To the President of the United States of America Mr. George W. Bush I can't wish you a Merry Christmas, and not because I don't want to, but because you have made it impossible for me. Today is a very special day for all Christians, it is the day we celebrate Christmas, the announcement of glad tidings; a moment to look within ourselves, to our personal lives and think about the direction Humanity is taking. When we pray to the Giver of Life we cannot omit the events that are happening around us, the pain and tragedy in many parts of the world, caused by natural disasters as well as by the hand of Man, and realize how far we are from achieving world peace, and that in order to attain it we need to redouble our efforts. The world has become a much more insecure and turbulent place. Inequality now runs deeper, hunger and poverty have increased as power has become concentrated among a privileged few and conflicts have multiplied in various parts of the world. I believe that you, Mr. President, need to look at your work and evaluate what has taken place, at the policy of devastation and death you have unleashed on several parts of the world. I experienced feelings of bitterness, of anguish, at the images and messages, broadcast world-wide by the media, of American soldiers celebrating Christmas, with its renewed appeal for Life and Peace. These are the very soldiers who are causing death and destruction in villages in Iraq and Afghanistan; who are torturing and raping their prisoners. It is they who are responsible for the massacre of more than a hundred thousand people in Iraq - women, children, young people and the elderly among them; they have devastated and destroyed Falluja and we still don't know the extent of the massacre in Afghanistan: the figures are suppressed by the media which, instead of communicating information, unfortunately now seem to be dealing in misinformation. And, as if it were some big party, entertainers and government officials from both the United States and Great Britain have gone there to celebrate Christmas with the troops and encourage them to continue their devastating mission of destruction and death. We have to ask ourselves what they went there to celebrate. The true spirit of Christmas was entirely lacking; it had been sucked dry and only profanity, the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" of consumer society, remained; or maybe they celebrated how many bombings and deaths have been etched on their consciences. Even the most fantastical, magical surrealism pales into insignificance beside the cruelty that you have unleashed in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to orders that you, Mr. President, gave to troops in Iraq in the document dated May 19, 2004 released by the FBI, you have authorized the use of interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation, the threat of dogs trained by the military and the use of hoods. This shows that you are a cruel person with no respect for human beings, and that you won't hesitate to use any means possible to achieve your ends, systematically violating human rights as you do so. It seems you have no plans to put an end to these methods in the four years to come. According to the Washington Post, your government is considering building prisons where those accused of terrorist acts will be held indefinitely and without trial: this violates the very constitution of the USA, not to mention human rights. The Department of Defense is currently holding 500 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and is planning to ask Congress for 25 million dollars to build a jail to house prisoners who have little prospect of ever appearing before a military tribunal, due to a lack of evidence. Under no circumstances does the attack on the Twin Towers justify the atrocities that you have committed: two wrongs don't make a right, as I explained in my last letter dated January 6, 2003. I would like to ask you, Mr. President, how did you celebrate Christmas, the birth of the Giver of Life? I wonder what god you pray to. I doubt that its the Giver of Life, Peace and Hope. I think that if God heard your prayers he would cover his ears so as not to listen to so much cruelty and lies. As the citizens that first voted you into office reelected you for another four years, January 20 will see you begin your second term as president of the great country that is the United States of America. I feel sorry for these people and for the world. Many factors influenced this result. The fact that your opponent was incapable of offering the American people a convincing alternative. There is a saying that goes 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't'. The American people are weighed down by fear and insecurity; the Puritanism of some sectors that hold that life must be defended. Individualism prevents their comprehending deep feelings of solidarity. The saddest thing about this situation is that, apart from some sectors who are critically aware and think for themselves, the people who voted for you, Mr. President, are those who, through fear, have renounced their freedom and their rights as citizens. These people's consciences are being blinded and they are being subjected to psychological techniques that condition their collective behavior. These methods were used by totalitarian regimes such as Nazism, Fascism and the military dictatorships that imposed themselves in Latin America and created a means of manipulating people and forcing them to submit to authority by using fear and terror. Power is the worst of all drugs, it blocks vision and thinking and, worse still, hardens the heart, numbs the emotions. Thought without feeling is the great tragedy that has befallen humanity. The most powerful empires have fallen and the United States is no exception. You should realize that a monopoly of strength is no guarantee of safety. No terrorism, whatever the source, justifies the state terrorism that you are using to attack civil populations - the invasion of countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the embargo that has been imposed on Cuba for over forty- five years, the military intervention in Haiti, violating all international treaties and the sovereignty of peoples. By ignoring the United Nations, it has become an empty shell. Mr. President, how long are you going to carry on with your frenzy of destruction and death? How many more crimes do plan to have on your conscience? Don't forget that you reap what you sow. According to reports, more than 1,000 American soldiers have now died in Iraq. We don't know how many more have died in Afghanistan. What do you say to their families? Do you give them a medal, a pension and a nicely folded flag to remember their loved ones by? Do you continue to lie and speak of freedom? To justify your crimes, do you say that they died to defend democracy and the homeland? Do you hide from them the fact that you started these wars because it suited you to take possession of the oil in Iraq and control of the Middle East? Mr. President, in these past few days I have been thinking about a Vietnam war veteran who, faced with the atrocities committed by American troops in that country, underwent a complete conversion and risked his own life to save others, losing both legs in the process. I am referring to Brian Wilson. In the midst of the war he believed he was fighting for freedom and democracy, defending 'being American', he discovered the truth and became aware of the atrocities that were being committed by American troops, when he saw the effect that 'cluster bombs' (the same type that are being used in Afghanistan and Iraq) were having on a Vietnamese village that had been visited by a patrol sent to inspect it; women, children, animals, all blown to pieces; no person or thing survived. I often think about Brian. We met during the CIA aggression in Nicaragua. We were on hunger strike together on the steps of the Capitol Building, along with other Vietnam veterans, trying to put an end to US aggression against Nicaragua and El Salvador. It was an active, non-violent protest in defense of life and the right of peoples to self-determination. At night we slept in the Lutheran church and Brian and the other war veterans would relate their experiences in Vietnam. The horrors that they can still see and feel have scarred them for the rest of their lives. These people are witnesses to human tragedy. Mr. President, listen to the clamor of the people who are saying NO MORE WAR!! Abraham Lincoln said more than a hundred years ago that if the United States failed to forge good relations with other countries, it would become the victim self- destruction. Read the speech made by Kennedy to the United Nations in 1960, in which he reiterates Lincoln's thinking. You would do well to remember this axiom. On January 20 you will begin four more years in office. If the situation follows the path it has taken up until now the consequences could be unpredictable. Don't forget that peoples can change the course of history. It only remains for me to say that other cultures, other religions, other people have the same right to life and dignity. In the eyes of the Giver of Life they are our brothers and sisters and therefore we demand NO MORE MASSACRES, Mr. President. The world cannot be at the mercy of your will. Justice, though late, will prevail, and you will not be exempt, given that you are guilty of crimes against humanity. I wish you peace and wellbeing, in the hope that compassion with touch your heart and mind. December 25, 2004
January 6, 2005 Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Nobel Peace Laureate