Nobel Peace Laureate Backs Bush

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel lent his voice Thursday to the U.S. campaign against Baghdad, urging Europe to unify and increase pressure on Iraq to disarm.

“My only suggestion is ... if Europe were to apply as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as it does on the United States and Great Britain, I think it could prevent war,” Wiesel said after a meeting with President Bush and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Wiesel said that during his meeting with the president, he called for intervention against evil.

“I think it’s a moral duty to intervene when evil has power and uses it,” Wiesel said.

“I’m against war, but ... I am for intervention,” he said.

The Nobel laureate called for a “moral intervention” first to pressure Hussein but said war could be a means of thwarting the Iraqi president if all other avenues fail.

He said he believes Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and has shown himself willing to use them.