After presentations by Hans Blix and Mohamed el-Baradei to the U.N. Security Council last Friday–in a session marked by enthusiastic applause for the dithering of the French foreign minister and chilliness towards the Americans–Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke forcefully of the need to take action against Saddam Hussein. We reprint excerpts below.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished members of the council, it’s a great pleasure to be here with you again to consider this very important matter, and I’m very pleased to be here as the secretary of state of a relatively new country on the face of the Earth.
But I think I can take some credit sitting here as being the representative of the oldest democracy that is assembled here around this table. Proud of that. A democracy that believes in peace, a nation that has tried in the course of its history to show how people can live in peace with one another, but a democracy that has not been afraid to meet its responsibilities on the world stage when it has been challenged; more importantly, when others in the world have been challenged, or when the international order has been challenged, or when the international institutions of which we are a part have been challenged.
That’s why we have joined and been active members of institutions such as the United Nations and a number of other institutions that have come together for the purpose of peace and for the purpose of mutual security and for the purpose of letting other nations which pursue a path of destruction, which pursue paths of developing weapons of mass destruction, which threaten their neighbors–to let them know that we will stand tall, we will stand together to meet these kinds of challenges.
I want to express my appreciation to Dr. Blix and Dr. el- Baradei for their presentation this morning. They took up a difficult challenge when they went back into Iraq last fall in pursuit of disarmament as required by Resolution 1441. And I listened very attentively to all they said this morning, and I am pleased that there have been improvements with respect to process. I’m pleased that there have been improvements with respect to not having five minders with each inspector, down to something less than five minders with each inspector. But I think they still are being minded, they are still being watched, they are still being bugged, they still do not have the freedom of access around Iraq that they need to do their job well. . . .
I am glad that access has been relatively good. But that is all process, it is not substance. I am pleased to hear that decrees have now been issued that should have been issued years and years ago, but does anybody really think a decree from Saddam Hussein–directed to whom?–is going to fundamentally change the situation? And it comes out on a morning when we are moving forward down the path laid out by Resolution 1441. These are all process issues. These are all tricks that are being played on us. . . .
I commend the inspectors. I thank them for what they are doing. But at the same time, I have to keep coming back to the point that the inspectors have repeatedly made, and they’ve made it again here this morning, they’ve been making it for the last 11-plus years: What we need is not more inspections, what we need is not more immediate access, what we need is immediate, active, unconditional, full cooperation on the part of Iraq. What we need is for Iraq to disarm. . . .
We haven’t accounted for the anthrax; we haven’t accounted for the botulinum, VX, both biological agents, growth media, 30,000 chemical and biological munitions. These are not trivial matters one can just ignore and walk away from and say, “Well, maybe the inspectors will find them.” Maybe they won’t.
We are facing a difficult situation. More inspectors? Sorry, not the answer. What we need is immediate cooperation. Time? How much time does it take to say, “I understand the will of the international community, and I and my regime are laying it all out for you and not playing guess–not forming commissions, not issuing decrees, not getting laws that should’ve been passed years ago suddenly passed on the day when we are meeting”? These are not responsible actions on the part of Iraq. These are contingent efforts to deceive, to deny, to divert, to throw us off the trail, to throw us off the path. . . .
I submit to you that, notwithstanding the improvements in process that we have noted and I welcome–and I thank the inspectors for their hard work–these improvements in process do not move us away from the central problem that we continue to have. And more inspections and a longer inspection period will not move us away from the central issue, the central problem we are facing. And that central problem is that Iraq has failed to comply with 1441.
The threat of force must remain. Force should always be a last resort. I have preached this for most of my professional life as a soldier and as a diplomat. But it must be a resort.
–Colin Powell, for the Editors
