IF COLIN POWELL is looking for a new job, and the rumours abound, he should consider the merits of going into private practice as a crisis consultant.

The soothing voice, the benevolent smile, and the gentle gesticulation somehow combine to make a bitter dispute seem an insignificant tiff, while the most unseemly power grab is merely consensus misunderstood.

Colin’s Clinic could be open to the world’s political psychotics, depressed dictators and stressed-out extremists, who would be given a gentle talking to and prescribed a course of the political equivalent of Prozac. The US Secretary of State already does the foreign policy equivalent of outreach work, hugging wayward allies and attempting to reassure much of the Middle East with his inflexion-perfect pronunciations of Arab names.

The pronunciation of his own name is a separate, more vexed issue. He recalls a “great debate” in the pages of The Times over whether he knew how to say “Colin” correctly: “A great fight broke out in London about this ignorant American who didn’t know how to pronounce his name: he kept calling himself Coh-lin when his name was Colin. There is an Irish variant Coh-lin.”

It is clear that the presumption that most Americans are ignorant grates on General Powell. He was in Berlin to attend a conference on anti-Semitism, but any visit to Europe becomes an opportunity for him to deal with what he obviously regards as a myriad of myths and misunderstandings about US intentions. And yesterday he was particularly keen to put in a good word for a beleaguered Tony Blair.

“I think Prime Minister Blair has shown enormous courage and he has demonstrated an enormous commitment to doing the right thing in Iraq,” he said. “He did not shrink from the challenge. He did not weigh the politics of it all and say this would be too hard politically . . . people should not forget what was accomplished. When people start talking about quagmires — one thing that is not a quagmire is Saddam Hussein. He’s gone. Horrible man. Horrible regime.”

Powell obviously believes that many Europeans are prone to misinterpret American actions. He admits that the encirclement of Fallujah has made the city a potential symbol of resistance to the might of the US military, but insists that the tactics will not create a lasting image problem for Washington. “It has that image, but it will go away quickly as soon as it’s resolved and it can’t go on indefinitely,” he said. “If you see what we have done in the last three weeks — we have been moving with caution. Even though on television you see action, you see firefights take place, for the most part, these firefights have been on the edges of the city and the suburbs.”

While US casualties have mounted around Fallujah in recent weeks, Powell is confident that the US public is far more understanding of the costs of war than is generally believed or conceded in Europe. Americans, he implies, are passing the “Dover test”.

“No one likes casualties and no one likes body bags; no one likes to see coffins at Dover (air force base). But I think the American people have demonstrated over the years that they will accept casualties in the service of a proper cause, a noble cause. So far, I think the American people — even though the numbers go up and down — believe in what we are doing. Now, when the scenes are not so good for a few days, then the polls will reflect that.

“I get this question a great deal from European audiences. ‘Well, you know, the Americans — can you really take casualties?’ And I just have to remind you — count the number of casualties we took to free Europe twice over the past century and you’ll see whether Americans can take casualties or whether we are up to it. Visit our cemeteries in Europe — Americans are up to the task.”

There remain questions about the relationship between the troops and the interim authority that will replace the Coalition Provisional Authority currently headed by Paul Bremer. Put bluntly, who will order about whom? “As a practical matter, I am not sure you will see a great deal of difference, except that the multinational force will be working very closely with the sovereign interim government . . . returning sovereignty is going to help because it puts an Iraqi face on the situation and the people can see not Americans and not Brits, but Iraqis increasingly in charge of the country and in charge of their destiny.

“The thugs, they will go after the Iraqi interim government just as they are going after coalition representatives now. An interim government will improve the environment but I regret that it probably isn’t the complete solution.”

In a week in which British diplomats turned undiplomatic, and were motivated, in part, by what they saw as London’s lack of influence on US policymaking, he insists that outside voices are being heard in Washington. Interestingly, he describes Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who gave discreet advice to the 52 diplomatic dissenters and was the Prime Minister’s personal envoy to Baghdad, as “no shrinking violet”. And he speaks to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, “very, very regularly”.

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