Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said Wednesday that U.S. President George W. Bush's crusade against Islam had only stopped in theory but not in practice. Speaking during his weekly forum, the Shiite cleric said Bush had used the term crusade several times in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. "But although he stopped using (the term) in the media, he has not really abandoned the idea," Fadlallah added.He further said that Washington had "completely bypassed the United Nations in 2003, before launching a war against Iraq," adding that the way in which the U.S. launched a war against Iraq, against the advice of the international community, showed the ruling neoconservatives' disregard for this region. Fadlallah described Washington's pre-emptive wars as a "weapon used by Washington, not only to subdue the opponents of U.S. policy in this part of the world, but also to dismantle the UN in favor of the "leader country" in the world. The present U.S. administration is determined to remain the undisputed country which makes decisions affecting the destiny of others, Fadlallah said. He added that "despite all this, we believe the U.S. administration - under its neoconservative leadership - has received several setbacks, including its failure to locate any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the fact that the Americans are now caught in the Iraqi quagmire." Fadlallah said the United States was now compelled to abandon "its aggressive policy with regard to both Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere."
