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Powell was a moderate amidst a sea of hawks
November 15, 2004

Secretary of State Colin Powell, center, clashed often with more hard-line members of the national security team, including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, left, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rice is rumored to be a leading candidate to replace Powell. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Washington D.C. — (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell, the nation's top diplomat and one of its most compelling political figures, announced Monday he will leave as soon as his successor is in place.

"I assure you, I'll be working hard until the very, very end," he told reporters at the State Department, adding that he and President Bush came to a "mutual agreement" that it was time for him to resign.

Administration officials said that Bush will likely name national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to replace him. Powell said it will be "a number of weeks or a month" before he departs.

Powell said there was much he wanted to do before leaving office, including exploring the possibility of "new opportunities" in the Middle East with the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He said the war against terror and the nuclear ambitions of Iran are still high on the agenda at the State Department.

Powell, who often butted heads with fellow members of Bush's foreign policy team, said he never intended to serve beyond a first term.

"We came to the mutual agreement that it would be appropriate for me to leave at this time," he said. Powell dismissed reports that he had offered to stay longer.

"I made no offer. We had pretty much come to our mutual agreement without anybody having to make any offers, counteroffers or anything like that," Powell said. "We knew where we were heading."

Powell has been widely viewed as the moderate in an administration dominated by hawks. But like the soldier he was for more than 30 years, Powell always fell in line once President Bush made up his mind.

Powell, 67, who told aides earlier Monday that he would be stepping down, probably in January, will be best remembered for the speech he gave to U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003 in which he made the case for use of force against Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

He said Saddam was continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction despite 12 years of U.N. disarmament demands. His claims about the Iraqi weaponry were never borne out but Powell never wavered, at least in public, that Saddam's removal was justified.

Both at home and abroad, Powell has been far more popular than the policies he defended. His public approval ratings among Americans have been extraordinarily high and Powell was always welcomed warmly on his many travels abroad.

But his tenure coincided with a sharp rise in anti-Americanism abroad, the result mostly of U.S. policies in Iraq. He is widely perceived to have had repeated run-ins with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

With the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Powell's main task as America's chief diplomat became to rally support for a global war on terrorism. Much of what he has done in the ensuing three years flowed from the events of that day.

It was concern over a potential "nexus" between Saddam and al-Qaida and affiliate groups that propelled Bush to wage war on Iraq, along with the Bush administration's claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was preparing to use them. Neither claim was ever confirmed.

Facing charges that the United States was a "go-it-alone" superpower, Powell countered that the United States has vigorously pursued a multilateral approach in Iran and North Korea in hopes of negotiating an end to nuclear weapons threats in both countries.

Powell's tenure has yielded little in resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians - but he is hopeful that the death of Yasser Arafat last week could lead to a diplomatic opening.

The secretary seems proud of role the United States has played in Afghanistan, where successful presidential elections were held last month - a development that seemed fanciful for a country that three years ago was an Islamic state working in league with al-Qaida and other jihadists.

Powell rejected suggested suggestions that he was part of a "militaristic" administration. He repeatedly cited major increases proposed by Bush in foreign assistance and in the worldwide struggle against HIV/AIDS as evidence of the administration's humanitarian character.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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