USA Today “Powell lays out convincing evidence of Iraq defiance”:
“Eight days after President Bush promised to present the world with
compelling evidence of Iraq’s illegal weapons programs, Secretary of State
Colin Powell delivered—and then some. As he methodically documented Iraq’s
continuing deception, Powell also illustrated the futility of indefinite
weapons inspections advocated by critics at home and abroad.”
The Washington Post “Irrefutable”: “Mr. Powell left no room to argue
seriously that Iraq has accepted the Security Council’s offer of a ‘final
opportunity’ to disarm. And he offered a powerful new case that Saddam
Hussein’s regime is cooperating with a branch of the al Qaeda organization
that is trying to acquire chemical weapons and stage attacks in Europe.”
The New York Times “The Case Against Iraq”: “It may not have produced
a ‘smoking gun,” but it left little question that Mr. Hussein had tried hard
to conceal one.”
The Wall Street Journal “Powell’s Smoking Gun”: “The Powell evidence
will be persuasive to anyone who is still persuadable. …The only question
remaining is whether the U.N. is going to have the courage of Mr. Powell’s
convictions.”
The Los Angeles Times “U.N. -- Time for a Deadline”: “The United
Nations risks irrelevance unless it promptly sets a date on which it will
use military force against Iraq if that nation does not disarm. Piling fact
upon fact, photo upon photo Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
methodically demonstrated why Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein remains
dangerous to his own people, Iraq’s neighbors and, potentially, the Western
world.”
Arizona Republic: “On Wednesday, America's most reluctant warrior,
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, presented succinct and damning
evidence of Saddam's enormous threat to world peace.”
Austin American-Statesman: “After Wednesday's presentation and
response, Americans must wonder what it would take for the United Nations to
actually act against Iraq.”
Birmingham (AL) News: “The United Nations can choose to be
irrelevant, or it can join the United States and deliver those ‘serious
consequences.’”
Charleston (WV) Daily Mail: “The threat is real and at our door.
Sept. 11, 2001, stripped away the belief that the United States can
peacefully coexist with evil. Prove it, they said. Powell has. Now the
United States and the more than 40 nations standing behind it await the rest
of the nations of the free world to show where they stand.”
Charlotte (NC) Observer: “Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out a
powerful argument before the United Nations Wednesday that Iraq is
systematically resisting the U.N. resolution requiring it to disarm. … This
conflict is not simply between the United States and Iraq. There is a
growing international consensus that if Saddam Hussein continues to resist
disarmament, he can expect war. The choice is up to him.”
Chicago Sun-Times: “We are a country always loath to fight unless
provoked. The reluctance of Americans to initiate a war needlessly does the
nation credit. But this is not a needless war, nor is it unprovoked. Powell
laid out the need, and explained the provocation, in step-by-step fashion
that cannot be refuted without resorting to fantasy.”
Cincinnati Post: “The United Nations can, of course, walk away from
Iraq's refusal to comply with U.N. Resolution 1441, and it looks as it if
will. But if it does, it walks away from relevance, as Secretary of State
Colin Powell says.”
Columbus Dispatch: “The Dispatch repeatedly has called on the
Bush administration to make a compelling case that Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction and hiding these efforts
from U.N. inspectors. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell made that
case before the Security Council.”
Contra Costa (CA) Times: “If the United Nations is to remain a viable
organization, it must enforce its resolutions or they will be meaningless.
If some nations on the Security Council do not have the foresight to force
Iraq to disarm, they can always abstain from any further U.N. resolutions.
They need not decimate the credibility of the world body by using their veto
power.”
Dallas Morning News: “In truth, the only thing wrong with the eyes of
many U.N. members is that they are closed. Human nature is such that people
often prefer to shut out rather than admit reality. The world did no less
during the 1930s when Germany began to remilitarize and to mistreat its
Jews. But the present stakes are too high to permit self-deception. Saddam
Hussein's illicit arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, as well as the
equally illicit means that he possesses to deliver them, poses a tangible
and urgent danger to U.S. and world security. Millions of innocent lives are
at risk.”
