U.S. Writer Sontag Blasts Bush in Germany
By MELISSA EDDY
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 11, 2003; 1:57 PM
washingtonpost.com
[ Here's another US citizen who teaches us Germans what to think of the current White House policy :-) ]
FRANKFURT, Germany - New York-born author and human rights activist Susan Sontag on Saturday criticized President Bush's policies as imperialistic and a break with 50 years of U.S. foreign policy tradition.
Sontag, 70, spoke to reporters a day before receiving the German book trade's prestigious $17,700 Peace Prize.
boersenverein.de
"I think as long as the USA has only one political party - the Republican Party, a branch of which calls itself the Democratic Party - we aren't going to see a change of the current policy," she said.
Sontag said Bush's policy breaks with America's tradition of consulting with allies on global matters instead of acting alone. She was referring to the Bush administration decision to go to war against Iraq without U.N. backing.
"It's really the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire," she said, referring to ancient Rome.
Sontag also had harsh words for California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying his election showed that traditional politics are disappearing.
"We are in a new civilization, a post-political civilization," she said.
Sontag, whose works have been translated into more than 30 languages, is a lover of European literature, especially German classics and philosophy.
She is popular in Germany, where she has lived periodically. She also spent three years in Sarajevo during the Serb siege of the Bosnian city in the early 1990s and has campaigned on behalf of jailed and persecuted authors.
The prize jury recognized Sontag for standing up for "the dignity of free thinking" and for her work to bridge the gap between the United States and Europe.
"Through her work, which has never lost sight of the European heritage, she has become the most prominent intellectual ambassador between the two continents," and has also stood up for the rights of victims of war, the prize jury's citation said.
Sontag told reporters that while she does not use her books to advance her political views, she does take advantage of her position as a writer to question and explore policies she considers wrong.
"I'm not only a writer. I'm first of all a person with a moral conscience," Sontag said. "I will never support a decision which seems to me absurd."
Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Sontag criticized U.S. officials and media commentators for their simplistic depiction of those events.
She also sympathized with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's refusal to participate in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but denied the jury selected her for this reason.
"I am immodest enough to think that even if I hadn't spoken up about Bush I would have earned this prize anyway," she said.
Last year's prize went to Nigerian-born writer Chinua Achebe. Past winners also include Nobel Peace Prize laureates Octavio Paz and Hermann Hesse, and former Czech president and anti-communist dissident Vaclav Havel. |
