MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ ONE YEAR LATER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 AMMAN 002140

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PREL KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ ONE YEAR LATER


Summary

-- The first anniversary of the war in Iraq was the
lead story in all Jordanian papers published over the
weekend, March 19-21. The majority of editorial
commentaries focus on the "failure of the occupation
to fulfill promises" made to the Iraqi people. Some
commentaries view the U.S. occupation of Iraq as part
of a grand American scheme to reshape the entire
region "for the sake of Israel".

Editorial Commentary

-- "The spoils of the war on Iraq"

Commenting on President Bush's address on the
anniversary of the war, columnist Khaled Mahadin
writes on the op-ed page of semi-official, influential
Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/21): "It was clear that the
U.S. president was reading his speech amidst a feeling
of moral and political defeat brought forth upon the
invaders by the war. The president summed up the war
in two personalities: President Saddam Hussein who was
arrested and Abu Mus'ab Zarqawi, whom the United
States is exerting every effort to arrest.. President
Bush said nothing in his speech that is worth thinking
about. In fact, when mentioning what he called twenty-
four member countries in the coalition of the
aggression against Iraq, he mentioned these countries
three times in a speech that took only fifteen
minutes. He kept repeating the talk about terrorism
and the need to fight, without daring to admit that
his war on the Afghani people achieved none of his
explicit or even implicit objectives. As for his war
on the Iraqi people, it brought him moral and
political defeat and is now inflicting him with
military defeat due to the Iraqi national resistance..
This war of aggression, which was and continues to be
based on lies and allegations, has placed the world
and world peace between two terrorisms: the terrorism
of the United States, Britain and the Israeli entity
and the terrorism of those who are angry about the
occupation of their lands, the contempt for their
religion, the humiliation of their dignity, and the
efforts to turn them into slaves for the western
civilization and the false democracy."

-- "A year after the war"

Columnist Fahd Fanek writes on the back page of semi-
official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/21):
"In the days and weeks leading to the war on Iraq, the
U.S. administration believed that the guaranteed
American victory will provide complete legitimacy for
the aggression in the eyes of the world. The leaders
in the Pentagon and the White House said that the war
is going to provide America with security, to exercise
pressure in favor of democracy in the Middle East, to
open the road towards a peaceful solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to terrify Iran and
Syria enough to force them to yield to American
conditions, and to direct a knockout blow to
international terrorism, shutting up the opponents of
the war. One year later, it becomes clear that all
this was more a fantasy than a well-studied policy and
a calculated decision. Contrary to that, the war
opponents' warnings about its cost and its destructive
influence on the America's reputation and credibility
were proven, not to mention the fact that it opened
the door wide to terrorism and isolated America from
the international community.. Iraq before the war
stood fast despite the unjust 13-year siege. Iraq
today is ruin, destruction, unemployment, poverty and
sectarianism.. America won militarily within a few
weeks, but it is politically and morally defeated, and
for many years to come."

-- "Why the occupation of Iraq?"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(03/21): "If Iraq had had weapons of mass
destruction, then Bush and Blair would not have dared
launch the war. The war took place because Washington
and London were sure that there were no weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein would
not be capable to resist. The story of the weapons of
mass destruction is nothing but a trick and a title
for the biggest misleading campaign in history. The
relationship between Iraq's occupation and Israel's
security is not merely a thin line subject to debate.
There is a `highway' linking the two objectives. The
ruling extremist right wing in Washington succeeded in
recruiting the superpower to fight on behalf of Israel
and on behalf of Zionism.. A balance of terror or
balance of weapons is not permitted between the Arabs
and Israel, which has more than 100 nuclear heads.
Such a balance would impose a peace or a settlement in
the region that would take into consideration the
interests of both parties and would be based on
international legitimacy. Such peace is not allowed,
neither for the Israeli or the American sides. The
required peace in the Middle East is a peace of
succumbing and surrendering that would allow Israel to
be the domineering power and would make the
Palestinians and the Arabs subject to the language of
force and a de facto situation. There are many
reasons for the occupation of Iraq, but the last is
the spread of democracy in Iraq and in the Arab
countries. Democracy, as it appears in the bill of
Syrian accountability and the Greater Middle East
Initiative, is nothing but a cover for the continuous
American-Zionist campaign to deprive Arabs of any
weapons whereby they can achieve the balance of terror
with Israel's weapons of mass destruction. The lesson
learned from the occupation of Iraq is that the peace
process between the Arabs and Israel on the basis of
international resolutions is no longer a priority."

