Bush, Before U.N., Defends Decision to Oust Hussein

President Bush appealed to the U.N. General Assembly today to join the United States in spreading “freedom” and “dignity” in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, while the U.N.’s secretary general warned that countries hoping to instill the rule of law must first abide by it themselves.

The two addresses at the opening session of the annual meeting of the world body spoke in lofty terms of universal values such as democracy and rule of law. But Bush and Kofi Annan gave them different emphasis: Bush argued that commitments without “serious consequences” are meaningless; Annan insisted that “every nation that proclaims the rule of law at home must respect it abroad.”

Bush and Annan mentioned only briefly the schism of the last two years over when to use force against Iraq. But for both, it was the clear context for their remarks.

Coming just six weeks before the presidential election, Bush’s diplomacy was aimed as much at the American public as the international leaders gathered in New York.

“When we say ‘serious consequences’ for the sake of peace, there must be serious consequences,” Bush said from the green marble dais at the front of the General Assembly hall, using U.N. code language for use of force. “And so a coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world.”

Annan implicitly warned Washington to hew to the values that the U.N. and U.S. share, and to not join the company of rogue nations who flout them. Although Annan was careful not to name the United States, to the hundreds of world leaders listening in the vaulted chamber, the target of his rebuke was obvious.

“Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it,” Annan said, “and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it. “

The reference was to Bush’s challenge to the U.N. in 2002 to enforce its resolutions demanding Iraq disarm, or to stand aside and let the United States do so. Last week, Annan called the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq “illegal,” his most direct expression yet of his opposition to the attack without the Security Council’s explicit approval.

Annan delivered one direct strike at Washington. Listing a “few flagrant and topical examples,” of shameless disregard for law, Annan included “Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused” along with mentions of atrocities in Sudan, beheadings in Iraq and the school takeover in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month.

Several hours after Bush addressed the United Nations, Sen. John F. Kerry dismissed his speech as inadequate, saying he did not effectively persuade the international community to help rebuild and stabilize Iraq.

“At the United Nations today, the president failed to level with the world’s leaders,” the Democratic candidate told reporters during a stop in Jacksonville, where he later held a town hall meeting on health care.

“Moments after Kofi Annan, the Secretary General, talked about the difficulties in Iraq, the president stood before a stony faced body and barely talked about the realities at all in Iraq,” Kerry said. “After lecturing them, instead of leading them to understand how we are all together, with a stake in the outcome of Iraq, I believe the president missed an opportunity of enormous importance to our nation and to the world.”

In the U.N., the response to the Bush and Annan speeches was polite, but not enthusiastic.

“We’re not a very responsive lot,” British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said afterward.

But the audience understood Annan’s “subliminal message” about those who espouse law at home, but don’t insist on it abroad, Jones Parry said.

“That’s what people noticed,” he said.

For his part, Bush presented his decision to invade and occupy Iraq not as an effort to contain its weapons programs but as part of a campaign to promote democracy and dignity around the world. And he urged other countries to join in.

“For decades, the circle of liberty and security and development has been expanding in our world,” the president said. “Now we have the historic chance to widen the circle even further, to fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity, to achieve a true peace, founded on human freedom.”

The president recalled acts of terrorism — not just the 9/11 attacks but also the train bombings in Madrid and the siege of the school in southern Russia — and portrayed terrorists as believing that “every charter of liberty ever written are lies, to be burned and destroyed and forgotten.”

“The security of the world is found in the advancing rights of mankind,” Bush said. “These rights are advancing across the world — and across the world, the enemies of human rights are responding with violence.”

In fact, the president cited the current surge of violence in Iraq as evidence of progress, saying, “We can expect terrorist attacks to escalate as Afghanistan and Iraq approach national elections” in the coming months.

“But these difficulties will not shake our conviction that the future of Afghanistan and Iraq is a future of liberty,” Bush said. “The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat. It is to prevail.”

Bush also presented U.S. policies as part of an international “compassion” agenda that includes fighting AIDS and human trafficking as well as seeking debt reduction for poor countries and establishing an international “democracy fund.”

Annan also used his speech to respond to critics — including many in the Bush administration — who contend that the United Nations is too ponderous and unresponsive to be effective.

“Today, more than ever, the world needs an effective mechanism through which to seek common solutions to common problems. That is what this organization was created for. Let’s not imagine that, if we fail to make good use of it, we will find any more effective instrument,” Annan said.

Bush’s most important business was conducted behind closed doors in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where he met with leaders from India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Japan. Missing from his list are European heads of state; French President Jacques Chirac left the United Nations on Monday after a summit on global poverty, rather than renew disagreements about Iraq, diplomats said.

Times Staff Writer Matea Gold contributed from Jacksonville.