Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President,
distinguished delegates, and ladies and
gentlemen: We meet one year and one day
after a terrorist attack brought grief to
my country, and brought grief to many
citizens of our world. Yesterday, we
remembered the innocent lives taken that
terrible morning. Today, we turn to the
urgent duty of protecting other lives,
without illusion and without fear.
We've accomplished much in the last year
-- in Afghanistan and beyond. We have much
yet to do -- in Afghanistan and beyond.
Many nations represented here have joined
in the fight against global terror, and the
people of the United States are
grateful.
The United Nations was born in the hope
that survived a world war -- the hope of a
world moving toward justice, escaping old
patterns of conflict and fear. The founding
members resolved that the peace of the
world must never again be destroyed by the
will and wickedness of any man. We created
the United Nations Security Council, so
that, unlike the League of Nations , our
deliberations would be more than talk, our
resolutions would be more than wishes.
After generations of deceitful dictators
and broken treaties and squandered lives,
we dedicated ourselves to standards of
human dignity shared by all, and to a
system of security defended by all.
Today, these standards, and this security,
are challenged. Our commitment to human
dignity is challenged by persistent poverty
and raging disease. The suffering is great,
and our responsibilities are clear. The
United States is joining with the world to
supply aid where it reaches people and
lifts up lives, to extend trade and the
prosperity it brings, and to bring medical
care where it is desperately needed.
As a symbol of our commitment to human
dignity, the United States will return to
UNESCO. This organization has been reformed
and America will participate fully in its
mission to advance human rights and
tolerance and learning.
Our common security is challenged by
regional conflicts -- ethnic and religious
strife that is ancient, but not inevitable.
In the Middle East, there can be no peace
for either side without freedom for both
sides. America stands committed to an
independent and democratic Palestine,
living side by side with Israel in peace
and security. Like all other people,
Palestinians deserve a government that
serves their interests and listens to their
voices. My nation will continue to
encourage all parties to step up to their
responsibilities as we seek a just and
comprehensive settlement to the
conflict.
Above all, our principles and our security
are challenged today by outlaw groups and
regimes that accept no law of morality and
have no limit to their violent ambitions.
 In the attacks on America a year
ago, we saw the destructive intentions of
our enemies. This threat hides within many
nations, including my own. In cells and
camps, terrorists are plotting further
destruction, and building new bases for
their war against civilization. And our
greatest fear is that terrorists will find
a shortcut to their mad ambitions when an
outlaw regime supplies them with the
technologies to kill on a massive
scale.
In one place -- in one regime -- we find
all these dangers, in their most lethal and
aggressive forms, exactly the kind of
aggressive threat the United Nations was
born to confront. Twelve years ago, Iraq
invaded Kuwait without provocation. And the
regime's forces were poised to continue
their march to seize other countries and
their resources. Had Saddam Hussein been
appeased instead of stopped, he would have
endangered the peace and stability of the
world. Yet this aggression was stopped --
by the might of coalition forces and the
will of the United Nations.
To suspend hostilities, to spare himself,
Iraq's dictator accepted a series of
commitments. The terms were clear, to him
and to all. And he agreed to prove he is
complying with every one of those
obligations.
He has proven instead only his contempt
for the United Nations, and for all his
pledges. By breaking every pledge -- by his
deceptions, and by his cruelties -- Saddam
Hussein has made the case against
himself.
In 1991, Security Council Resolution 688
demanded that the Iraqi regime cease at
once the repression of its own people,
including the systematic repression of
minorities -- which the Council said,
threatened international peace and security
in the region. This demand goes
ignored.
Last year, the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights found that Iraq continues to commit
extremely grave violations of human rights,
and that the regime's repression is all
pervasive. Tens of thousands of political
opponents and ordinary citizens have been
subjected to arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment, summary execution, and
torture by beating and burning, electric
shock, starvation, mutilation, and rape.
Wives are tortured in front of their
husbands, children in the presence of their
parents -- and all of these horrors
concealed from the world by the apparatus
of a totalitarian state.
In 1991, the U.N. Security Council,
through Resolutions 686 and 687, demanded
that Iraq return all prisoners from Kuwait
and other lands. Iraq's regime agreed. It
broke its promise. Last year the Secretary
General's high-level coordinator for this
issue reported that Kuwait, Saudi, Indian,
Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian,
Bahraini, and Omani nationals remain
unaccounted for -- more than 600 people.
One American pilot is among them.
In 1991, the U.N. Security Council,
through Resolution 687, demanded that Iraq
renounce all involvement with terrorism,
and permit no terrorist organizations to
operate in Iraq. Iraq's regime agreed. It
broke this promise. In violation of
Security Council Resolution 1373, Iraq
continues to shelter and support terrorist
organizations that direct violence against
Iran, Israel, and Western governments.
Iraqi dissidents abroad are targeted for
murder. In 1993, Iraq attempted to
assassinate the Emir of Kuwait and a former
American President. Iraq's government
openly praised the attacks of September the
11th. And al Qaeda terrorists escaped from
Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq. In
1991, the Iraqi regime agreed to destroy
and stop developing all weapons of mass
destruction and long-range missiles, and to
prove to the world it has done so by
complying with rigorous inspections. Iraq
has broken every aspect of this fundamental
pledge.
From 1991 to 1995, the Iraqi regime said
it had no biological weapons. After a
senior official in its weapons program
defected and exposed this lie, the regime
admitted to producing tens of thousands of
liters of anthrax and other deadly
biological agents for use with Scud
warheads, aerial bombs, and aircraft spray
tanks. U.N. inspectors believe Iraq has
produced two to four times the amount of
biological agents it declared, and has
failed to account for more than three
metric tons of material that could be used
to produce biological weapons. Right now,
Iraq is expanding and improving facilities
that were used for the production of
biological weapons.
United Nations' inspections also revealed
that Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of
VX, mustard and other chemical agents, and
that the regime is rebuilding and expanding
facilities capable of producing chemical
weapons.
And in 1995, after four years of
deception, Iraq finally admitted it had a
crash nuclear weapons program prior to the
Gulf War. We know now, were it not for that
war, the regime in Iraq would likely have
possessed a nuclear weapon no later than
1993.
Today, Iraq continues to withhold
important information about its nuclear
program -- weapons design, procurement
logs, experiment data, an accounting of
nuclear materials and documentation of
foreign assistance. Iraq employs capable
nuclear scientists and technicians. It
retains physical infrastructure needed to
build a nuclear weapon. Iraq has made
several attempts to buy high-strength
aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a
nuclear weapon. Should Iraq acquire fissile
material, it would be able to build a
nuclear weapon within a year. And Iraq's
state-controlled media has reported
numerous meetings between Saddam Hussein
and his nuclear scientists, leaving little
doubt about his continued appetite for
these weapons.
Iraq also possesses a force of Scud-type
missiles with ranges beyond the 150
kilometers permitted by the U.N. Work at
testing and production facilities shows
that Iraq is building more long-range
missiles that it can inflict mass death
throughout the region. In 1990, after
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the world
imposed economic sanctions on Iraq. Those
sanctions were maintained after the war to
compel the regime's compliance with
Security Council resolutions. In time, Iraq
was allowed to use oil revenues to buy
food. Saddam Hussein has subverted this
program, working around the sanctions to
buy missile technology and military
materials. He blames the suffering of
Iraq's people on the United Nations, even
as he uses his oil wealth to build lavish
palaces for himself, and to buy arms for
his country. By refusing to comply with his
own agreements, he bears full guilt for the
hunger and misery of innocent Iraqi
citizens.
In 1991, Iraq promised U.N. inspectors
immediate and unrestricted access to verify
Iraq's commitment to rid itself of weapons
of mass destruction and long-range
missiles. Iraq broke this promise, spending
seven years deceiving, evading, and
harassing U.N. inspectors before ceasing
cooperation entirely. Just months after the
1991 cease-fire, the Security Council twice
renewed its demand that the Iraqi regime
cooperate fully with inspectors, condemning
Iraq's serious violations of its
obligations. The Security Council again
renewed that demand in 1994, and twice more
in 1996, deploring Iraq's clear violations
of its obligations. The Security Council
renewed its demand three more times in
1997, citing flagrant violations; and three
more times in 1998, calling Iraq's behavior
totally unacceptable. And in 1999, the
demand was renewed yet again.
As we meet today, it's been almost four
years since the last U.N. inspectors set
foot in Iraq, four years for the Iraqi
regime to plan, and to build, and to test
behind the cloak of secrecy. We know that
Saddam Hussein pursued weapons of mass
murder even when inspectors were in his
country. Are we to assume that he stopped
when they left? The history, the logic, and
the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam
Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering
danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope
against the evidence. To assume this
regime's good faith is to bet the lives of
millions and the peace of the world in a
reckless gamble. And this is a risk we must
not take.
Delegates to the General Assembly, we have
been more than patient. We've tried
sanctions. We've tried the carrot of oil
for food, and the stick of coalition
military strikes. But Saddam Hussein has
defied all these efforts and continues to
develop weapons of mass destruction. The
first time we may be completely certain he
has a -- nuclear weapons is when, God
forbids, he uses one. We owe it to all our
citizens to do everything in our power to
prevent that day from coming.
