Helen - Lesson for Today:

• Helen embodies the collective projection: what others want to see, desire, covet.
• Sometimes, an individual becomes, despite themselves, the symbol of buried tensions.
• Helen warns us: do not confuse the myth with the person.

When the image is enough to wage war

Figure: Colin Powell and anthrax

On February 5, 2003, before the UN Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell brandished a vial supposedly containing anthrax to justify the invasion of Iraq. This powerful, symbolic gesture made a lasting impression and launched one of the most controversial wars of the 21st century.

Years later, Powell would acknowledge that he had been deceived by his own intelligence services. The weapons of mass destruction did not exist. The pretext was false. He was deeply affected by this, expressing his regrets until the end of his life.

This scene echoes a much older myth: Helen of Troy, whose face—it is said—"launched a thousand ships." Like the vial, Helen was the pretext for a war, instrumentalized by the powerful, reduced to an image, to a fantasy. In both cases, war is born not from truth, but from a skillfully orchestrated staging. It is not the facts, but the effect produced on minds that triggers the storm.