MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001656 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEY PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Will America learn from its past mistakes?" the pro-government weekly "Business Tribune" carried the following feature article by Billet Magara in which he criticizes the United States for leading a military campaign against Saddam Hussein, saying "America has made a grievous error in taking upon itself to put right what went wrong in the struggle for birthright between the two sons of Abraham." Excerpts: ¶2. ". . .If only America could prick the big bag of misplaced pride it has in itself, if only it could suture the wounds on the body of its own troubled conscience, if only the desire for revenge was not a national policy, if only America could learn to view its neighbors without suspicion, earth would be a wondrous planet to live on and leave behind for our children. . .Iraq is a mirror reflection of past American campaigns. . .The irony of this conflict is that it epitomizes the conflict between the world's two most popular religions, Christianity and Islam. America has made a grievous error in taking it upon itself to put right what went wrong in the struggle for birthright between the two sons of Abraham, namely Isaac and Ishmael. . .As the blood of their young patriots flow to form a river of history, the American public is stricken by conscience, as the main questions remain unanswered for decades: Can anyone stop this Jacob and Esau rivalry to the death? Will the Arabs ever forgive the Jews and vice versa? Will Anglo-Saxons link hands with children of the Negev? Will America back out of this morass in time to save its pride? Can the world learn from its mistakes? Four months from now, a universal mass will be held in honor of the birth of one of the world's foremost religious protagonists, Emmanuel Yoshua Ben Josef, whom the Greeks named Jesus the Christ. Among those bending their knee in deference to this humble prophet of great wisdom and foresight, will be the American President George Walker Bush Jr. and his comparably invisible but charming wife. It would not be too much to ask from the world's most powerful President, for him to pray to the most powerful force in the universe, to teach him the only word missing from his vocabulary, `peace. . . .'" SULLIVAN