Secretary of State Colin Powell Speaks to the United nations |
February 5th, 2003: United States Secretary of State Colin Powell goes before the United Nations to discuss the inspection of Iraq to discover any weapons of mass destruction they are rumored to have, and to remove them so that they don’t use them for malicious purposes. He begins to talk about a past meeting that was held by the UN where the council unanimously passed “resolution 1441”. This resolution stated that if Iraq did not give up their weapons of mass destruction, that they would be subject to inspection. And if any were indeed found, they would be removed. This is basically a way of giving Iraq a form of “second chance” before they are put under harsh and strict scrutiny. Powell then begins to go into his reasons for calling the council ; he wishes to share how the United States has proof that Iraq has weapons mass destruction (therefore also proving that they have directly violated "resolution 1441” and that their sources tell them that Iraq has chosen not to accept “the disarmament that was demanded of it”. Powell starts his verification of his beliefs by playing two tapes that were recorded in Iraq via US intelligence, in Arabic. When translated to English, the people are speaking of nuclear weapons, where to move them, and when to move them. This all clearly helped Powell prove his point, and lead into his next statements. He continues to speak about Saddam Hussein and his son and their involvement in the whole situation. Finally he concludes by stating how it took them four years to find that Iraq had chemical weapons, and that the UN should act hastily, that way it doesn't take them that long to find their current weapons. This affected the war because it was truly a major footing that created the war. With this information, bold speaking, and fairly solid proof, it alerted not only America, but its people, and the rest of the world. This would later lead to America’s decision to enter Iraq, capture Saddam, and carry out a search for their weapons of mass destruction.