[3] After three years of studying philosophy and English literature at Bucknell University,[3] Wilkerson dropped out in 1966 and volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War.

[3] Wilkerson spent some years in the United States Navy's Pacific Command in South Korea, Japan and Hawaii, where he was well regarded by his superiors.

[3] Powell was then finishing his stint as National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration and moving to a position in the United States Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson.

[6] Wilkerson was responsible for the review of information from the Central Intelligence Agency used to prepare Powell for his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council.

The subsequent developments led Wilkerson to become disillusioned: "Combine the detainee abuse issue with the ineptitude of post-invasion planning for Iraq, wrap both in this blanket of secretive decision-making...and you get the overall reason for my speaking out.

"[7][12][non-primary source needed] Since his retirement from the public sector Wilkerson has on several occasions spoken out against what he perceives as the poor planning and execution of the Iraq War as well as the global politics leading up to and following it.

[15] Wilkerson said that this was result of Cheney and Rumsfeld working in collaboration to undermine the standard decision-making process of the White House (which included his superior, Colin Powell).

[citation needed] And so what I'm saying is, under the vice-president's protection, the secretary of defense moved out to do what they wanted to do in the first place even though the president had made a decision that was clearly a compromise.At a congressional hearing recorded on C-SPAN in June 2005, he gave his analysis of the Iraq war's motivation: "'I use the acronym OIL,' he said, 'O for oil, I for Israel and L for the logistical base necessary or deemed necessary by the so-called neocons – and it reeks through all their documents – the logistical base whereby the United States and Israel could dominate that area of the world.'"

"[22] Wilkerson said in an interview on the BBC's Newsnight, January 17, 2007, that an Iranian offer to help stabilise Iraq after the American invasion, was positively received at the State Department, yet turned down by Dick Cheney.

[23][24] The reported offer consisted of help in stabilizing Iraq, cutting ties with Hezbollah and greater transparency in its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions and dismantling the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an organisation working to overthrow the Iranian government.

[citation needed] In 2006, he told Robert Dreyfuss of American Prospect that he wondered if the "primary allegiance" of Doug Feith and other "neocons" in the Bush Defense Department "was to their own country or to Israel.

Wilkerson noted Jewish officials such as Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle in particular, and called their loyalty to the United States into question.

[9][25][26] In March 2009, Wilkerson wrote on The Washington Note blog that he knew from briefings as a Bush administration official that it was soon recognized that some of the captives in Guantanamo were innocent.

[27] In The New Republic, columnist Jamie Kirchick criticised the plausibility of Wilkerson's allegations, calling him a "third-rate conspiracy theorist and a borderline bigot".

[25][26] Specifically, Wilkerson suggested the Ghouta chemical attack was an Israeli false flag operation to discredit Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria.

Wilkerson stated in a 2022 Massachusetts Peace Action YouTube video, that climate change and nuclear war overshadow all other concerns.

[40] Wilkerson heads the Colin Powell Leadership Club, a group of MacFarland middle school students in Washington, D.C.[4] He is a lifelong Republican and on the political right.