Powell cites 'challenging time' for U.S. diplomacy
Secretary of state: 'I enjoy this job'
 |  Secretary of State Colin Powell talks to CNN's Larry King about the challenges he faces. |
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted Tuesday that he "doesn't feel like a casualty" and still likes his job, despite the ups and downs.
In an interview with CNN's Larry King, Powell disputed the popular caricature of him as a frustrated and sidelined figure soldiering along in an administration where he's not appreciated.
"I enjoy serving my country. I enjoy this job," Powell said. "But are there difficult days, are there tough times? Sure. These are tough issues. They're tough issues to get your mind around ... There are debates. Sometimes you win debates, sometimes you lose debates."
"That's not the point. In this job ... the issue is not to win or lose a particular debate. The issue is to make sure that the president gets the very best information he can get, honestly, in order to make decisions for the American people."
As America's chief diplomat, Powell described the current atmosphere of anti-American feeling in the Arab world as a "challenging time" for U.S. diplomacy. However, he said he is optimistic the situation will improve.
"I'm confident that when the Arab world sees that the United States has succeeded in bringing the security situation under control, and we are flowing the dollars that Congress appropriated for reconstruction efforts, and we are giving sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, those attitudes will change," he said.
Asked if he would stay in his post if President Bush wins a second term, Powell demurred, saying only that he serves at the pleasure of the president.
Powell, a former Army general, also said he was "shocked" by photographs of Iraqi prisoners being degraded and humiliated in a U.S. military prison, which he termed "totally despicable."
"In war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they're still to be deplored," he said. "It's a fairly small number of soldiers. Let's not let that take away from the magnificent contributions being made by most of our soldiers."
Powell -- who reportedly warned Bush prior to the Iraq war that the post-war period could be fraught with difficulty -- also told King that he was "surprised" by the level of resistance to coalition forces in Iraq.
"Whether we should have done some things differently so as not to generate this kind of resistance, that will be the subject of many books in the future," he said. "It is more resistance than we expected to see at this time, but the military has responded to it with increase the troops that are there."
As for the backlash over the photos showing mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, he said, "We will deal with this by telling the people of the world that this is an isolated incident."
"When you look at what American soldiers have done in the course of our history, especially over the last 60 or 70 or 80 years, we have been builders. We have been those who came in and relieved suffering. We have helped societies stand up on their feet again."
Asked whether the conflict in Iraq was a war of choice or a war of necessity, Powell said it was both.
"We could could have chosen not to go to war, but the president took a hard look at this situation from the beginning of the administration," he said. "The president was concerned about Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the weapons of mass destruction that we believed were there -- and not only the weapons being there but the intention to have and use such weapons and the infrastructure that developed such weapons."
Addressing the conflict in the Middle East, Powell said Bush "continues to believe he has a commitment" from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to kill Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat.
"We don't think that would be in the interest of the peace process, and that's why President Bush continues to let Prime Minister Sharon know that he opposes that," Powell told King.
Last month, after meeting with Bush in Washington, Sharon said he no longer considers himself bound by an earlier commitment made to Bush not to kill Arafat, although Israeli officials later said there are no immediate plans to target Arafat.
