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 have 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
towards 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 the 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, 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 the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). This organization has been
reformed, and America will participate fully in its
mission to advance human rights, 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 are 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 enabling them 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.
In order to suspend hostilities and 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 that 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 (1991)
demanded that the Iraqi regime cease at once the
repression of its own people, including the systematic
repression of minorities, which the Council said,
“threaten[ed] international peace and security in the
region”.
This demand goes ignored. Last year, the United
Nations 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
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ordinary citizens have been subjected to arbitrary arrest
and imprisonment, summary execution, and torture by
beating, 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 are concealed from the world by the
apparatus of a totalitarian State.
In 1991, the United Nations Security Council,
through its resolutions 686 (1991) and 687 (1991),
demanded that Iraq return all prisoners from Kuwait
and other lands. Iraq's regime agreed. It broke this
promise. Last year the Secretary-General's high-level
coordinator for this issue reported that Kuwaiti, 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 United Nations Security Council,
through resolution 687 (1991), 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 (2001), 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 11
September. Al-Qaida terrorists have escaped from
Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq.
In 1991, the Iraqi regime agreed to destroy and to
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
litres of anthrax and other deadly biological agents for
use in Scud missile warheads, aerial bombs and aircraft
spray tanks. United Nations 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 reveal 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 that it had had a crash nuclear
weapons programme prior to the Gulf war. We know
now that, 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 programme: 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
aluminium 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 have 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 kilometres permitted by the
United Nations. Work at testing and production
facilities shows that Iraq is building more long-range
missiles that 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 that programme,
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 United Nations inspectors
immediate and unrestricted access to verify Iraq's
commitment to rid itself of weapons of mass
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destruction and long-range missiles. Iraq broke that
promise, spending seven years deceiving, evading and
harassing United Nations inspectors before ceasing
cooperation entirely. Just months after the 1991
ceasefire, 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 behaviour totally unacceptable.
And in 1999, the demand was renewed yet again.
As we meet today, it has been almost four years
since the last United Nations inspector 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 that is a risk we must not take.
We have been more than patient. We have tried
sanctions. We have tried the carrot of oil-for-food and
the stick of coalition military strikes. But Saddam
Hussein has defied all those efforts and continues to
develop weapons of mass destruction. The first time we
may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is
when, God forbid, 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 United Nations 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
honoured 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 respected 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 Security
Council resolutions.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease
persecution of its civilian population, including Shia,
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 those
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
programme. It will accept United Nations
administration of funds from that programme, to ensure
that the money is used fairly and promptly for the
benefit of the Iraqi people.
If all those 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 have 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.
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We can harbour no illusions, and that is important
today to remember. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in
1980 and Kuwait in 1990. He has 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 Security Council to
meet our common challenge. If Iraq's regime defies us
again, the world must move deliberately and decisively
to hold Iraq to account. We will work with the Security
Council for the necessary resolutions. But the purposes
of the United States should not be doubted. The
Security Council resolutions will be enforced, and 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 Iraq will continue to live in brutal submission. The
regime will have new power to bully, dominate and
conquer its neighbours, condemning the Middle East to
more years of bloodshed and fear. 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 towards 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 11 September 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, respect for women,
and the great Islamic tradition of learning can triumph
in the Middle East and beyond. 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 hopes of
mankind. By heritage and by choice, the United States
of America will make that stand. Representatives to the
United Nations have the power to make that stand as
well.