Colin Powell said,

[Theophylact]

(February 24, 2001)

We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good conversation on this issue. [emphasis added]

In short: sanctions worked, and Saddam was no threat.

[J-Excel]

Six months later the world changed. "Significant capability" was suddenly not the issue. Capability was bad enough. Same with "conventional power". I would like to know what Mr. Powell would say today regarding that quote.

[osprey4]

Hmmm, wonder if Sept. 11 changed our view of acceptable risks?