pub crawler,
Well after some quick research into the articles I have recently sited, it appears I was both wrong and right. I was wrong to think that Bono was never at any point in his life a true blue Pacifist. I thought he was very much anti-violence and war in most situations, but not a full fledge pacifist.
It appears what happened is that Bono was a full fledged pacifist during the 80s, but this changed because of the crises in the former Yugoslavia which began in June 1991.
The following qoutes taken from "Until The End Of The World" page 285 and HOT PRESS 2002 ANNUAL issue, page 81, show that while Bono used to be a Pacifist, he no longer is.
"Until The End Of The World" page 285
This in regards to the continueing war in Bosnia in the summer of 1993. Just recently the USA had suggested intervening militarily in the conflict, but were unable to get Europe at the time to go along. The USA would go in anyways two years later. But back to the summer of 1993 and what Bono said.
From the book:
( Bono heads back outside to continue his recruiting drive. "I'm involved with a group", he says, "that sends food and supplies in there. And you know, this guy Bill Carter got to me tonight. He said, 'That's all right, but you're feeding a graveyard.' As a pacifist it is hard for me to justify sending arms to anybody, but God, if these people are being slaughtered you have to at least let them defend themselves."
Bill Carter explained to us earlier that the Bosnian situation has completely fallen apart since May, when Europe rejected U.S. efforts to organize NATO intervention. "It's just wholesale murder now," Carter said. "They know no one's coming to the rescue."
That image is driving Bono to distraction. "For once the U.S. had it right," Bono declares, " and Europe fucked it up! The U.S. wanted to go in and the English wouldn't agree with the French and the French couldn't agree-")
Clearly while Bono may have been a Pacifist, he is above supporting US military intervention that would of course involved bombing and colateral damage. He may state that he is a Pacifist above, but he in fact is not since he supports a military solution for the Bosnian conflict. 2 years later the U.S. would do just that in September 1995 bringing the war in Bosnia to an end and saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
Now fast forward to December 2001.
HOT PRESS ANNUAL 2002, on the newstand in January 2002. Page 81.
Question from the interviewer:
But is that going to change their(USA) sense of the role they should play in the world? If you look at what's going on now in Afghanistan, you wouldn't interpret that as being the case.
BONO's response:
"Aside from the fact that the media has had very little access, and thats unnerving, I don't think historically the way this campaign has been waged against terror will be seen as anything other than a success in terms of the least loss of human life and a certain measuredness, which most of the world weren't expecting from the United States. And reading the New York Times report of the fall of Kabul and journalists walking around, there's hardly any civilian targets hit. That was kind of miraculous. Any civilian target hit is unacceptable. BUT I USED TO BE A PACIFIST. I'M NO LONGER A PACIFIST- and not because I don't want to be, but because I can't live up to it in my own life. Its a source of deep sadness to me that I can't. If somebody was threatening my wife and my kids I would not turn the other cheek and it's patently clear to anyone living in New York or London or Los Angeles or Chicago that in a matter of months, and certainly years, whole corners of their cities were about to be taken out...whether it's chemicals or dirty nuclear devices, whatever they're calling them. SO I DON'T SEE ANY ALTERNATIVE TO WHAT THEY'VE DONE."
So there you go, Bono used to be a pacifist but is clearly not anymore. He started to change his position in the early 90s. He supported US military intervention in Bosnia and totally supports US military intervention in Afghanistan and Bush's war on terrorism at least up to January 2002.
How Bono feels about military intervention to solve the problem with Saddam is unkown.