(03-01-2003) Bono is made knight of French Legion - Irish Examiner

[HelloAngel]

http://www.examiner.ie/

Bono is made knight of French Legion
By Eddie Cassidy


BONO was yesterday decorated with France?s highest award by President Jacques Chirac ? one of the rock star?s rivals for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The U2 lead singer yesterday supported Chirac?s policy on Iraq but took a swipe at Bush and Blair.
Bono said the British prime minister was wrong in his readiness to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

?Tony Blair is not going to war for oil,? he said. ?Tony Blair is to me a great politician.

He is sincere in his convictions about Iraq but, in my opinion, he is sincerely wrong.? He was speaking in Paris after being decorated as a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

A similar honour was conferred by the French government on Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh last year for his contribution to European affairs as Europe?s longest-serving farm minister.

Bono is also due to be honoured at the Meteor Awards next week for his humanitarian work throughout the world. His crusading efforts against famine, Third World debt and the HIV/AIDS crisis, also earned him the 2003 MusiCares Person of the Year from the US-based National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

For a second successive year, Bono is among the nominees for the Nobel prize.

Asked yesterday if he approved of Chirac?s policy of urging more time for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, Bono said: ?How can you not be for peace? I think America has no experience with terrorism or even with war.

?In Europe, we know a little bit more about these things. We must not make a martyr out of Saddam Hussein,? he said.


? Irish Examiner, 2002, Thomas Crosbie Media, TCH

 

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?How can you not be for peace? I think America has no experience with terrorism or even with war." -Bono


Wow, that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard Bono say.

 

[verte76]

?How can you not be for peace? I think America has no experience with terrorism or even with war." -Bono


Wow, that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard Bono say.

Actually, we are rather inexperienced with wars and terrorism. Until September 11, 2001, we hadn't had any war on U.S. soil since the Civil War. By contrast, Europe's been through two World Wars. Even Buckingham Palace was bombed nine times during WWII. Ireland has had "terrorists" in the loose sense of the word for centuries. About the closest we've ever come to having terrorists has been putting up with the Ku Klux Klan.

 

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uhh...oklahoma ring a bell?

 

[verte76]

uhh...oklahoma ring a bell?

Yes. There was also the 1993 attack on the WTC. There's also the Klan. Ireland has had them frequently dating back to at least the eighteenth century. It got worse after the agricultural disaster of the mid-nineteenth century, and the first Fenian bombing was of Victoria Station in London in 1867. That's a long time to put up with terrorism. It was right after that that we started having hassles with the Klan. They were banned in 1871 but became powerful later and even picked the Democratic presidential candidate in 1924. I regard the Klan as a bunch of terrorists. But I don't know that I'd quite put them in the same category as the Fenians/IRA.