From AP:
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.
“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,” he added.
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I, too, wish that Bush and many others in his administration would be tried, but if we in the US aren’t going to hold them accountable it’s unlikely anyone else will. Unfortunately, Obama has consistently protected those in the previous administration who conceived, directed, and carried out torture against detainees, among other crimes. And the citizenry meekly accepts it.
We simply don’t seem willing to hold our leaders accountable or stand up to them to any real consequence. We value order over justice. So in order to avoid “being divisive” we allow presidential elections to be stolen, wars to be fought on the basis of lies, and Constitutional freedoms to be shredded. After all, we wouldn’t like to rock the boat.
As a longtime admirer, indeed, a hero worshiper of Bishop Tutu, it has sometimes been easy to overlook the fact that he is as human as anyone else. It is often difficult when facing a very complex set of issues to resist the temptation to reduce them to their most simplistic argument, and in applying blame avoid responsibility for dealing with the complexities. The latter is left to the mortals. As C. Day Lewis said,
It is the logic of our times,
No subject for immortal verse –
That we who lived by honest dreams
Defend the bad against the worse.
God bless Bishop Tutu, now and forever.
Alvah Whealton