INTERVIEW WITH FERNANDO SAVATER: ‘BUSH IS NOT ON THE SIDE OF CIVILISATION’

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Fernando Savater, Mar 1 2003 (IPS) - The current war is not a response to either an invasion or to a United Nations decision but rather a long-term geopolitical strategy of the United States, states the writer and philosophy professor Fernando Savater, a leader of the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country. In this interview for IPS, Savater argues, \’\’the rule of international law, however precarious, must be respected for political, not ethical, reasons. The war against Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism. No one could believe such an improbable and unsubstantiated linkage.\’\’ \’\’The major political challenge of the 21st century is to establish international organisations for governance, education, justice, cooperation, etc., on a planetary scale. Today the dividing line between civilisation and technologised barbarism lies in this effort. I fear that Bush, disgracefully, is not on the side of civilisation.\’\’