Cablegate: Media Reaction Iraq; Harare

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS HARARE 001851

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR INR/R/MR, AF/PD (DALTON), AF/S (SCHLACHTER)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO ZI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE

1. Under headline "U.S., UK obsession with Hussein only
makes him more popular" the August 12 edition of the
independent daily "The Daily News" carried the following op-
ed by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem on page 6:

2. ". . .There is a kind of immoral resignation that
George W. Bush wants a war in Iraq and he is going to get
one by hook or crook. . .As bad boys go, Saddam Hussein may
have no rival in recent years in terms of his brutality
against his people and willingness to sacrifice their lives
at whim. But is it the responsibility of the American
Government to change the government of another country?
And so brazenly? If they succeed in Iraq, where next? For
more than a decade the people of Iraq have been severely
punished and stripped of all dignity through punitive
sanctions that were meant to remove Saddam, but have
obviously neither touched him nor the apparatus of his
rule. When would the U.S. and Britain learn a very simple
truth that starved and starving people do not rise? They
are too busy looking for what to keep body and soul
together. Indeed, their obsession with Saddam has only
served to make him more popular.

"The fact that they are aiding and abetting all
kinds of opposition groups with the expressed aim of
dislodging Saddam from power only makes people more
suspicious and alienates the masses from the
Washington-friendly leaders. Leaders handpicked by
Washington and London are never going to be credible
to ordinary Iraqis. In any case, even Saddam
himself used to be a darling of Washington and look
where it has led them. Why should they trust
another import from the Yankees. . .? If Saddam is
to be removed from power because he has refused to
allow U.N. inspectors back in Iraq and obstructed
the implementation of U.N. resolutions, what would
the U.S. do to Sharon who bombs and massacres
refugees in U.N. High Commission for Refugees camps
or Israel that continues to defy U.N. resolutions
since its creation?

"How can the U.S. that defies global morality,
international consensus and multilateral agreements
and actively subverts the U.N. when it suits its
purposes be willing to go to war for the sake of
U.N. resolutions? The U.S. is a rogue state and
cannot be the guarantor of international morality
and legality. And as hard as U.S. intelligence,
diplomats and other snoopers have tried since
11 September, they have not been able to link Saddam
to the al Qaeda network, yet Bush continues to
accuse him of terrorism. . .This war is not only
immoral or illegal; it is patently unjust. If the
U. S. and Britain are allowed to get away with it
again, it will be an act of appeasement and
capitulation to the militarist dictum: `Might is
right.'"

SULLIVAN

© Scoop Media