And now we have Powell out there putting the ball back in Saddam's court...
However, I have no doubt that regime change is the ultimate goal.. Because disarmament by Saddam is practically a guarantee that he will be replaced.
But of course, who knows?? Maybe Saddam will "shape up" and at least recognize that his confrontations with the US risks his clan losing everything they have gained over the decades.
washingtonpost.com
Powell: U.S. Not Trying to Oust Saddam
By Barry Schweid
AP Diplomatic Writer
Monday, December 16, 2002; 4:44 PM
WASHINGTON –– Secretary of State Colin Powell is assuring the Arab world the Bush administration's demand for regime change in Iraq aims at disarmament, not ousting President Saddam Hussein.
"If he cooperates, then the basis of changed-regime policy has shifted because his regime has, in fact, changed its policy to one of cooperation," Powell said in an interview with a London-based Arab newspaper released Monday by the State Department.
Powell said the policy of regime change in Baghdad was inherited from the Clinton administration by the Bush administration.
"We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed," Powell told the newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi by telephone last Thursday.
"We now believe it is appropriate for Saddam Hussein to be forced to change, either by the threat of war, and therefore that compels him to cooperate," Powell said.
"So if he cooperates, then that is different than if he does not cooperate," Powell said.
"It remains our policy to change the regime until such time as the regime changes itself," he said.
Powell declined, meanwhile, to offer a final judgment on the weapons declaration Iraq filed with international weapons inspectors. "We approached it with skepticism and the information I have received so far is that skepticism is well-founded," he said Monday at a State Department news conference.
"We will withhold making a final judgment or final statement until we have completed our analysis," hold talks with international weapons inspectors and consult with other members of the U.N. Security Council, Powell said.
After chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix reports to the Council, which is scheduled for Thursday, the Bush administration will make its views public, Powell said.
Powell told the Arab newspaper, meanwhile, that Bush had not decided whether to use force against Iraq.
At the White House, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said U.S. officials were still studying the document.
Asked whether Iraq would have a chance to make good on any omissions that U.N. or U.S. officials find, he said it was made "abundantly clear from the U.N. that this was Iraq's last chance to inform the world in an accurate, complete and full way what weapons of mass destruction they possess."
© 2002 The Associated Press |
