Polish Nobel Peace laureate Walesa urges backing

[Gość: .]

for U.S.-led strike on Iraq

That's my boy!

WARSAW, Poland - Former Polish President Lech Walesa, the winner of the 1983
Nobel Peace Prize, on Wednesday urged the U.N. Security Council to back a
U.S.-led war on Iraq and criticized the United Nations "ineffectiveness" so
far.


The United States and Britain are seeking support for a new resolution that
would give Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm, or face war.
They face opposition from France, Russia and other nations that argue U.N.
weapons inspections should continue.


"International authorization for the United States is today the only way to
solve common problems," Walesa said in a statement. "In view of the
ineffectiveness of U.N. actions, the international community must authorize
the United States and its allies, as its representatives, to take the
necessary action."


"Otherwise, there will be further conflicts and mutual accusations will
weaken cooperation between the nations of the democratic world," Walesa
added.


If the new resolution is defeated, U.S. President George W. Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair have said they would be prepared to go to war
anyway. Poland's current government backs their stance.


Walesa, the founder of the Solidarity movement and a key figure in the end of
communism in Poland, was president from 1990 until 1995, when he lost his re-
election bid to current President Aleksander Kwasniewski.