Making the Case for War: 20 Years Ago, Colin Powell Lied to the UN

How was the Bush administration able to sell a war based on dubious intelligence not only to the American people, but also to much of the international community? Perhaps even more importantly, did the US political and military leadership learn any lessons from its disastrous invasion?

Sputnik spoke to former Pentagon and State Department officials who witnessed firsthand the Bush administration’s drift to war and spoke out against it.

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Spycraft or Not, Shootdown of Chinese Weather Balloon Using 5th-Gen Jet Looks ‘Silly’, Observer Says

The incident has certainly given Washington the pretext it needs to feed anti-China hysteria amid tectonic shifts being seen in the global geopolitical and economic order, former Department of Defense analyst-turned anti-war whistleblower and activist Karen Kwiatkowski has told Sputnik.

"The Chinese response may have been to chuckle, or it helped inform the Chinese government as to the air defense capabilities of the US, or both. Obviously, the US if it is determined that it belatedly shot down a weather balloon with a 5th generation fighter jet with a standoff air-to-air Sidewinder missile, it feeds into the global narrative of the US military as an offensively oriented warmonger, and kind of silly," Kwiatkowski stressed.

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🎭 Venice Carnival kicks off in full force first time since pandemic

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🐋 Beluga whales arrived in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok for snacks

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🦁 Three-month-old lion cubs abandoned by mother being cared for in Mariupol Zoo

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Iraqi Ex-Intelligence Officer Breaks Down US 2003 Invasion Preparations

“If you look at the slogans of the US Secretary of State at that time (e.g. the "New Middle East"), this is exactly what they wanted to demonstrate. The invasion of Iraq was the first step to demonstrate the unrestrained and unpunished US policy. The next step was to divide Syria and then other countries in the region,” says Khaled Al-Douri, a key official of the US section of Iraqi intelligence before the 2003 invasion, in an interview with Sputnik discussing Powell’s lies at the UN and their consequences.

“The US got money from the resale of Iraqi oil and is still getting it. They are not happy with the growing influence of Iran in the country, because they look at us as a colony. But they are not welcome here; the Iraqis are saying on every possible platform that America has done a reckless act and destroyed the sovereignty of Iraq.”

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🪁 Ride the wind: Extreme athletes compete in Russian Snow Kiting Championships

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Swedish Police Chief Sounds Alarm Over 'Unprecedented' Crime

Sweden, formerly a country well-known for its peaceful and law-abiding citizens, has for many years been plagued by gun violence, explosions and gang crime. In 2022, Sweden took the unenviable European record for the most number of fatal shootings in a single year, eclipsing neighboring Nordic nations by some margin.

In searing opinion piece, the country's police chief has penned an article complaining that organized crime has reached "unprecedented levels" and become more complex and difficult to deal with.

Writing in Swedish media, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg lamented the fact that crime has become more complex and that it has become more difficult to get witnesses to talk.

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❗️An ancient castle in Gaziantep, Turkey, dating back thousands of years was destroyed in the earthquake.

According to the latest data available, 237 people have died and 639 are injured in Syria to the quake in neighboring Turkey.

WATCH: People on social media share video showing the ancient Gaziantep Castle destroyed by the earthquake