I absolutely love Tony Benn’s reading of the UN charter.
I was born about a quarter of a mile from where we are sitting now. And I was here in London during the Blitz. And every night I went down to the shelter. 500 people killed. My brother was killed. My friends were killed. And when the charter of the UN was read to me. I was a pilot coming over the ???. We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has caused untold suffering to mankind. That was the pledge that my generation gave to the younger generation and you tore it up! And it’s a war crime that has been committed in Iraq. Because there’s no moral difference …there’s no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons. And that’s why in Britain majority against American worldwide there is no support for the United States in this worldwide. And you’re living… You’re a declining empire as we were and you’ll learn the truth. You were beaten in Vietnam as you said yourself that’s why you didn’t want to serve there. Said you don’t want to die in a Southeast Asia rice paddy. And you’ll be beaten in Iraq and I’m afraid that’s the truth.
–Tony Benn, President, Stop The War Coalition
Because there’s no moral difference …there’s no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.
That’s a pretty asinine statement.
Bolton should turn tail and run. He is an even bigger embarrassment now than when he was in the U.N.
This little sale junket he is on, is selling this to nobody.
I particularly liked when he got abosultely trashed on The Daily Show, as Jon Stewart was obviously ready for what he was going to claim (in his revisionist version of history), and had Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lincoln Historian), ready and available on the phone to smack him down.
And Barry, whether or not it is assinine is only really based on which side of the Stealth Bomber you sit. For most of the world, the fact that we went here with no valid reason, makes the U.S. the evil ones that kill. Just because we have better technology doesn’t make it any less evil to those getting killed. (For the record, I do think that the point he was making was a bit “over the top,” but I still understand where they are coming from, in a world view).