Defending accomplishments in foreign affairs during the first Bush Administration, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said, "over the last four years Washington has managed the difficult feat of drawing closer both Pakistan and India." "It eliminated bad regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. US forces are fighting terrorism wherever they find it." Secretary Powell stated this at a luncheon hosted by the editorial board of The Christian Science Monitor (CSM).
He said US relations with China have seldom been better. "I think it's a pretty good record," said departing Secretary of State Powell.
Commenting, the daily says, "as this shows, Powell may be leaving office, but that doesn't mean he's in the mood for mea culpas. In a wide-ranging session, he ceded little ground to critics and gave no outward indication of any past conflicts with cabinet colleagues."
On a day when the news from Iraq was bleak, he began by asking reporters to remember the individual US soldiers and contractors on the front lines, and admitted that 'the current insurgency is a difficult one.' Nor will the violence end magically when (critics would say "if") Iraqis go to the polls, said Powell.
But Washington didn't ignore internal government warnings that violence of this sort would follow a US take-over of the country, according to the secretary. "I don't know of any reporting anyone saw that anticipated an insurgency of this level," said Powell.
ADVICE TO BUSH: Nor did Powell himself warn President Bush against going to war. His advice to Bush (often misreported, he said) prior to the last year's military operations was that any confrontation with Saddam Hussein would be a difficult one. It should be taken to the UN first - and it was.
Powell said he told Bush that the administration would eventually approach a "Y" intersection, with one road leading to continued negotiations, and one to combat. But he said that there was never any doubt that he would support the administration no matter which course it took.
"When I go on a long patrol, I go on a long patrol," said Powell.
The secretary responded forcefully to questions concerning his own appearance before the UN on February 5, 2003, in which he presented a summary of US charges against the Iraqi regime.
Two aspects of that presentation have subsequently been proven not to be true, said Powell: The assertion that Saddam Hussein likely had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraqi possessed mobile biological weapons labs.
"It wasn't an exaggeration, and it wasn't a falsehood," said Powell of the overall presentation.
Of President Bush, Powell said, "He doesn't turn away because things are going to be tough." Powell had much to say about other aspects of the US diplomacy that he considers to have been successful over the last four years.
TIES WITH CHINA: Take relations with China, which started off badly, when an overzealous Chinese fighter pilot collided with a US spy plane off the Chinese coast. Powell and his Beijing counterparts worked carefully to defuse that crisis, and both realised that from then on they had to find ways to work together.
Since then "we've had a very mature relationship with them," said Powell.
Similarly, the Bush administration began with Powell informing Moscow that he was about to kick 52 Russians out of the US for the alleged espionage activities. In turn, Moscow expelled 52 Americans - but the tit-for-tat stopped there.
Since then the US relationship with Russia has been "stable," said Powell, despite disagreements over such actions as the US notification of withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, and recent differences regarding the validity of Ukranian elections.
As to his own plans, Powell said only that he would take some time off after leaving office, and then would do something that combined making a living with his charitable interests.
As to a possible run for the presidency, he gave his stock answer: not interested. He considered it in 1995, and decided it wasn't for him.
"Running for elective office would not fit me," he said.
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