-- "Both the occupation and the terrorism must end in
Iraq"

Daily columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(03/21): "A year after the American aggression on
Iraq, we can understand the reality of the war as
being similar to the war of elimination between gang
leaders. This war was the outcome of a process of
elimination launched by the big gang leader in
Washington against a small gang leader in Baghdad, who
happens to have many riches that the former wanted.
This very clearly is the war. Lies about weapons of
mass destruction and liberating the Iraqi people
cannot convince anyone anymore. The weapons do not
exist and the promise of freedom is not fulfilled..
The United States turned Iraq from a state that might
have been oppressive and totalitarian to a vast land
of chaos and destruction, where people die without
cause and where murderous groups, be they the American
army or terrorist or religious extremist organization,
are rampant.. A year later, the war proved a big
failure, not because of the bombings or the resistance
operations, but because it failed to fulfill its
promises to the Iraqi people. All the illusions and
the slogans that have accompanied the American
aggression are disappearing, the governing council is
proving its failure in running the affairs of the
Iraqi people, and the American occupation is spreading
chaos and destruction and is gradually disintegrating
the Iraqi state.. Why don't we move from the position
of cursing, condemning and rebuking to a state of
assisting the Iraqi people so they can achieve their
freedom and rid themselves of the occupation and the
terrorism?. If we want to help the Iraqi people, then
the way is not ululating the resistance and former
regime, but rather by supporting every effort towards
ending the occupation and achieving stability."

-- "The events of one year of occupation"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(03/20): "'Democracy' and `rebuilding Iraq' have
become the mottos of the occupation forces after the
fall of Baghdad. Yet, a year later, these mottos seem
to have entered the same realm of lies as that of the
story of `Iraq's weapons of mass destruction' and the
tale of Saddam Hussein's capability to destroy the
world within 45 minutes. This is not all. The new
Iraq is not Bremer's constitution that cast aside the
Arabic identity of Iraq, nor the celebrations of
Talbani and Barzani of the veto they got to divide up
Iraq, but rather the heroic resistance to the
occupation, a resistance that grows solid with every
passing day.. As for the identity of this resistance,
its quality and momentum stress that it is Iraqi and
that it enjoys popular protection, and this is enough.
The talk about Zarqawi and Al-Qa'eda is nothing but
fabrications from the American war on terrorism that
are designed to cover up the American-British failure
of achieving security, democracy, reconstruction and
such other false promises."

-- "One year on the occupation of Iraq: the failed
march of the administration's war on terrorism"

Daily columnist Jamil Nimri writes on the back page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(03/20): "True, Washington got rid of two regimes
[Saddam Hussein's and the Taliban] that we are not
sorry to see go, but that was the easy part, that
required muscle and not brains. Apart from that,
everything the administration did was wrong. It is no
coincidence that at the end of every discussion, the
American official has nothing left to say but that `if
we had not done that, Saddam's regime would still be
standing'. This is important for the people of the
two countries and maybe for the opponents, but as far
as the international community and the cause of the
war on terrorism, which is the headline for everything
that America did, is concerned, this administration
recorded an enormous failure and politicians who had
orchestrated this failure must feel great shame."

-- "Marking the anniversary of the aggression on Iraq"

Daily columnist Mohammad Amayreh write on the op-ed
page of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai
(03/20): "On the eve of the first anniversary of the
American-British aggression on brotherly Iraq, which
concluded in the occupation of Iraqi territory, the
fall of the political regime and the capture of the
Iraqi president and tens of his political and military
leaders, Iraq remains suffering from `fear and
loneliness' and terrorism continues to strike here and
there, and all the while, the occupiers continue their
claims and their allegations of freedom, democracy and
human rights for the Iraqi people. Despite the
attempt of the occupation and its media apparatus -
new and old - to beautify the Iraqi image, failure is
the title of this attempt. The real image of occupied
Iraq is that of misery, with everything this word
means: chaos, ruin, destruction, killing, arrests,
blood-shedding and continuous foreign efforts to
provoke an ethnic or civil war. These efforts are
relentless and the Mossad's playing fingers are
noticeably clear, although the occupiers are trying to
pin everything on Al-Qa'eda organization or Ansar Al-
Islam or other organizations.. Much could be said on
this painful anniversary, but the major events that
are taking place in Iraq every day confirm two basic
facts: the first is that what happened is an
occupation . and the second is that resisting this
occupation is a legitimate right to all Iraqis.. A
point to keep in mind here is that the real resistance
would not lie to its people and would not kill its own
sons and daughters. Therefore, people should look for
western foreign hands behind the terrorist operations,
for those who stand to benefit from them are enemies
of the nation and enemies of Iraq."

-- "From August 2 to March 20"

Daily columnist Rakan Majali writes on the back page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(03/20): "It is no secret that Iraq fell in the trap
on August 2, 1990 and that the crazy adventure of
occupying Kuwait was designed to pave the way for
occupying Iraq. It is regretful that the events of
August 2nd have led to the events of March 20th
without there being reasons and justifications for
invading Iraq, which recognized the state of Kuwait.
But the real reasons for occupying Iraq are not a
secret, where Israel and American have been planning

SIPDIS
for the longest time to grab Iraq, being the backbone
of the Arab nation in the east. The occupation of
Iraq clearly paves the way for implementing the
American project of reshaping the region, the basis of
which is the disarmament of all the countries of the
region of any power and maintaining Israel as the sole
regional power."

-- "One year after the war"

Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/19)
editorial concludes: "A year has gone by after the
war and the consequences on the ground answer the many
questions that are related to the crises of
international relations. The former Iraqi regime
fell, but no one won. In fact, everyone lost. Is
there anyone to learn the lesson?"
GNEHM