Monday, April 7, 2003
Interview on ZDF-TV of Germany
Great Rummy-esque interview between Powell and an obnoxious German reporter. Reminiscent of this interview with an Arab news source some time back. Powell sounded pretty ballsy then, and he still sounds ballsy.
I've been hearing a lot of carping about Rumsfeld lately from some quarters with comparisons putting him up against Powell and finding him wanting - particularly in the bellicosity department. Well, I'd say they are both performing their individual rolls exactly up to expectation. Rumsfeld speaks exactly as you'd expect a wartime Secretary of Defense to speak. Likewise, Powell is more circumspect in his statements - just as one would expect the head of the Diplomatic Corp to behave. Further, on another level, both men represent the tendencies of the bureaucracies they head. Rumsfeld the straightforward Defense Department, and Powell State, with its Arabist (read: appeasenik) tendencies.
Let's not forget the pacifist-leaning press' ability to inflate, expand and multiply any minor finger-hole they can get into any Rumsfeld statement. The media echo-chamber may sometimes create fact for each other, and may certainly create events by the practical matter of perception dictating reality, but the canny observer should be able to look beyond such surface matters.
At the end of the day, one should have no doubt about differing agendas - Powell is far too intelligent an old soldier to miss the fact that all the Generals need to be opperating according to a common plan.
Of course, both men seem perfectly suited by personality to their jobs. Central casting did a bang-up job.
SECRETARY POWELL: That’s absurd. It’s an absurd, simplistic, shorthand response to what people think we’re doing. In fact, we went to the U.N. in the first place with respect to this problem. It was a problem that belonged to the U.N. for twelve years -- this terrible regime that tortures its people, that developed weapons of mass destruction, that used them against its own people and then invaded its neighbors on two occasions. And we finally said to the United Nations, “If you would be relevant, if the international community would be relevant, we must deal with this.”
This is not a regime that will simply roll over and play dead. It will fight back. It will try to avoid consequences. So we got a very strong resolution passed. Unanimously. Fifteen to zero. And when it became clear to a number of members of the Security Council that it was time to apply those serious consequences, we took it back to the U.N. And the U.N. said, “Well, can’t agree on this.”
But 1441 made it clear – it was more than sufficient authority. Now there were some members of the Council who said, “We’ll veto anything.” And there were others of us who felt we must move forward. We must remove this danger to the world. Especially this regime that developed weapons of mass destruction and might actually allow some of these weapons to fall in the hands of terrorists. We will not apologize for this. We believe that we did what is right and we recognize that there is a great deal of opinion, especially in Europe, that thinks this was not the right approach. But I hope we will change this opinion, when everybody sees that after this conflict we’re not leaving it to be swept up by the United Nations. We are going to work with the United Nations and work with the international community. And guess who will be the major contributor, who will pay the most money to help the Iraqi people to get back on their feet. It will be the United States, as always. Europeans --
QUESTION: So you are paying the most money? Then that’s a promise?
SECRETARY POWELL: Europeans, especially Germans, should recognize the American record, our history. Our history is not one of getting involved in conflicts just for the sake of it. We get involved in conflicts because there are major issues at stake that have to be resolved, unfortunately, by force of arms. But when you look at our history for the last sixty years, every time we found ourselves in this position, we did not just get up and walk away. We did everything we could to put in place a better system, a better society, than that which we had to go in and fight. And we will do it again this time.[...]
Read der whole thing.
