Not that I am any fan of the International Criminal Court. But sauce for the goose, and all that. In Nick Cohen's usual but still-unacknowledged spot, and of the man who admitted it all on television to Fern Britton, but it only counts if you do it on Newsnight or the Today programme, Desmond Tutu writes:
The immorality of the United States and Great
Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie
that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised
the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.
Instead of recognising that the world we lived
in, with increasingly sophisticated communications, transportations and weapons
systems necessitated sophisticated leadership that would bring the global
family together, the then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to
behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us
to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and
Iran before us.
If leaders may lie, then who should tell the
truth? Days before George W Bush and Tony Blair ordered the
invasion of Iraq, I called the White House and spoke to Condoleezza Rice, who
was then national security adviser, to urge that United Nations weapons
inspectors be given more time to confirm or deny the existence of weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq. Should they be able to confirm finding such weapons,
I argued, dismantling the threat would have the support of virtually the entire
world. Ms Rice demurred, saying there was too much risk and the president would
not postpone any longer.
On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe
should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the
international speakers' circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq
should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush's
chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of
Saddam Hussein?
The cost of the decision to rid Iraq of its
by-all-accounts despotic and murderous leader has been staggering, beginning in
Iraq itself. Last year, an average of 6.5 people died there each day in suicide
attacks and vehicle bombs, according to the Iraqi Body Count project.
More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have
been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had
been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.
On these grounds alone, in a consistent world,
those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the
same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer
for their actions in the Hague.
But even greater costs have been exacted beyond
the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human
family across the world.
Has the potential for terrorist attacks
decreased? To what extent have we succeeded in bringing the so-called Muslim
and Judeo-Christian worlds closer together, in sowing the seeds of
understanding and hope?
Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good
leaders are the custodians of morality. The question is not whether Saddam
Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is
that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his
immoral level.
If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic
action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when
they are found out, what should we teach our children?
My appeal to Mr Blair is not to talk about
leadership, but to demonstrate it. You are a member of our family, God's
family. You are made for goodness, for honesty, for morality, for love; so are
our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in the US, in Syria, in Israel and Iran.
I did not deem it appropriate to have this
discussion at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg last week.
As the date drew nearer, I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort
about attending a summit on "leadership" with Mr Blair. I extend my
humblest and sincerest apologies to Discovery, the summit organisers, the
speakers and delegates for the lateness of my decision not to attend.
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