私は2003年3月9日、イラクの侵入の前の10日に手紙を次に書いた。 手紙はその週の最も広く読まれたテキスト、であり、日本からのフランスからのインドネシアにブラジルに、世界の主要な新聞によって再生される。 それはまた私の最も広く読まれたテキストである(なされる統計量に従って読まれる500.000.000人の近くの後で2か月、)。

この週、戦争は第6年に入っている。 死の数についての明確な統計量がないが、米国軍隊は4.000人の兵士およびけが人29.000に認める。 イラクの側面から、数は確認してが不可能である。 CNN (2008年3月24日)に従って: その間、イラクの死者数の見積もりは約80,000から何百ものU.Nに従ってイラクの内で、転置される国および2.5百万人を残すために強制されてもう2百万がたくさんまで、及ぶ。 避難者のための高等弁務官。

私がこのテキストを書いたときに、私は記事が戦争を停止できることを信じるnaïveではなかった。 しかし私の最も悪い不快感で均一私はそれがそれを長く持続させることを信じることができる。 私がそこで述べる人々のほとんどは(ブレア、Aznar、Collin Powell)、および戦争残る行く。

私の非アメリカのmyspaceの友人に関しては:

この戦争は強い反米の騒動を、それなる毎日より悪く作成した。 人々は言う: 「アメリカ人したこれ、等」を

これは全く間違っている。 好意の人々はこの偏見に対して戦う必要がある。 それは「アメリカ人」ではなかった、それはブッシュおよびneoconsだった。 私は海岸に海岸数回米国の私によってが今までヒッピーだった期間からの、旅した。 アメリカ人は大きく、寛大、創造的勤勉、私達はブッシュおよびCo.を許可することができない。 これを破壊するため歪め。

の下、「感謝の氏。 ブッシュ」。 英語版の終わりに、異なった言語のためのリンクがある。

のすばらしいリーダージョージW.ありがとう。 ブッシュ。

なんと危険Saddam Hussein表すか皆に示しているをありがとう。 私達の多数は力他では彼が彼自身の人々、クルド人およびイラン人に対して化学兵器を使用したことを忘れていた。 フセインは今日の世界の悪の最も明確な表現の流血の独裁者そして1才である。

しかしこれは私の感謝するための理由だけではない。 During the first two months of 2003, you have shown the world a great many other important things and, therefore, deserve my gratitude.

So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I want to say thank you. Thank you for showing everyone that the Turkish people and their parliament are not for sale, not even for 26 billion dollars.

Thank you for revealing to the world the gulf that exists between the decisions made by those in power and the wishes of the people.

Thank you for making it clear that neither José Maria Aznar nor Tony Blair give the slightest weight to or show the slightest respect for the votes they received. Aznar is perfectly capable of ignoring the fact that 90% of Spaniards are against the war and Blair is unmoved by the largest public demonstration to take place in England in the last thirty years.

Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to the British parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student ten years ago, and present this as ’damning evidence collected by the British Secret Service’.

Thank you for allowing Colin Powell to make a complete fool of himself by showing the UN Security Council photos which, one week later, were publicly challenged by Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector in Iraq.

Thank you for adopting your current position and thus ensuring that, at the plenary session, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin’s anti-war speech was greeted with applause - something, as far as I know, that has only happened once before in the history of the UN, following a speech by Nelson Mandela.

Thank you too, because, after all your efforts to promote war, the normally divided Arab nations were, for the first time, at their meeting in Cairo during the last week in February, unanimous in their condemnation of any invasion.

Thank you for your rhetoric stating that ’the UN now has a chance to demonstrate its relevance’, a statement which made even the most reluctant countries take up a position opposing any attack on Iraq.

Thank you for your foreign policy which provoked the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, into declaring that in the 21st century, ’a war can have a moral justification’, thus causing him to lose all credibility.

Thank you for trying to divide a Europe that is currently struggling for unification; this was a warning that will not go unheeded.

Thank you for having achieved something that very few have so far managed to do in this century: the bringing together of millions of people on all continents to fight for the same idea, even though that idea is opposed to yours.

Thank you for making us feel once more that though our words may not be heard, they are at least spoken this will make us stronger in the future.

Thank you for ignoring us, for marginalizing all those who oppose your decision, because the future of the Earth belongs to the excluded.

Thank you, because, without you, we would not have realized our own ability to mobilize. It may serve no purpose this time, but it will doubtless be useful later on.

Now that there seems no way of silencing the drums of war, I would like to say, as an ancient European king said to an invader: ’May your morning be a beautiful one, may the sun shine on your soldiers’ armor, for in the afternoon, I will defeat you.’

Thank you for allowing us - an army of anonymous people filling the streets in an attempt to stop a process that is already underway - to know what it feels like to be powerless and to learn to grapple with that feeling and transform it.

So, enjoy your morning and whatever glory it may yet bring you.

Thank you for not listening to us and not taking us seriously, but know that we are listening to you and that we will not forget your words.

Thank you, great leader George W. Bush.

Thank you very much.

Paulo Coelho

In French

http://www.lemonde.fr/irak/article/2003/03/17/mille-mercis-president-bush-par-paulo-coelho_313207_3462.html

In German

http://www.gsoa.ch/krieg/terror/briefcoelho.htm

En Espanol

http://www.lospobresdelatierra.org/guerrano/graciaspresidentebush.html

Em Portugues

http://www.lainsignia.org/2003/marzo/int_048.htm

In Italiano

http://www.zmag.org/italy/coehlo-thankpresident.htm

by Paulo Coelho