Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel spoke on the war in Iraq on Monday, saying that although he is never for war, he supports U.S. intervention in Iraq. Wiesel spoke in Gaston Hall in recognition of Georgetown’s newly created Elie and Marion Wiesel Chair in Jewish Civilization in Gaston Hall Monday morning.
“I’ve been through war. War is ugly. It means corpses, cemeteries, children dying,” he said.
But Wiesel spoke out against Saddam Hussein and his actions.
“Saddam Hussein is a mass murderer. He launched 39 Scud missiles at Israel, an added element for me to say this man is not someone who deserves our respect. He should arouse our suspicion,” Wiesel said.
Wiesel said that Hussein has committed crimes against humanity and that past actions of the United States to contain a threat from Iraq were insufficient.
He said that he is convinced that Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that must be destroyed.
The best situation, Wiesel said, would be for the United States to destroy arms factories at night when no one would be killed. However, he jokingly added that he was “not consulted.”
Wiesel said he supports intervention and that the United States has to do what is necessary to destroy Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
Wiesel was introduced by University Provost James O’Donnell and University President John J. DeGioia. According to DeGioia, the Elie and Marion Wiesel Chair in Jewish Civilization “will enable Georgetown to expand its interdisciplinary study of Jewish life and letters.”
According to Wiesel, the chair should focus on topics such as the laws found in the Talmud, Hasidism, Yiddish, and how Judaism, Christianity and Islam are related. He also said that he hoped the chair would study Jewish survival despite persecution since times of antiquity.
Wiesel advised students to study “how to create a world in which we would live and watch children with hope rather than fear.”
“We would give whatever we have to ensure that their future would be safe,” he said.
