Welcome to today's program. My name is Glenn Dyson. And with me is Alexander McCurice from the Duran.

And the guest today is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. Colonel Wilkerson was the former chief of staff to the U.S.

Secretary of State, Colin Powell, under the Bush administration, and, well, among many years of experience

in the US government. Welcome, Colonel. It's a great privilege to have your own. Good to be

with you. So, well, we're excited to speak with you today because, well, regarding the direction of

U.S. foreign policy, because you've previously expressed concerns about excessive militarization

of U.S. foreign policy.

And you also argued that NATO could fragment as a result of its failure in Ukraine.

You've also been pessimistic about the future of Israel, given its current path.

So I think there's a lot here to discuss.

But before we start this discussion, I just wanted to ask you also briefly about the Iraq war,

because you, of course, then were the chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State,

Colin Powell, you know, who had a very key role in building the case for the invasion of Iraq.

So I guess our listener wouldn't forgive us if we didn't ask.

How do you reflect on this painful decision in Washington 20 years ago?

Interesting, you use the term fateful.

That's a term I make sure I use in every seminar with my students.

And we define it as a decision that sends young men and young women to die for state purposes

and something we often forget to kill other people

for state purposes.

In that regard, I feel sorry for every single solitary Marine soldier and other individual

who went in 2003 to Iraq because, as Kofi Annan said, it was a war crime.

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