[M. Peach]

Are you trying to be funny or sarcastic? Seriously - I'll bet that Powell had the crap kicked out of him by bullies when he was young, and to this day, can't stand up to them. He is a total wuss.

[mitchbert]

I've never heard him say it in public but here's the quote from "My American Journey" beginning on p490 of the paperback version (mine at least)...

"On the day the deadline was to run out, I started drafting a warning to Saddam. It read:

Only conventional weapons will be used in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention and commonly accepted rules of warfare. If you, however, use chemical or biological wapons in violation of treaty obligations we will:

destroy your merchant fleet
destroy your road infrastucture
destroy your port facilities
destroy your highway system
destroy your oil facilities
destroy your airline infrastructure

I saved the worst for last, and it was a bluff intended only to strike fear in him, an action that our lawyers would veto. I wrote, we would destroy the dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and flood Baghdad, with horrendous consequences. I started circulating the message through channels, but time ran out before it could be cleared. Its meaning, however, was not lost on our side. We would fight a conventional war, unless Saddam drove us to other means, which would be swift and crushing.

As far as bombing biological arsenals and the attendant risk of unleashing rather than preventing a catastrophe, I told Sir David Craig, "If it heads south, just blame me."