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WASHINGTON, Aug 31: US Secretary of State Colin Powell, a silent voice in the current public debate over whether to invade Iraq, favors a cautious approach taking into account the level of international support, a senior State Department official said on Friday.
Another US official said Powell, seen as the leading dove in an administration dominated by hawks, was keeping his powder dry until President George W. Bush decides how he intends to convert his policy of “regime change” into a plan of action.
Advocates of military action to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been speaking out in public for weeks, while others outside the administration have advised Bush to build an international consensus, as his father, President George Bush, did for the Gulf War of 1991.
The State Department official, who asked not to be named, said: “The secretary’s view is that all these things need to be looked over carefully, both from the point of view of effectiveness and support and all the other angles on them.”
In conversations with foreign leaders, Powell is trying to persuade them to think about how to deal with Iraq, which the Bush administration says is a threat to the world.
“He’s ... reflecting that back in the internal discussions that we’ve got so we can gauge the kind of support we might get for various courses of action,” the official said.
The other US official, who also asked not to be named, said that Powell would not go on the offensive in the heated debate on Iraq until the administration has a detailed plan.
“He’s the consummate military man and he’s not going to attack (in any internal debate) until he knows what the target is,” said the official.
“It doesn’t help to attack. Until the details are out there, there’s not much utility in taking it on,” he added.
Vice President Dick Cheney has led the call for pre-emptive action in two speeches this week, arguing that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction which pose a “mortal threat” to the United States.
Bush has promised to consult US friends and allies, and with Congress, before deciding how to act, although the White House has said that inaction on Saddam is not an option.
Powell was on vacation last week and has not appeared in public in Washington throughout this week. He had a brief meeting with a Turkish official on Tuesday and had some telephone conversations with European foreign ministers.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked about Powell’s position on Friday, said the administration was united on the need for “regime change” in Iraq.
“The State Department has been addressing this issue recently just like we have and, again, the view of the administration is united and one and the same. We are singing from the same song book,” he told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is wrapping up a month-long stay at his ranch.
RHETORIC OUTPACES PLANNING: Critics of the Bush administration say that the rhetoric on Iraq has gone way ahead of the practical planning.
The second US official suggested that Powell sympathized with that criticism. “You hear the rhetoric, but there’s no sense in shooting at a mirage,” he said.
“We don’t have a set strategy yet. When the strategy emerges, then Powell can say, for example, ‘What about the Turks? What about the Jordanians?’,” he added.
Turkey and Jordan border Iraq and their territory would be useful in any US military plan to attack or invade Iraq. But they, like most of the world, oppose military action to oust Saddam.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher hinted at the State Department approach on Tuesday when he said it was too early to start enlisting foreign support for an attack.
“At this moment, we’re not selling a war plan because the president’s not decided what option he wants to pursue,” Boucher told a briefing.
“There’s no option to enlist people’s support for. There’s no war drum to beat. There’s no particular course of action that we’re trying to sell right now,” he added.—Reuters
