Example of Persuasive Paper to Colin Powell

Dear Colin Powell,

Hello Mr. Powell, I am a student at Sacramento City College, and I am writing this letter in regards to the remarks that you addressed to the United Nations Security Council, in New York City, on February 5, 2003. I believe that you misjudged the information and data that you presented before the members of the Security Council, and to the people of the world. In this document I hope to persuade you that your conclusions about your information was misguided and that you should apologize to the people of the world, especially the people of America and those of Iraq.

Mr. Powell on February the 5th your “Remarks” which were highly televised around the world, were composed for the ears of Americans who were recently attacked, other victims of terrorism especially in Europe, and to your immediate audience, the United Nations Security Council, made up of delegates from around the world. You endeavored to make the case that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, which is against Resolution 1441 and previous U.N. Resolutions. You claimed that Saddam Hussein was a greedy man who had sold and planned

to sell more highly lethal weapons to terrorists, so as for himself to make money. Your whole speech tried to convince the public of what a terrible threat Saddam Hussein is to world peace, and how he is funding death through the weapons that he is supposedly producing and hiding from the U.N.

Mr. Powell, sir, up to this date, neither the U.N. nor the coalition forces have found any of the information, that you claimed that existed to prove that these weapons of mass destruction existed. Maybe we can infer now just to be figments of your own imagination, even existed.

On the 5th you made people fear for their lives and the lives of their family by insisting that Saddam Hussein was a pertinent and immediate threat. I would like to reiterate some of the things that you said that day to remind you. In this quote, Sir, you played on the fear of Americans and everyone around the world, who could possibly be affected by terrorism. “Given Saddam Hussein’s history of aggression, given what we know of his grandiose plans, given what we know of his terrorist association, and given his determination to exact revenge on those who oppose him, should we take the risk that he will not someday use these weapons [weapons no one has substantial proof of their initial existence] at a time and a place and in a manner of his choosing, at a time when the world is in a much weaker position to respond.”(Powell) Mr. Powell you truly misrepresented many facts such as, “There is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for use in centrifuge enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuge out of the aluminum tubes in question.”(“Was Colin…”) And in this quote, Americans are reminded that they cannot wait, because according to the government, everyday someone is out to blow us up, with weapons made by Saddam. “The United States will not and cannot run that risk for the American people. Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world.”(Powell) In both of the previous quotes, you can see that no one was hurt by terrorists or terrorist weapons linked to Hussein, and that we did not leave Hussein in possession of any weapons of mass destruction, because he had none. And as we progressed further in our searches, it seems very doubtful, that he even had the weapons that you claimed he had, and if he did, would he provoke the U.S. or the collective forces of the U.N upon himself?

Now Mr. Powell let me turn my attention to some of the conclusions that you drew from the information that you had been given. “… let me focus on the now famous declaration that Iraq submitted to this Council on December 7th. Iraq never had any intention of complying with this Council's mandate. Instead, Iraq planned to use the declaration to overwhelm us and to overwhelm the inspectors with useless information about Iraq's permitted weapons so that we would not have time to pursue Iraq's prohibited weapons. Iraq's goal was to give us in this room, to give those of us on this Council, the false impression that the inspection process was working.” (Powell) This quote might have sounded reasonable at the time, but now we know that they obviously did give us all their information, and very detailed information at that, and they were not trying to slow the inspectors down, but offer up all pertinent information. And yet their has still been no formal or informal recognition that the Iraqi government or Hussein were lying, and your conclusions now seem to be completely unfounded in fact. You also stated that you