MEDIA REACTION: DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ/LEBANON/AFGHANISTAN

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 003535 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; RRU-NEA IIP/G/NEA-SA WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC SECDEF FOR OASD/PA USCINCCENT FOR POLAD LONDON FOR MCKUNE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ/LEBANON/AFGHANISTAN ¶1. Summary: A Lebanese columnist in "Al-Khaleej" highlighted the fact that neoconservatives might abandon their objective to spread democracy in Iraq and the Middle East, but will never abandon their oil there. An Unsigned editorial in "Al-Khaleej" comments that Arabs are being besieged by Israel instead of them besieging Israel, based on their belief that the U.S. is a fair broker and will stop the war criminals in the Zionist entity from continuing their terrorism. A columnist in "Al-Ittihad" sarcastically says that the only U.S. achievement in Afghanistan has been to expand opium fields. End Summary. ¶2. Under the headline "Neoconservatives: No to 'Farewell to Arms,'" Saad Mehio, a Lebanese columnist wrote the following 09/06 editorial in the Sharjah-based Arabic-language daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000): "Henry Kissinger recently said that he supported the invasion of Iraq for geo-political reason but he did not expect the neoconservatives to be so stupid as to make Iraq a democracy. The neoconservatives might be stupid theoretically, but they are not stupid practically and geo-politically. They might abandon their objective to spread democracy in Iraq and the Middle East but they will never abandon the oil of Iraq and the Middle East. They will not abandon militarism and American unilateralism." ¶3. Under the headline "The Afghani achievement", a columnist, Majdi Mustafa, wrote in his column in the Abu Dhabi-based semi-official Arabic-language daily "Al-Ittihad" on 09/06 (circulation 65,000): "Expanding the opium fields in Afghanistan is the only American achievement in Afghanistan five years after continuous war in that country. Drug-addicts and drug dealers worldwide are thankful to President Bush." ¶4. Under the headline "The Arabs stopped besieging Israel and now Israel is besieging them", Sharjah-based Arabic-language daily "Al-Khaleej" editorialized on 09/06 (circulation 90,000): "Israel would not have been able to besiege an Arab state had the Arab states continued to besiege Israel. The Arabs believed that the U.S. was a fair broker and that the war criminals in the Zionist entity would stop their terrorism and occupation. However, they were disappointed and now the Arabs are continuously compromising while the Zionist enemy and its sponsors in the U.S. administration demand more." SISON