Not Your Sweetie

Vatican slams US
March 19, 2003

THE Vatican has scolded US President George W Bush, saying he had assumed a
"grave responsibility before God" in deciding that diplomacy to avoid conflict with
Iraq had been exhausted.

The Vatican's blunt rejection of Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein came after Pope John Paul, one of the most prominent opponents
of a war on Iraq, had urged continued negotiation at the UN Security Council to
avoid a conflict.

"Whoever decides that all peaceful means under international law have been
exhausted is assuming a grave responsibility before God, his conscience and
before history," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a terse statement
delivered at the Holy See.