Colin Powell continues to erode administration policy on Iraq with his completely unprincipled approach to foreign affairs:
Secretary of State Colin Powell is assuring the Arab world the Bush administration’s demand for regime change in Iraq aims at disarmament, not ousting President Saddam Hussein. “If he cooperates, then the basis of changed-regime policy has shifted because his regime has, in fact, changed its policy to one of cooperation,” Powell said…
Powell said the policy of regime change in Baghdad was inherited from the Clinton administration by the Bush administration. [Associated Press, 12/16/02]
In other words: We’re not trying to change the regime, and if we are, it’s not our fault–it’s the Clinton Administration’s. And then there’s the fantasy that Hussein suddenly becomes legitimate because he knuckles under when threatened by force! The lead editorial in today’s New York Sun notes that Powell’s interview effectively drops three of the conditions President Bush had set out for Iraq.