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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (21573)	2/21/2003 5:47:08 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27766

Powell Says U.S. Wants to Improve Iraq Fri Feb 21, 1:02 PM ET URL:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20030221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_powell_iraq By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer AMMAN, Jordan - The United States would install a military commander to oversee the transfer of political power to a new Iraqi leadership should Washington take military action to oust Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said in an interview Friday. Nevertheless, Powell said, the United States hoped a military confrontation with Baghdad "can be avoided." "If there is a conflict, then a military commander will initially be in charge; not only to run the military operation, but to make sure that right after the operation things are secure, that the people are protected, that humanitarian supplies come in," Powell told the satellite station, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "We are going into Iraq not to destroy a place, but to make it better," Powell said, according to an advance English-language text of the alArabiya News Channel interview made available to The Associated Press in Amman, Jordan. AlArabiya's planned to air the interview on its "Across the Ocean" program, according to the Amman office of the newly formed station, owned by Saudi and other Arab businessmen. Powell said Washington was seeking to "remove a regime that we believe has wasted the people's treasures on weapons of mass destruction. So we're not going to destroy Iraq, and we think that once the regime has been eliminated there will be institutions that remain in place." He said the military commander would transfer authority to an Iraqi civilian leadership "as soon as we can." Powell said a new Iraqi leadership would be made up of opposition members outside Iraq and those in the country "who are responsible and who are committed to the same values that those outside the country are." He said the United States did not want to occupy Iraq. "Did we take over Kuwait?" he asked referring to the 1991 war led by the United States to end Iraqi occupation of the oil-rich emirate. "The United States' record is not one of imperialism," he said. "It is of doing the job, bringing peace, restoring order and getting a responsible government in place." Powell said he might visit the Middle East soon, but gave no date.