On July 8, 2007, Sarah Baxter wrote in her article in the Sunday Times: “The former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2 1/2 hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces. ‘I tried to avoid this war,’ Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado [in July 2007]. ‘I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.’ ”
– Douglas Feith, War and Decision, Page 248