It was almost all on Powell that we stopped going into Iraq in GW1 looking for Saddam. Everyone in Washington knew it, which is part of the reason he was the face of “searching for WMDs” in the UN and all that bullsnot.
I heard it from someone who was in the military at the time that Powell’s military career was over when he was tasked with coming up a plan for the invasion of Iraq but he was deadset against it. His plan included masses of infantry going over the top and assaulting tank columns, pure World War 1 stuff, with more than 100k anticipated American casualties. He was hoping it would cause Bush to call off the war.
Along came Schwartzkopf and he asked if he could tweak the plan. We saw the genius of his plan when it was implemented, about 100 US casualties. It was the end of Powell’s military career and he went straight into politics from there.
The President sets the larger objectives. That was not an objective of Bush 41. If I am wrong, please point out where Bush 41 had an explicit, stated objective of removing S. Hussein for power in Iraq.
. Irregardless, the Powell Doctrine is still a sound test for the US to follow.