became an object of speculation. An article on Slate.com in February was titled,"The Tragedy of Colin Powell." A GQ magazine story in June portrayed Powell as a"Casualty of War," hard at work salvaging his legacy.

Outside Washington, Powell's standing was scarcely in danger. His approval ratings have fallen from 88% shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to 68% last month, according to the Harris Poll. But the same polls suggest that he's more popular than Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, every other Cabinet member, and leading politicians of both parties.

"He's a rock star," said a State Department official.

"He could have waltzed to the nomination in 2000 had he chosen to run" as a GOP presidential candidate, said Andrew Kohut, director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington.