[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq, then and now

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

This courtesy of Lou Proyect:

Colin Powell at a press conference in Egypt, February 24, 2001:

We will always try to consult with our friends in the region so that they
are not surprised and do everything we can to explain the purpose of our
responses. We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the
President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions --
the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the
Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's
ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should
constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those
sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That
purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began
it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant
capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to
project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies
have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are
policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to
review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does
not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and
the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good
conversation on this issue.

See http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/933.htm

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Interesting that the US State Dept should have kept this on its website. Is
this carelessness or is someone trying to tell us something about the
current state of "unity" in this administration?

Michael