Hiroshima mayor slams Bush

On the 58th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack that killed more than 200,000 of his city's residents, the mayor of Hiroshima slammed George Bush and his administration for worshipping nuclear weapons as gods. Tadatoshi Akiba:

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse... The chief cause is U.S. nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called usable nuclear weapons, appears to worship nuclear weapons as God. ...We must somehow convey to them that nuclear weapons are utterly evil, inhumane and illegal under international law.

According to this Japan Times article, Akiba said that the American invasion of Iraq contradicted Bush's claim that peace can be achieved through war, adding that it was carried out with "disregard for the multitudes around the world demanding a peaceful solution."