A text of President Bush's speech to the United Nations on Thursday, as released
by the White House:
Mr. Secretary-General, Mr. President, distinguished ladies and gentlemen: We meet
one year and one day after a terrorist attack brought grief to my country, and to
the citizens of many countries. 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 Ñ in Afghanistan and beyond. We have
much yet to do Ñ in Afghanistan and beyond. Many nations represent here have
joined in the fight against global terror Ñ and the people of the United States
are grateful.
The United Nations was born in the hope that survived a world war Ñ the hope of a
world moving toward 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 wickedness of any man. We created a United Nations
Security Council, so that Ñ unlike the League of Nations Ñ our deliberations
would be more than talk, and our resolutions would be more than wishes. After
generations of deceitful dictators, broken treaties and squandered lives, we
dedicate 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 lift
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 State will return to
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 Ñ 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 beside 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 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 to kill on a massive scale.
In one place Ñ in one regime Ñ 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.
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 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 Ñ by his deceptions, and by his cruelties -
Saddam Hussein has made the case again himself.
In 1991, Security Council Resolution 688 demanded that the Iraqi regime cease at
once the repression of its own people, including the systematic repression of
minorities Ñ which, the Council said, "threaten(ed) international peace and
security in the region."
This demand goes ignored. Last year, the U.N. 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 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 Ñ all of these horrors concealed from
the world by the apparatus of a totalitarian state.
In 1991, the U.N. Security Council, through Resolutions 686 and 687, demanded
that Iraq return all prisoners from Kuwait and other lands. Iraq's regime agreed.
It broke its promise. Last year the Secretary-General's high-level coordinator of
this issue reported that Kuwaiti, Saudi, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian,
Egyptian, Bahraini, and Omani nationals remain unaccounted for Ñ more than 600
people. One American pilot is among them.
In 1991, the U.N. Security Council, through Resolution 687, demanded that Iraq
renounce all involvement with terrorism, and permit no terrorist organizations to
operate in Iraq. Iraq's regime agreed. It broke its promise. In violation of
Security Council Resolution 1373, 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 September 11th. And al-Qaida terrorists who
escaped from Afghanistan are known to be in Iraq.
In 1991, the Iraqi regime agreed to destroy and 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 liters of anthrax and other deadly
biological agents for use with Scud warheads, aerial bombs, and aircraft spray
tanks. U.N. 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 Ñ after four years of deception Ñ Iraq finally admitted it had a
crash nuclear weapons program prior to the Gulf War. We know now, 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 program
- 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 aluminum
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 has 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
kilometers permitted by the U.N. Work at testing and production facilities shows
that Iraq is building more long-range missiles that could 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 this program, 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 arms 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 U.N. inspectors immediate and unrestricted access to
verify Iraq's commitment to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction and
long-range missiles. Iraq broke this promise, spending seven years deceiving,
evading and harassing U.N. inspectors before ceasing cooperation entirely. Just
months after the 1991 cease-fire, 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
behavior "totally unacceptable." And in 1999, the demand was renewed yet again.
As we meet today, it has been almost four years since the last U.N. inspectors
set foot in Iraq Ñ four years for the Iraqi regime to plan and build and test
behind a cloak of secrecy.
We know that Saddam Hussein pursued weapons of mass murder even when inspectors
were in the 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 this is a risk we must not take.
Delegates to the General Assembly: 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 these 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 U.N. 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 honored 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 U.N. to be
effective and respected and successful. We want the resolutions of the world's
most important multilateral body to be enforced. Right now these 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 U.N.
Security Council resolutions.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian
population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans and others Ñ 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
these issues Ñ as required by the Security Council resolutions.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all illicit trade
outside the oil-for-food program. It will accept U.N. administration of funds
from that program, to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the
benefit of the Iraqi people.
If all these 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 Ñ a government based on respect for human
rights, economic liberty and internationally supervised elections.
The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people, who have suffered for 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 and 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.
We can harbor no illusions. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980, and Kuwait in
1990. He has fired ballistic missiles at Iran, 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 U.N. Security Council on a new resolution to meet
our common challenge. If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move
deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account. The purposes of the United
States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced -
the just demands of peace and security will be met Ñ 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 neighbors, 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 toward
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 September 11th 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, and respect for women, and the great Islamic tradition of
learning can triumph in the Middle East and beyond. And 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. Delegates to the United Nations, you have
the power to make that stand as well.
Thank you.
