"Bush/Blair to apologise for Iraqi war".

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Registered: 03-18-2000
"Bush/Blair to apologise for Iraqi war".
Tue, 02-17-2004 - 9:51am

Tutu tells Bush and Blair to apologise for Iraqi war.


http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/tue/feb17w25.htm


Retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led an unrelenting moral campaign against apartheid, demanded an apology from Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush in a lecture in London Monday.


In the lecture sponsored by the Independent, the former archbishop of Cape Town accused the British and US leaders of pursuing a counter-productive and "immoral" war in Iraq, according to comments published by the newspaper ahead of his address.

Tutu, now 72 and a visiting professor in post-conflict studies at King's College, London, ridiculed the "dangerously flawed" intelligence used to justify a military action which has made the world a "great deal less safe".

The archbishop emeritus, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his principled and non-violent opposition to white minority rule in his native South Africa, argued the turmoil after the war proved it was an illusion to believe that "force and brutality" led to greater security.

"How wonderful if politicians could bring themselves to admit they are only fallible human creatures and not God and thus by definition can make mistakes. Unfortunately, they seem to think that such an admission is a sign of weakness," Tutu said.

He said weak and insecure people hardly ever apologised. "It is large-hearted and courageous people who are not diminished by saying: I made a mistake.

"President Bush and Prime Minister Blair would recover considerable credibility and respect if they were able to say: Yes, we made a mistake," he said.

Tutu referred to the new US military doctrine of pre-emption as "a novel and dangerous principle", and accused the United States of dragging Britain in alongside it.

"An immoral war was thus waged and the world is a great deal less safe place than before. There are many more who resent the powerful who can throw their weight about so callously and with so much impunity," he said.

Tutu accused the two leaders of operating a policy of "might is right - and to hell with the rule of international law".

During the 1970s and 1980s, Tutu campaigned against the apartheid government while political leaders like Nelson Mandela were in prison. Once they were released in 1989 and early 1990, he made good his promise to return to the pulpit, using his position to criticise the new democratic government for what he saw as its moral failings.

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