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August/September 2004
Vol. X, No. 3
Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses Institute
In a vigorous defense of the administration's Iraq policy, Powell calls for the U.S. to "defend, protect, and extend the peace."
Colin Powell answers a question while Institute chairman Chester Crocker looks on. |
Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the Institute twice in recent months, painting an optimistic picture of the latest developments in Iraq while acknowledging that some of the information leading up to the war "wasn't as solid as we thought it was." In particular, said Powell, U.S. intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction turned out to have been exaggerated. Nevertheless, said Powell, "there was no error in the fact … that Saddam Hussein had never given up the intention of having usable weapons of mass destruction."
Powell spoke in late May to a gathering of senior Iraqi officials attending an Institute training program in Washington, D.C. He spoke again in mid-July at an on-the-record meeting held at the Institute that received wide media coverage.
Powell's first Institute address, held in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department, was intended as an inspirational talk to the Iraqi officials, whom he called "the vanguard of the future." He began his speech by congratulating the officials for completing their training, which ranged from conflict resolution to computer simulations to learning what it is like to live in a nation with a free press. Such training would prove invaluable, Powell told the Iraqis, because they were "returning to a country in need, a country that has been wounded by decade after decade of the rule of the Ba'ath Party, a party that brought down destruction on your land and on your people, destruction of the body, destruction of the spirit, destruction of individual initiative, and destruction of community."
That reign of destruction had now come to an end, said Powell, thanks to a coalition of forces that had wrested back sovereignty on behalf of the Iraqi people. President Bush, said Powell, had a clear goal from the beginning: "To see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations."
Powell first spoke to the Institute at a moment when the "Brahimi Process"—the effort by the UN's special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, to help in selecting an interim Iraqi government—was about to end. Powell indicated that the United States and its coalition partners would be working out arrangements with the new interim government regarding security arrangements. While coalition troops might be required for some time, said Powell, the process of reconstructing Iraq's infrastructure and hastening the movement toward full democracy was proceeding rapidly. "With an interim government in place and reconstruction proceeding, Iraqis can then look forward to electing a national assembly at the end of the year, or no later than the end of January of next year; the formation of a transitional government; the drafting and ratification of a new constitution; and then to a fully democratic national election at the end of 2005."
Powell praised the bravery of the many Iraqis who had stepped forward to assume positions of leadership in all walks of life, despite the many dangers they faced. That courage showed itself not just in the number of high-ranking government officials who had sacrificed their lives to assassins' bullets or suicide bombs, but also in the "unsung heroes" such as the people of Karbala, who, said Powell, had stood up to thugs intent on intimidating them into a new servitude.
Secretary of State Powell, at the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department, addressed a gathering of senior Iraqi officials attending an Institute training program. |
But courage was not enough, cautioned Powell. Now, more than ever, the Iraqis need to demonstrate leadership at every level. The Iraqis attending the Institute's training program were a key part of that leadership, "the human infrastructure of what can be, and what we know will be, a democracy in the making."
Powell's second address, held at the Institute on July 15, gave a forceful justification of the necessity of the war, as well as a broad overview of the current situation on the ground. "I am a soldier," said Powell, "I know a lot about war. I've been in war. I've lost many friends in war. I've sent men and women to their death. And so I have no love of war, and I believe that the obligation of all of us in senior foreign policy positions … is that we should do everything possible to avoid war. But if war comes, then let's do it and let's do it well, and that's what happened in Iraq."
History changed decisively on 9/11, said Powell: "There was before 9/11 and after 9/11." Struck by an enemy the United States knew was out there but had failed to take the full measure of, the administration acted quickly and forcefully. First, said Powell, the United States invaded Afghanistan, where the Taliban had given al Qaeda sanctuary. Today, less than three years after the invasion, Afghanistan is putting itself on a firm path toward democracy. Regional relationships have also improved, Powell noted. The U.S. has developed close ties with both Pakistan and India and no longer needs to favor one at the expense of the other. In addition, the administration's decisive action in Iraq and Afghanistan has significantly diminished the threats posed by North Korea's and Libya's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Turning again to Iraq, Powell said that from the beginning President Bush's goal was not only to defeat an enemy, but also to give strength to a friend, a free representative government resting on a solid foundation of democracy, human rights, and human freedom. And that, said Powell, is "precisely what is happening now." The Coalition Provisional Authority, led by L. Paul Bremer, had departed three weeks before Powell's second talk. In its place was an interim Iraqi government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Plans were well under way to move toward a national election by January 2005.
The depth of the changes taking place in Iraq should not be underestimated, said Powell. The Transitional Administrative Law that now governs Iraq is, he said, a "revolutionary document for this part of the world. It talks about human rights. It talks about the rights of women. It talks about a representative form of government. It talks about civilian control of the military. It talks about an independent judiciary—all the values that we believe are important and we believe are universal, not just unique to the United States or Western democracies."
Powell condemned the forces who continue to attack coalition troops as well as the new Iraqi leadership. But he stressed that these "terrorists" amounted to only "a few thousand" in a population of 25 million, and he insisted that ultimately they would be defeated. He made note of the enormous progress that he argued had already been made, from the restoration of oil production and the electric grid to the rehabilitation of thousands of schools and the distribution of eight million textbooks.
Finally, Powell turned to the question that has been raised repeatedly since weapons inspectors concluded that Iraq probably had not stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that this was the administration's main rationale for going to war. "The question that always comes up, of course, is: Did we do the right thing?" Powell's answer was a forceful affirmative: The Hussein regime had ignored the resolutions of the United Nations for 12 years, dissembling and lying about weapons of mass destruction. That made it imperative to act "while it was still a problem there and not a problem here," said Powell.
The result is that a "terrible regime is gone, never to come back again … and the challenge before us is to bring democracy to this part of the world, thereby fundamentally … reshaping history for the twenty-first century." The War on Terror will not be over once Iraq has been stabilized, acknowledged Powell, but the U.S. will use all the elements of national power: its military when necessary, its intelligence and law enforcement more often, its diplomatic and political efforts more often still. But above all, said Powell, the United States would use its most powerful weapon: a "value system that says that democracy works and it is not restricted to Western cultures or to the United States."
President Bush, said Powell, is determined to do just what he said: to protect the peace, to defend the peace, and to extend that peace, thereby extending the blessings of democracy and respect for human rights to nations throughout the world. Powell concluded, "This is a noble purpose and we should be proud that we are the nation that history and destiny has called upon to lead this campaign."
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