Mr. President,

In connection with your visit to France for the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during the Second World War, you were received by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. It was with great interest that I personally followed your visit with the Holy Father for two reasons: perhaps the fear of God would change your decision to go to war against Iraq and perhaps seeing the graves of the American soldiers who died in the Second World War around you would make you understand that war is a very dangerous thing.

For some time now, international affairs have been going very poorly. The situation in Iraq did nothing but worsen. In the spirit of the neo-conservatives, the idea was to deprive terrorism of its layer of injustice: in other words, attacking the evil at the root. Your strategy did not work. The United States attack took Iraq to task, but instead of bringing a minimum of well being after so many years of suffering, you were not prepared for the war’s aftermath. The Iraqi people thus exchanged terror by police for general insecurity.

Millions of people protested in cities on all the continents to denounce the American decision to launch a war of aggression, which was not provoked. The whole world powerlessly looked on while Iraq was invaded by the “axis of good.” We are tempted to ask ourselves where this is going. Such a question deserves to be asked since, for unadmitted geo-political reasons, a nation can now follow the example of the United States and decide to attack another without any acceptable reason. Behind false arguments of “preventive war,” we all know that it is oil that is the main stake. Weapons of mass destruction, which Iraq was accused of producing, also exist in possession of your ally Pakistan, India, and North Korea. Why attack Iraq?

Anger is brewing in the Iraqi population and in the Arab world. American public opinion is wavering, because the loss of American lives continues to multiply. A question comes to mind while I am writing to you: Why destroy if it is necessary to rebuild? Would you be a partisan of cynical wisdom — in other words, construction in itself through insolence and subversion? Or are you simply an admirer of Diogenes, the cynic philosopher.

In the September 11 attack, you immediately saw the hand of Iraq. Is it not time for America, which gives lessons in human rights to other nations, to look at itself in the mirror?

The new circumstances and the severe uncertainties that appear in Iraq require a personal reflection at your level. It is extremely important to respect international law. It is extremely important not to get the wrong enemy and never to take an organization such as the U.N. as your adversary. In spite of its shortcomings, this organization is the only help of the weak and their hope to advance their just causes. At the time I am writing to you, the Senate is blocking the appointment of your new ambassador to the U.N., Mr. Bolton. Why does your administration want to appoint, at any cost, a man who denigrates the United Nations?

As said by the great Wolof people of Senegal, “If everybody spits on you, you will end up wet.”