Posted on 01/30/2003 5:57:55 PM PST by A Navy Vet
In his address, Mandela called President Bush arrogant and shortsighted and implied he was racist for ignoring the United Nations in his zeal to attack Iraq. Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Thursday accused President Bush of planning a "holocaust" with his Iraq policy, said U.S. and U.K. leaders were undermining the United Nations because it was headed by a black man.
Mandela's comments, in which he also described British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as the U.S. "foreign minister," came at the International Women's Forum in Johannesburg. Mandela urged women of the world to "condemn the looming war America is preparing for."
"The women's forum must make sure that all irregularities in the world are rectified," he said. "A war on Iraq is something we must condemn without reservation."
The Nobel Peace Prize winner said the United States itself had been guilty of atrocities in Japan when it had used the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
"If there is a country which has committed unspeakable atrocities, it is the United States of America," Mandela said. "They don't care for human beings."
He said he believed the United Nations was the forum to settle the Iraq issue and he would support the world body's final decision.
"If (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein was not carrying out the U.N. instructions and resolutions ... I will support them (the United Nations) without resignation," he said, "but what I condemn is one power with a president who can't think properly and wants to plant the world into holocaust."
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer pointed to a letter of support of the U.S. policy by eight European leaders that was released Thursday.
"The president expresses his gratitude to the many leaders of Europe who obviously feel differently," Fleischer said. "He understands there are going to be people who are more comfortable doing nothing about a growing menace that could turn into a holocaust."
Mandela also said Bush's perceived disregard for the United Nations is because U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is black.
"They never did that when (the secretaries-general) were white," he said. "All Bush wants is Iraqi oil, because Iraq produces 64 percent of oil and he wants to get hold of it."
He also criticized Blair, Bush's key ally in Europe.
"He (Blair) is the foreign minister of the United States," Mandela said. "He is no longer prime minister of Britain."
Mandela said, however, he was pleased at the worldwide anti-war movement, including in the United States.
"I hope that that opposition will one day make him understand that he has made the greatest mistake of his life," he said.
U.N. weapons inspectors are in Iraq seeking proscribed weapons of mass destruction and to ensure Saddam's government is complying with U.N. resolutions. Washington maintains Baghdad has a track record of lying to the world and says it will disarm Saddam by force if he does not do it himself.
Is it too late to get tickets to this event?
OH brother....here we go with this racist crap.
I could care less what this man thinks. And the only one undermining the UN is the UN itself. It is, as W so aptly said, "an empty debating society."
"They never did that when (the secretaries-general) were white," he said. "All Bush wants is Iraqi oil, because Iraq produces 64 percent of oil and he wants to get hold of it."
Isn't oil black?
Hey Kofi! What say you to your fellow traveler? Jimmy...comment? HARHARHAR!
I read a book last week by Austin Fagothy, a worshiped theological liberal from the San Francisco Archdiosese. It was titled "Right and Reason, Ethics in Theory and Practice". Man is it a good book! The chapters on War, and what makes a just or unjust war is phenomenal. Liberals of 25 years ago would seem like war mongers by today's standards. The conservative has become center, and the liberal has become a fascist today. Time for both groups to do a gut check and see how far they slid down their respective slippery slopes.
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