Colin Powell continues attempts to reestablish his reputation (something Tony Blair will soon have to start doing).

Powell now says that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq: “I tried to avoid this war. I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”

Insofar as one can bemoan this confession as seemingly CYA in light of a monstrous policy failure, to be fair to Powell it's easily believable to think that he could've spent five hours trying to dissuade Bush from invading only for it to be in vain. It's been plainly evident that Bush will do what he wants, facts and reason be damned.