Four Stars

Praised as a skill diplomat and military tactician, damned as a war criminal, and respected by Democrats and Republicans alike, everyone had an opinion of General Colin Powell, who died on Monday.  Whatever one might have thought of him, one cannot argue with how be put country over party, how he put the nation's interests first in advising Presidents and usually saved them from their own worst instincts (that is, the opposite of Stephen Miller), and how he kept an open mind.  Though a Republican, he endorsed Barack Obama for President in 2008 despite his great respect for John McCain.  Though a military man and a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he devoted his energy to diplomacy in keeping the world united against terrorism in the aftermath in 9/11 as Secretary of State.  His one great regret - presenting cherry-picked evidence against Saddam Hussein at the United Nations in 2003 to justify a war in Iraq - failed to diminish his reputation because he owned up to it even as folks like Donald Rumsfeld would admit to no mistakes during the Iraq War.

Colin Powell saw us through some of the most significant foreign-policy challenges and got us through worse than anything we are going through right now, but with trouble on the horizon, especially form China, we can use a man of his stature now.  We're not likely to find one, of course, but it was good we had Colin Powell when we needed him, because his devotion to service showed how much he had a need to serve us. RIP.