War of Aggression is The Supreme War Crime!
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012Archbishop Desmond Tutu Says: Bush & Blair
Should Stand Trial for War Crimes!
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, calls for both Tony Blair and George W. Bush to be brought before The Hague (International Criminal Court -ICC) to stand trial for the illegal invasion of Iraq. “The immorality of the United States and Great Britain’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003,” Tutu wrote in an exclusive for the Observer this weekend, was “premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction,” and instead of bringing peace, democracy, or harmony to the region, “has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.
Tutu’s missive was delivered following his refusal to attend a global leadership summit in South Africa last week after learning that the former Prime Minister Tony Blair would be in attendance. “My appeal to Mr Blair is not to talk about leadership, but to demonstrate it,” Tutu said.
Tutu recalls urging — along with millions of other global citizens who mounted the largest global protests in human history — the US and Britain to give UN inspectors more time to determine the veracity of their claims about Iraq’s weapons stockpiles, but was told by then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice that “there was too much risk and the president [George W. Bush] would not postpone any longer.”
The result? “The cost of the decision to rid Iraq of its by-all-accounts despotic and murderous leader has been staggering, beginning in Iraq itself. Last year, an average of 6.5 people died there each day in suicide attacks and vehicle bombs, according to the Iraqi Body Count project. More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.”
In a “consistent world,” writes Tutu, and based on the level of destruction caused by the US and its willing allies, “those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague…”
Tutu met the expected Blair rebuttal about the good that was done in ridding the world of Saddam Hussein by again pointing to the inherent responsibilities of wielding the unmatched power that both Blair and Bush were entrusted with by their people. “Leadership and morality are indivisible,” he wrote. “Good leaders are the custodians of morality. The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.”
“If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our children?” (See Common Dreams and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19454562
NO MORE LIES! NO MORE WAR!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Emailja@malu-aina.org http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Sept. 7, 2012 – 572nd week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
