A Mandela moment worth remembering

 

Nelson Mandela, South African freedom champion, and first black president who unified the country instead of dividing it, is rightly called among the most significant human beings of the 20th century. A Mandela moment worth remembering for me occurred in the 21st century; January 30, 2003, to be exact. On that date the former president addressed an international women's forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. He subject: the impending US criminal war against Iraq. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mandela didn't mince words:

"It is a tragedy, what is happening, what Bush is doing. What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust."  Mandela said President Bush was "trying to bring about carnage" and appealed to the American people to launch massive protests  against his policies. He heaped just deserved scorn on President Bush's "poodle" British Prime Minister Tony Blair, stating, "He is the foreign minister of the United States. He is no longer prime minister of Britain."

Obviously stung by such spot on truth offered by one of the most revered public figures on the planet, the Bush administration meekly responded that Mandela was a great leader who simply doesn't see "eye to eye" with President Bush. With so many members of the world community, the media and a sheepish populous cowed by Bush's lies, fear tactics and propaganda, the carnage was unleashed just 48 days after Mandela's remarks.

A hundred years from today, Nelson Mandela's status as possibly the most significant figure of his time will only rise.  President Bush will be remembered mostly for what he is today: an uninvestigated, unindicted and unconvicted war criminal.