US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday revealed the first cracks of doubt from within the Bush administration about the decision to go to war against Iraq, acknowledging he might not have supported an invasion had he known former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.
Powell's admission that the "absence of a stockpile changes the political calculus" was the first public sign that the Bush administration may be having second thoughts on its decision to wage war.
However, the comments, made to the Washington Post yesterday, seem to be a momentary lapse from Powell's enduring belief that it was right to go to war.
He maintained that Saddam had continued to pose a danger to the world -- even without an active arsenal.
He tried to minimize the political fallout from his comments by telling reporters yesterday: "There should be no doubt ... that we have done the right thing and history certainly will be the test of that."
But Powell's protestations are unlikely to distract attention from a most astonishing admission, especially during an election year.
As secretary of state, it was Powell's role to convince the international community to support US President George W. Bush's decision to go to war.
Nearly a year ago he made a forceful presentation to the UN, using satellite maps and radio intercepts, to argue that Iraq had an active weapons program. It was based on "facts and conclusions based on solid evidence," he said then.
That certainty has vanished following last week's testimony by the chief US weapons inspector, David Kay. He told Congress that America's prewar intelligence was simply wrong and Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction.
Asked whether he would have helped build the case for war had he known at the time, Powell told the Washington Post: "I don't know, because it was the stockpile that presented the final little piece that made it more of a real and present danger and threat to the region and to the world."
He went on: "The absence of a stockpile changes the political calculus. It changes the answer you get."
The comments were a deviation from the Bush administration's response to the news that Saddam was no longer a nuclear, biological or chemical weapons power at the time of the war.
Although officials have been retreating from the prewar certainties for months, the White House has avoided direct comment on Kay's report.
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