Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace laureate, Holocaust survivor, activist, and author
of 40 books has penned a commentary on Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wiesel11mar11,1,1248976
.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Dopinions

I've summarized what I think are the key points:

Peace Isn't Possible in Evil's Face

Under normal circumstances, I might have joined those peace marchers who,
here and abroad, staged public demonstrations against an invasion of Iraq.
After all, I have seen enough of the brutality, the ugliness, of war to
oppose it heart and soul. Isn't war forever cruel, the ultimate form of
violence? It inevitably generates not only loss of innocence but endless
sorrow and mourning. How could one not reject it as an option?

And yet, this time I support President Bush's policy of intervention to
eradicate international terrorism ...  In other words: Though I oppose war,
I am in favor of intervention when, as in this case because of Hussein's
equivocations and procrastinations, no other option remains.

The recent past shows that only military intervention stopped bloodshed in
the Balkans and destroyed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Moreover, had
the international community intervened in Rwanda, more than 800,000 men,
women and children would not have perished there.

Had Europe's great powers intervened against Adolf Hitler's aggressive
ambitions in 1938 instead of appeasing him in Munich, humanity would have
been spared the unprecedented horrors of World War II.

What it comes down to is this: We have a moral obligation to intervene where
evil is in control. Today, that place is Iraq.

Cortlandt Wilson
(650) 966-8555

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