Powell wouldn't invade Iraq again with current knowledge David Edwards and Josh Catone

Published: Sunday June 10, 2007 Print This Email This "I didn't think the [Iraq] war was a mistake at the time we entered into it," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell on NBC's Meet the Press this morning. "It was a war I would have liked to avoid." Powell said he told President Bush, in August 2002, to seek a resolution from the United Nations for the problem of Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction. "The president did that. He took it to the UN and he did not get a satisfactory solution from the UN, and made a decision to use military force, and I supported him in that. But I think we have handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad in a very ineffective way," said Powell. Powell was then asked if he would still support the invasion of Iraq knowing that there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. "If we knew then what we know today, that there were no weapons of mass destruction, I would have had nothing to take to the United Nations," replied Powell. "We rested our case on the existence of weapons of mass destruction that were a threat to us and could be given to terrorists making it another kind of threat to us. I think without that weapons of mass destruction case the justification would not have been there ..." The following video is from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast on June 10.



