Wiesel - on Iraq, word is his Bond

The Rocky Mountain News ^ | 10-29-02 | Jean Torkelson

[LadyDoc]

Wiesel - on Iraq, word is his Bond By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News October 29, 2002

Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel confesses to a not-so-secret wish: that a James Bond-style raid would rid the world of a major terror base in Iraq.

"Maybe it's a naïve and romantic notion, but if I were an American general, I would like to have a kind of James Bond operation to send in American, British and Israeli commandos to go in the evening, destroy all the factories of mass destruction and get out without killing a single person," Wiesel said Monday in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News.

Wiesel was in Denver to speak at Bridges to the Future, a symposium that holds periodic "dynamic conversations" about America's heritage and values after the 9-11 terror attacks. Sponsored by the University of Denver and Colorado State University, its speaker list has ranged from William Bennett to John Glenn. Scheduled speakers include Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Patricia Schroeder, George Will and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

James Bond aside, Wiesel said a major weapon against terrorism is education.

"I don't have the answers, but whatever the answer is must have education as a major component," said Wiesel, who spoke on the topic of "Building a Moral Society Against Indifference."

"I would like to replace violence with words, hostility with understanding and fanaticism with respect."

Now in his 74th year, Wiesel's Romanian family died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and he himself was liberated from Buchenwald at the end of World War II. He first settled in Paris, where he embarked on a life as journalist, educator and author.

Now a U.S. citizen, Wiesel consults and lectures on the Holocaust and other threats to human freedom and dignity.

He refused to make comparisons between the magnitude of the Nazis' war against humanity 50 years ago and today's worldwide terrorism. But he said it was just as urgent to stop the present threat.

"(This) war must be won or we will be lost," he said. "With suicide killers in Israel, Jordan, Bali, the threat of unimaginable biological terrorism - it means a danger to the whole world."

The enemy, he said, is fanaticism, although he refused to characterize the world's present-day terrorists as Islamic fundamentalists: "Only the person who kills is a killer. I am against passing judgments on a collective basis."

However, he said one individual who must be stopped is Saddam Hussein.

"I'm not a military man, but I know Saddam Hussein is a dangerous killer. I have testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to say that he should be indicted for crimes against humanity."

If Saddam does not willingly give up weapons of mass destruction, the United States is justified in forcing his hand, Wiesel said. "I am not pacifist, but I am for peace.

"I would bear arms. If America is attacked, I would try to defend it."

But first things first, Wiesel said. "We must educate people all over the world. Then we've already won our first battle."

[LadyDoc]

HMMMM.

All the leftist nobel prize winners bashing Bush get the headlines. Mandela, for example. Ditto for Hollywood pinheads and senile leftist writers like Vidal. Yet here is a thoughtful support of Bush by a well known human rights activist and Nobel prize winner, and where is it published?

In a small article in the LOCAL news section of a Denver paper.

Ah, but the press really isn't biased, is it?

[xm177e2]

What a nice little fantasy. While we're at it, I wish I had a pony.

Now, let's get down to business, and do what we have to do, and accept the sacrifices that come with it.

[Britton J Wingfield]

A magic pony. They'll need it for the james-bond type operation.