[Article] - Mandela lambastes 'arrogant' Bush over Iraq

gandalf

From the UK Independent

Mandela lambastes 'arrogant' Bush over Iraq
By Rupert Cornwell
31 January 2003


Nelson Mandela delivered a stinging personal attack on George Bush and his Iraq policy yesterday. Mr Mandela said the President was shortsighted and arrogant and implied he was a racist in his readiness to ignore the United Nations.

Urging Americans to take to the streets in protest, the former South African president said Mr Bush was a leader "who has no foresight and cannot think properly". Mr Bush, he said, wanted "to plunge the world into a holocaust".

Delivering a speech in Johannesburg, Mr Mandela asked: "Why is the US behaving so arrogantly?" He went on to accuse Tony Blair of acting like "the foreign minister of the United States". He suggested the countries were acting in such as way "because the secretary general of the UN [Kofi Annan] is now a black man. They [the US and Britain] never did that when secretary generals were white".

The White House brushed aside Mr Mandela's remarks yesterday, pointing to the statement of support for action in Iraq by eight European leaders.

The President was grateful to the many leaders of Europe "who obviously feel differently" from Mr Mandela, Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush's spokesman, said. He chided "people more comfortable with doing nothing about a growing menace that could turn into a holocaust".

But Mr Mandela went even further. Referring to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, he declared that "if there is a country which has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America".

Such sentiments are not voiced here. But concern at the damage to the reputation of America is widespread. Washington should be wary of actions "that make us look like a bunch of cowboys", Joe Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, warned yesterday.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=374183

Personally I think Nelson Mandela has expressed the views that many of us have stated here over the previous weeks and months.

I'm not sure whether he's playing the racism card to tug at a few heartstrings or not but it does give you alot to consider. I reckon it doesn't matter what colour the head of UN is/was this current US administration would forge ahead on its current path of folly no matter what.

Gandalf.

I agree. America has seen how fragmentated the UN is and knows that its not a force to regulate how america deals with foreign powers. Oddly enough theres a comparison here with germany. Germany invades Austria, America invades Afghanistan, Germany invades Czech, America invades Iraq, Germany invades poland, war is declared. Except theres nobody to stop America this time round.

Before someone jumps to a conclusion. I am NOT comparing Bush to Hitler. (Just thought to clear that issue before it arises)

Good old Nelson, calling it like it is.
( I think his next whitehouse invite has been cancelled:D )
I saw this on tv yesterday and his audience laughed loudly when Nelson, paused mid sentence and then said "..and cannot think properly.."

As an African, he's entitled to be annoyed, with , the U.S for perhaps choosing where to intervene based on their interests.
I'm sure he's equally condemning of Robert Mugabe who is currently causing his people to starve in a land of plenty:rolleyes:
mm