-Caveat Lector-
http://truthout.org/docs_03/031603D.shtml
Confronting Iraq: Might Doesn't Make Right
By Desmond Tutu and Ian Urbina
International Herald Tribune | Commentary
Friday 14 March 2003
People of faith belong on the side of peace. But it is more
than just those of all religions who stand against an attack on
Iraq. It is also those who put their trust in law.
The current moment confronts the world with a terrible
decision: will we stand by reason and law or act in force and
aggression? There has never been a more important test of the
values of average people around the globe. At stake is whether
might makes right.
The United States is indeed a mighty country. But its real
strength resides in its proud history of standing for what is just.
In figures such as Martin Luther King, the world draws moral
fortitude and an example of the effectiveness of non-violent
struggle. With the grassroots boycotting efforts of everyday
Americans, and the eventual diplomatic pressure of their
government, South African apartheid was ended. The prison doors
would still be shut around Nelson Mandela were it not for the help
of the United States.
These traditions have spoken recently on the streets. Never
has there been such a popular and peaceful outpouring of
opposition, even before the act war has taken place. This is truly
the moral meaning of preemption.
There is no dishonor in the willingness to slow things down
for the inspections to run their course. Few doubt that the United
States has established a credible threat of force. Now the United
Nations must be permitted to do its job. Disarmament is an absolute
necessity. Nothing will undermine it more than a brazen disregard
for the one institution which can actually achieve it.
It is not a vote against the war which threatens the United
Nations with irrelevance. It is the unilateral cajoling by the sole
remaining superpower which risks corrupting this otherwise
democratic and international institution.
It is the inconsistent application of its resolutions, whereby
some violators operate above the law, while others lack due
process. It is the threat that money will dictate votes where only
law and evidence should hold sway.
The question is not whether the United States has the ability
to change the current heinous regime in Baghdad. It does. The
question is whether it is worth the cost not just in terms of the
fate of diplomacy and law, but also in terms of the thousands of
innocent victims which will result now and down the road in the
repercussions to come.
President George W. Bush is a man of faith. We can only hope
that he believes in law as well.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Ian
Urbina is associate editor at the Middle East Research and
Information Project.
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