Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under U.S. President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the first African American to serve in that position. During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor, as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Commandand as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, holding the latter position during the Persian...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth5 April 1937
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
We are not shrinking from talking to Saudis or anyone else in the region, but it is up to each nation in the region to decide on its own how it will proceed and at what pace. There are other nations in the region that had similar policies to Saudi Arabia that are starting to make changes, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco. And so it takes time but when you see the need for such changes, then changes tend to follow.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. I am talking about a gung-ho attitude that says 'we can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best. 'Spare me the grim litany of the 'realist;' give me the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day.
We want to approach this in a multilateral way, talking with our friends, consulting with our security council colleagues in the United Nations, hoping to find a way to solve this peacefully, but at the same time recognising that unless the threat of military force is there, Iraq will not disarm.
We're talking about the most deadly things one can imagine
it has to be anywhere, anytime, talking to anybody that has to be spoken to in order to get to the truth.
There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.
I think we have stabilized things right now to the point where we can continue working the diplomatic and political track and persuade everyone that is the direction we should continue to move.
It is not up to Iraq to dictate the conditions to the United Nations, but for the United Nations to dictate the conditions to Iraq, ... If the United Nations does not act, then the United States, joined by other willing nations, must act.
Whether it should or should not have been in the speech is something we can certainly discuss and debate,
There are a number of individuals in countries around the world who have been conveying the message to the Iraqi regime that it is now inevitable that there will be a change,
We thought it would be useful to point out to the Pakistani leadership at every level that we are looking for and expecting their fullest cooperation ... as well as (to see) how helpful they might be if we find a basis to act on that information,
This time, we want a better solution, we want a solution that involves all the countries in the region. I hope North Korea understands that,
trusted to use its enormous political, economic and -- above all -- military power wisely and fairly.
I will look for a candidate, Republican or Democrat, who seems to be on the way or understands how to resolve the economic difficulties we're having, how to do something about unemployment, how to make sure that we free up our businesses and we don't over-regulate ourselves.