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German president slams Bush's justifications

----- Original Message -----  From: thzieglerstgt To: patrickcrusade@yahoogroups.com  Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 11:09 AM Subject: [patrickcrusade] German president slams Bush's justifications read what the German president and one of his predecessors in office say. http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1429_W_821855,00.html German president slams Bush's justifications    German President Johannes Rau has sharply criticised religious  justifications for the war used by President George W. Bush. Rau said no society had received a divine omen to liberate another. Such a belief was a misapprehension. In contrast, said Rau, the Pope in his urgings for peace, had spoken for the whole of humanity. Rau said the war in Iraq was horribly reminiscent of the Second World war and he still did not comprehend U.S. justifications. Iraq could have been disarmed by UN inspectors instead of resorting to war.  http://www.expatica.com/germany.asp?pad=190,205,&item_id=30041 Former German president attacks Iraq war  28 March 2003  BERLIN - Former German president Richard von Weizsaecker said Friday  that the U.S.-led war against Iraq was a clear violation of the UN Charter. On Deutschlandradio Berlin, he said that under the United Nations Charter, only the U.N. had the right to decide when force should be applied. The United States had helped to draft the charter, he noted. "There can be no doubt that the opening of the Iraq war breaks this law and that now power has been put in place of the law," von Weizsaecker said. Von Weizsaecker, 82, was president of Germany from 1984 to 1994. DPA