Denver Post: “With the coolness of Marshal Dillon facing down a
gunslinger in Dodge City, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday
delivered a damning recitation of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's continuing
violations of United Nations orders to disarm. From our perspective,
Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council presented not just one ‘smoking
gun’ but a battery of them, more than sufficient to dispel any lingering
doubt about the threat the Iraqi dictator poses.”
Detroit News: “The secretary left little doubt that Saddam's time is
short, and he brought the United Nations to an important fork in the road.
The U.N. can either support the United States and its allies in opposing
Saddam and rescuing Iraqis from the oppression documented by Amnesty
International and others. Or the United Nations can ignore its own
resolutions and walk away from a dangerous and unpredictable dictator.”
Greenville (SC) News: “At some point, the world chooses to believe
President George W. Bush and Secretary Powell or the international community
chooses to side with Saddam Hussein and those who broadcast his lies to the
world. …Powell has painstakingly presented a strong case against Iraq. Time
is running out.”
Indianapolis Star: “Powell has methodically proved Iraq's failure to
comply with U.N. mandates. With each passing day, Iraq's own choices move it
closer to a war that full compliance would prevent.”
Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union: “Iraq is busted. U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell laid out the case clearly. No one hearing Powell's
presentation to the United Nations Security Council could doubt Iraq's
actions and intentions. …Failing to act in the face of a clear threat to
humanity could be the beginning of the end for the United Nations.”
Kansas City (MO) Star: “Even for listeners who had few illusions
about the Iraqi regime, Powell's presentation provided a disturbing picture.
The sheer number of different weapons research programs, together with the
huge amounts of lethal materials that remain unaccounted for by the regime,
raise unsettling questions about how much damage Hussein could do.”
Manchester (NH) Union Leader: “Powell has connected enough dots to
tie Iraq to al-Qaida and show that this alliance is a threat to all of
Europe as well as the United States. Neither confronting Iraq nor fighting
terrorism was ever America’s fight alone, and that is more plainly visible
now than ever. Will Europe’s hold-outs see this?”
Miami Herald: “Mr. Powell may not have persuaded all of the skeptics
around the world or in the U.N. Security Council. But by choosing the open
forum of the United Nations and by putting hard evidence behind the
administration's emotional push for war, Mr. Powell has laid the groundwork
for justifying war -- if the United States ultimately finds that there are
no other options left.”
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Secretary of State Colin Powell's
90-minute presentation to the U.N. Security Council, buttressed with
surveillance photographs and recorded phone conversations, should remove all
doubt that Iraq's Saddam Hussein has developed and hides weapons of mass
destruction, in violation of U.N. resolutions. Neither is there any doubt
now that the United Nations will lose all its credibility if it allows
Iraq's flagrant provocations to go unanswered.”
Oklahoma City Oklahoman: “Case closed.”
Palm Beach (FL) Post: “Iraq's level of cooperation over the next few
days will show whether Saddam Hussein was listening to Secretary Powell. If
Iraq wasn't, the U.N. must show that it was.”
Portland (ME) Press-Herald: “In fact, the speech provided proof that
Saddam continues to refuse to obey U.N. resolutions. Any amount of time he
has now to comply fully and openly with U.N. demands should be measured in
days or a few weeks - and no longer.”
Portland Oregonian: “The United States wouldn't be going to such
lengths to convince the U.N. Security Council of the need to defend the
world against Saddam Hussein if it weren't important for other countries to
join in the effort. But self-defense requires the United States to preserve
its own options of acting against Iraq. Although Powell was trying to
persuade the Security Council that it was time to take enforcement action,
he was no doubt trying to convince Americans of the same thing. We think he
made his case.”
Salt Lake City Tribune: “The United States has made a compelling case
that Iraq has failed to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction. This
failure violates the U.N. Security Council resolution of late last year
which ordered Iraq to disarm. As a consequence, and it is a grave one, the
Security Council must act now to disarm Iraq by force.”
San Jose Mercury News: “Comment in this space has pushed for
continued inspections, giving Iraq a firm deadline and waiting until that
time to push the case for further action. Powell effectively demolished that
argument.”
