United States, 2002

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.