The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a
threat to the authority of the United
Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has
answered a decade of U.N. demands with a
decade of defiance. All the world now faces
a test, and the United Nations a difficult
and defining moment. Are Security Council
resolutions to be honored and enforced, or
cast aside without consequence? Will the
United Nations serve the purpose of its
founding, or will it be irrelevant? The
United States helped found the United
Nations. We want the United Nations to be
effective, and respectful, and successful.
We want the resolutions of the world's most
important multilateral body to be enforced.
And right now those resolutions are being
unilaterally subverted by the Iraqi regime.
Our partnership of nations can meet the
test before us, by making clear what we now
expect of the Iraqi regime.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will
immediately and unconditionally forswear,
disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons
of mass destruction, long-range missiles,
and all related material. If the Iraqi
regime wishes peace, it will immediately
end all support for terrorism and act to
suppress it, as all states are required to
do by U.N. Security Council resolutions. If
the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will
cease persecution of its civilian
population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds,
Turkomans, and others, again as required by
Security Council resolutions. If the Iraqi
regime wishes peace, it will release or
account for all Gulf War personnel whose
fate is still unknown. It will return the
remains of any who are deceased, return
stolen property, accept liability for
losses resulting from the invasion of
Kuwait, and fully cooperate with
international efforts to resolve these
issues, as required by Security Council
resolutions. If the Iraqi regime wishes
peace, it will release or account for all
Gulf War personnel whose fate is still
unknown. It will return the remains of any
who are deceased, return stolen property,
accept liability for losses resulting from
the invasion of Kuwait, and fully cooperate
with the international efforts to resolve
these issues, as required by Security
Council resolutions. If the Iraqi regime
wishes peace, it will immediately end all
illicit trade outside the oil-for-food
program. It will accept U.N. administration
of funds from that program, to ensure that
the money is used fairly and promptly for
the benefit of the Iraqi people. If all
these steps are taken, it will signal a new
openness and accountability in Iraq. And it
could open the prospect of the United
Nations helping to build a government that
represents all Iraqis -- a government based
on respect for human rights, economic
liberty, and internationally supervised
elections.
The United States has no quarrel with the
Iraqi people; they've suffered too long in
silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi
people is a great moral cause, and a great
strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve
it; the security of all nations requires
it. Free societies do not intimidate
through cruelty and conquest, and open
societies do not threaten the world with
mass murder. The United States supports
political and economic liberty in a unified
Iraq. The United States has no quarrel with
the Iraqi people; they've suffered too long
in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi
people is a great moral cause, and a great
strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve
it; the security of all nations requires
it. Free societies do not intimidate
through cruelty and conquest, and open
societies do not threaten the world with
mass murder. The United States supports
political and economic liberty in a unified
Iraq. We can harbor no illusions -- and
that's important today to remember. Saddam
Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in
1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran
and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Israel. His
regime once ordered the killing of every
person between the ages of 15 and 70 in
certain Kurdish villages in northern Iraq.
He has gassed many Iranians, and 40 Iraqi
villages.
My nation will work with the U.N. Security
Council to meet our common challenge. If
Iraq's regime defies us again, the world
must move deliberately, decisively to hold
Iraq to account. We will work with the U.N.
Security Council for the necessary
resolutions. But the purposes of the United
States should not be doubted. The Security
Council resolutions will be enforced -- the
just demands of peace and security will be
met -- or action will be unavoidable. And a
regime that has lost its legitimacy will
also lose its power.
Events can turn in one of two ways: If we
fail to act in the face of danger, the
people of I raq will continue to live in
brutal submission. The regime will have new
power to bully and dominate and conquer its
neighbors, condemning the Middle East to
more years of bloodshed and fear. The
regime will remain unstable -- the region
will remain unstable, with little hope of
freedom, and isolated from the progress of
our times. With every step the Iraqi regime
takes toward gaining and deploying the most
terrible weapons, our own options to
confront that regime will narrow. And if an
emboldened regime were to supply these
weapons to terrorist allies, then the
attacks of September the 11th would be a
prelude to far greater horrors.
If we meet our responsibilities, if we
overcome this danger, we can arrive at a
very different future. The people of Iraq
can shake off their captivity. They can one
day join a democratic Afghanistan and a
democratic Palestine, inspiring reforms
throughout the Muslim world. These nations
can show by their example that honest
government, and respect for women, and the
great Islamic tradition of learning can
triumph in the Middle East and beyond. And
we will show that the promise of the United
Nations can be fulfilled in our time.
Neither of these outcomes is certain. Both
have been set before us. We must choose
between a world of fear and a world of
progress. We cannot stand by and do nothing
while dangers gather. We must stand up for
our security, and for the permanent rights
and the hopes of mankind. By heritage and
by choice, the United States of America
will make that stand. And, delegates to the
United Nations, you have the power to make
that stand, as well.
Thank you very much.
|
EnterpriseSurvival.com