Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Jimmy Carter contro la guerra in Iraq

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=503722&host=3&dir=508
Carter savages Blair and Bush: 'Their war was based on lies'
By Andrew Buncombe in Atlanta
22 March 2004
Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has strongly criticised George
Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war to oust Saddam
Hussein based on "lies or misinterpretations". The 2002 Nobel peace
prize winner said Mr Blair had allowed his better judgement to be
swayed by Mr Bush's desire to finish a war that his father had started.
In an interview with The Independent on the first anniversary of the
American and British invasion of Iraq, Mr Carter, who was president
from 1977 to 1981, said the two leaders probably knew that many of the
claims being made about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
were based on imperfect intelligence.
He said: "There was no reason for us to become involved in Iraq
recently. That was a war based on lies and misinterpretations from
London and from Washington, claiming falsely that Saddam Hussein was
responsible for [the] 9/11 attacks, claiming falsely that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. And I think that President Bush and Prime
Minister Blair probably knew that many of the allegations were based
on uncertain intelligence ... a decision was made to go to war [then
people said] 'Let's find a reason to do so'."
Before the war Mr Carter made clear his opposition to a unilateral
attack and said the US did not have the authority to create a "Pax
Americana". During his Nobel prize acceptance speech in December 2002
he warned of the danger of "uncontrollable violence" if countries
sought to resolve problems without United Nations input.
His latest comments, made during an interview at the Carter Centre in
Atlanta, are notable for their condemnation of the two serving
leaders. It is extremely rare for a former US president to criticise
an incumbent, or a British prime minister. Mr Carter's comments will
add to the mounting pressure on Mr Bush and Mr Blair.
Mr Carter said he believed the momentum for the invasion came from
Washington and that many of Mr Bush's senior advisers had long ago
signalled their desire to remove Saddam by force. Once a decision had
been taken to go to war, every effort was made to find a reason for
doing do, he said.
"I think the basic reason was made not in London but in Washington. I
think that Bush Jnr was inclined to finish a war that his father had
precipitated against Iraq. I think it was that commitment of Bush that
prevailed over, I think, the better judgement of Tony Blair and Tony
Blair became an enthusiastic supporter of the Bush policy".
Mr Carter's criticisms coincided with damaging claims yesterday from a
former White House anti-terrorism co-ordinator. Richard Clarke said
that President Bush ignored the threat from al-Qai'da before 11
September but in the immediate aftermath sought to hold Iraq
responsible, in defiance of senior intelligence advisers who told him
that Saddam had nothing to do with the conspiracy.
With an eye to November's presidential elections, Mr Bush sought on
Friday to use the anniversary of the Iraq invasion to say that
differences between the US and opponents of the war belonged "to the
past".
Speaking at the White House, he told about 80 foreign ambassadors:
"There is no neutral ground in the fight between civilisation and
terror. There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy."
But in the US and Britain, and elsewhere, there is growing anger among
people who believe the war in Iraq was at best a deadly distraction
and at worst an impediment to the war against al-Qa'ida - diverting
resources and energy from countering those groups responsible for
attacks such as the train bombings in Madrid.
Over the weekend millions of anti-war protesters poured on to the
streets of cities around the world to call for the withdrawal of
US-led troops from Iraq. It was estimated that in Rome - which saw the
biggest crowds - up to one million turned out.
Mr Carter, 79, has recently published a novel. The Hornet's Nest is
centred on America's revolutionary war against the British. That
period had many lessons for the present day, Mr Carter said.


CUT
Mister Carter era ed è un plurimiliardario soprannominato il Re delle 
Noccioline non era da meno nel mondo finanziario del Presidente 
Berlusconi. ODIATO anch'egli a suo tempo ma VOTATO leggittimamente 
nessuno mise mai in dubbio la sua leggittimità di presidenza in base ai 
suoi averi... Le leggi erano molto chiare sulla cosa e NON c'erano così 
come NON ci sono oggi restrizioni particolari sulla cosa se non semplici 
inviti formali a perseguire una certa linea di condotta lasciata poi al 
criterio di ognuno...
-- 
« C'è chi la fuma e chi se la spara in vena,
			a me basta un salto ! »
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