Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel says Iraq war justified

AFP via Yahoo ^ | Sun Apr 6, 4:22 PM ET | no byline

[weegee]

MONTREAL (AFP) - Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel said the war on Iraq (news - web sites) is justified and blamed unnamed European countries for failing to prevent it through pressuring President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

"If some European countries put as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as on (US President George W.) Bush, there would have been no war," he told a press conference in Montreal.

"Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed (and) there were no other means," said the Nazi concentration camp survivor and author who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1986 for his message "of peace, atonement and human dignity."

The press conference was organized by the Quebec-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Montreal Jewish community's official public action group on behalf of Israel.

The Romanian-born Wiesel, who became a US citizen in 1963, said he did "not justify" war and was "not comfortable" with it, but that he was not a pacifist and believed in the "right to interference".

He added: "You can accuse me of being naive, but I think in all conscience that this war was necessary."

Dismissing suggestions that he is a "hostage of the American right", Wiesel said: "I am not against paradoxes, I take them on, as someone who opposes war, who has seen war and who hates war."

The US-led war on Iraq, he said, "will change the world."

He said he was optimistic over prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians after the appointment of Mahmud Abbas, a moderate known as Abu Mazen, as Palestinian prime minister.

Stressing that Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) had been "a big disappointment" for the Israelis, Wiesel said he hoped a three-month moratorium on terrorist actions would be called "to give a chance" to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).

"The problem is terrorism (but) it will be necessary one day to settle this tragedy" in the Middle East, he said.

[weegee]

This appears to be an expanded article (more comments) from a couple of weeks ago.

Nobel laureate urges Europe to confront Saddam

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[HiTech RedNeck]

Given Hussein's character, I don't know how any amount of "pressure" would have helped. He would have smiled and posed for the inspectors while continuing to brew up his WMD in secret.

[Red Dog #1]

You may very well be correct but we’ll never know for sure if he would have left. We can be sure that if The Axis Of Weasels had been with us we could have received permission to go thru Turkey and finish the war even faster saving a few more Coalition lives and probably thousands of Iraqis.

[konaice]

"The US-led war on Iraq, he said, "will change the world."

Its good to see SOMEONE gets it. The entire Middle East is going to eventually stop believing the hijackers of Islam and see the light. So desparate for any kind of Arab man of stature and standing, they have rallied around butchers and thugs, which sadly is the best their culture has to offer. This has to change, and this is the beginning of the end.

Contrary to the popular belief that this war will "spawn a 100 Bin Laudins", the real truth of the arab world is that they will quickly cave, the "Arab Street" will tuck its tail.

[Sabertooth]

"If some European countries put as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as on (US President George W.) Bush, there would have been no war," he told a press conference in Montreal.

Weisel is wrong, but hs heart's in the right place, and the Europeans should have at least have had the good sense to go through the motions with Hussein.

[AFPhys]

doesn't it just tickle you pink that a Nobel laureate thinks this is a good war?... his opinion is worth about as much as Jummy Corters, Arafat's, Carl Sagan's... on and on... blech.

[thucydides]

You would think the guy would be embarrassed to be put in the company of murderous thugs (Arafat, Le Duc Tho) and useful idiots (Carter) that also have received Nobel Scandinavian Leftist Pacifist Prize.

[trebb]

I'll be damned, you don't have to flush your brains down the toilet to get the Nobel...