Interview on the CBS Evening News With Dan Rather

MR. RATHER:  Mr. Secretary, does or does not anyone in the Bush Administration believe, really believe, that Iraq will meet the December 8 deadline or that the inspectors will be able to uncover whatever weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein has?

SECRETARY POWELL:  If he cooperates in a way that is clear and visible and we can let the inspectors do their job, then war can be avoided.  But if the declaration is patently false and everybody can see it, if he does not let the inspectors do their job, then the President is fully ready to take the necessary step, which is military force. 

MR. RATHER:  Mr. Secretary, in traveling around I find people saying, how did we get to so much focus on Saddam Hussein and Iraq when it was al-Qaida and Usama bin Laden that killed these people down in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania?  The focus has clearly shifted.  Why is that?

SECRETARY POWELL:  Well, I think people realize that we have gone after al-Qaida.  Almost every day brings news of a new arrest, a new cell being identified and broken up.  But we can't just spend all of our time on that.  It is a very complex world.  There are many challenges out there and we have to deal with all of them and not just say we are so focused on one that we can't deal with others.

MR. RATHER: Let me follow-up on that.  I know that you know this morning we had another horrific example in the Middle East of how unsettled and volatile that situation is.  Fair or unfair to say that thus far the Bush Administration's policy toward the Middle East has been a failure?

SECRETARY POWELL:  I don't know that I would characterize it that way.  The Bush Administration cannot solve this problem in and of itself.  It is a failure of past policies.  It is a failure on the part of a lot of people who have been unable to come together, bring this violence under control, this terrorism under control, and get a peace process moving.

MR. RATHER:  The clock is running on us, Mr. Secretary, but one of the things that you and General Schwarzkopf and others taught us during the Gulf War was that the moon, the tides, the desert temperatures make some time between January 15th and, say, the middle of March the ideal time to strike.  Are we dealing with that kind of window this time, or not?

SECRETARY POWELL:  Many battles have been fought in the heat of summer and the United States Armed Forces are very effective at night, when it is much cooler.  So if Saddam Hussein or anyone else thinks that once this ideal window passes then they are safe for another year, I suggest that may be a false hope.