[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[September 12, 2002]
[Pages 1572-1576]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City
September 12, 2002

    Mr. Secretary-General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, and ladies and gentlemen: We 
meet one year and one day after a terrorist attack brought grief to my 
country and brought grief to many citizens of our world. 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've accomplished much in the last year in Afghanistan and beyond. 
We have much yet to do in Afghanistan and beyond. Many nations 
represented here have joined in the fight against global terror, and the 
people of the United States are grateful.
    The United Nations was born in the hope that survived a world war, 
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, unlike the 
League of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our 
resolutions would be more than wishes. After generations of deceitful 
dictators and broken treaties and squandered lives, we dedicated 
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 lifts 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 States 
will return to UNESCO. This organization has been reformed, and America 
will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights and 
tolerance and learning.
    Our common security is challenged by regional conflicts, 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

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side by side with 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--in one regime--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, 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, by his 
deceptions, and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case 
against 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, which the Council said threatened 
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 and burning, 
electric shock, starvation, mutilation, and rape. Wives are tortured in 
front of their husbands, children in the presence of their parents, and 
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 this promise. Last year, the Secretary-
General's high-level coordinator for this 
issue reported that Kuwaiti, Saudi, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian, 
Egyptian, Bahraini, and Omani nationals remain unaccounted for--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 this 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 Amir of Kuwait and a former American President. Iraq's Government openly praised the attacks of 
September the 11th,

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and Al Qaida terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and 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 2 to 4 times the amount of biological agents 
it declared and has failed to account for more than 3 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 
revealed 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, after 4 years of deception, 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 it 
can 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 to buy 
arms for 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 7 
years deceiving, evading, and harassing U.N. inspectors before ceasing 
cooperation entirely. Just months after the 1991 ceasefire, 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.

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    As we meet today, it's been almost 4 years since the last U.N. 
inspectors set foot in Iraq, 4 years for the Iraqi regime to plan and to 
build and to test behind the cloak of secrecy.
    We know that Saddam Hussein pursued 
weapons of mass murder even when inspectors were in his 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've tried sanctions. We've 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 a--nuclear weapons is when, God forbids, 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 
United Nations to be effective and respectful and successful. We want 
the resolutions of the world's most important multilateral body to be 
enforced. And right now those 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, 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, as 
required by 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, a 
government based on respect for human rights, economic liberty, and 
internationally supervised elections.
    The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They've 
suffered 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; the security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not 
intimidate through cruelty and conquest, and open societies do not

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threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports 
political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq.
    We can harbor no illusions, and that's important today to remember. 
Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and 
Kuwait in 1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran and 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 to meet our 
common challenge. If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move 
deliberately, decisively to hold Iraq to account. We will work with the 
U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions. But 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, 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 and dominate and conquer its 
neighbors, condemning the Middle East to more years of bloodshed and 
fear. The regime will remain unstable--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 the 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 the hopes of mankind. 
By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that 
stand. And delegates to the United Nations, you have the power to make 
that stand as well.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:39 a.m. in the General Assembly Hall at 
the United Nations Headquarters. In his remarks, he referred to 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and General Assembly President Jan Kavan of 
the United Nations; President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Yuli Vorontsov, 
High-Level Coordinator for the Return of Missing Property and Missing 
Persons from Iraq to Kuwait; missing American pilot Lt. Comdr. Michael 
S. Speicher, USN; Amir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah of Kuwait; and 
former President George Bush. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.