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European, Arab Media Express Concern War Could Widen
PARIS, Oct 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Across Europe Tuesday, newspapers voiced their concerns about the drawn-out military campaign against Afghanistan spilling into a much wider and deadlier conflict, while Jordanian newspapers on Monday worried that the war could spread to other Arab and Muslim countries with a "persuasive" push from Israel.
While overwhelmingly still supportive of Washington's decision to launch reprisal raids on the Taliban government, many European newspapers - and not solely those on the left - vented their anxieties about the crisis slipping out of control.
"This is the key question," said the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "Will [the campaign] be accepted by the Muslim world as a legitimate and potentially successful fight against terrorism, or are we in fact face-to-face with a grand cultural-religious conflict?"
The risks of the confrontation spilling into other parts of the Islamic world - notably into neighboring Pakistan, scene of widespread rioting Monday - were taken extremely seriously.
"Yesterday's riots in Pakistan, and unrest in other Muslim and Arab countries, maybe only a foretaste of a more fundamental turbulence if the conflict proves protracted and intractable," said Britain's left-wing
Guardian.
For the right-wing Daily Mail, the situation was even more alarming. The military action had "opened a Pandora's Box," it said. "Consider how the sorties against the Taliban and [Osama] bin Laden's al-Qa'eda have been greeted in Pakistan.
"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's regime could fall as a result of his support for London and Washington and be replaced by a regime of fundamentalist firebrands. Then what?"
In France, the left-wing daily, Liberation, remarked that Washington's decision to turn the conflict into a struggle of indeterminate length - while commendable for its realism - could rebound to its great disadvantage.
"How to manage this long period of time will not be the least of Washington's problems. The pacifist reaction... currently embryonic, will inevitably grow. But more seriously, the hard-won acquiescence of countries like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia will be severely put to the test," it said.
"The remarkable coalition the U.S. has assembled around itself is far from being uniform or coherent. It is massive but fragile,"
Liberation said.
Taking up the theme, the Catholic daily La Croix said it would take just a few "mediatized cock-ups to fuel further the hatred of the United States and its Western allies... The risks of a 'war of civilizations'... are with us yet."
On the street, pacifist reaction in Europe has so far been muted, though there have been demonstrations in Paris and Athens, and an opinion poll in the right-leaning Greek paper
Eleftheros Typos found that more than 57% of respondents consider the U.S.-led strikes "unjust".
In Germany, the popular daily, Bild, turned on the Green party - part of the ruling coalition - which has come out against military participation in the U.S.-led campaign. It quoted the philosopher Ernst Bloch, "He who never exposes himself to danger achieves nothing."
And in Moscow, the press warned that the government's support for the United States could have the result of ranging the entire Islamic world against it. "Russia does not wish to become 'number two Satan' for the Taliban," said the daily
Izvestia.
Meanwhile, in Jordan Monday, the semi-official Al Dustour newspaper underscored the fact that the United States informed key allies, namely Israel, about Sunday's strikes on Afghanistan, but left its Arab and Muslim allies in the dark about its plans.
"We are astonished by this American position that ignores its allies and gives full attention to the Jewish state which seems to be outside any international coalition,"
Al Dustour said.
"There is no doubt that the social, economic and security consequences of this war will be felt in neighboring countries of Afghanistan," the newspaper added in a front-page editorial.
"Therefore, we warn the United States and its allies to pay attention to the consequences of this war."
"We are afraid that the United States... will develop its military plans to involve areas outside Afghanistan and attack some Arab and Muslim countries that are on the U.S. defense department's terrorist list," the daily said.
"This will exacerbate the expected consequences of this war and will lead to negative developments in the Arabic and Islamic worlds, particularly if Israel's friends in Washington succeed in persuading the American administration to hit Iraq or Sudan or another country in a later phase of this glorious war,"
Al Dustour said.
The pro-government Al Rai newspaper echoed similar concerns.
"The war started, but no one knows how or when it will end," the paper said in an editorial.
"The continued implication of Arabs and Muslims in the war will only contribute to undermine [Middle East] peace and the causes of people," the newspaper said.
It urged Arabs "to put the international community, particularly the United States, before their responsibilities concerning issues that affect the whole world."
"The real confrontation is with Israel not with Washington," it said, calling on Arabs to continue to give "political, economic and moral support to the Palestinian people [to] contribute to weakening Israel."
Meanwhile, in Turkey and Russia - two countries that lie geographically much closer to the scene of action - fears were raised of the conflict spreading to Iraq and the predominantly Muslim countries of central Asia.
Noting Washington's advisory to the United Nations that it could turn its military power against other countries deemed supporters of terrorism, the Turkish daily
Sabah led with the banner-headline: "Ankara fears Iraq will be next on the list."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Tuesday that if U.S. and British forces target Iraq using the pretext of terrorism it would be "to settle old scores."
"The United States and its allies know very well that Iraq had nothing to do with the groups Washington accuses of being behind the attacks" in New York and Washington last month, Sabri told Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television channel.
"If the United States and its British ally want to widen attacks on Iraq under the pretext of terrorism, that would reflect their desire to settle old scores with Iraq," the minister said.
He warned that if strikes were aimed at Iraq, "we will resist with all our means."
Sabri described as "normal" a reference made by bin Laden in his statement Sunday to the suffering of the Iraqi people and the Palestinian issue to justify his hostility to the United States.
"Iraq and Palestine are two issues that raise sadness, suffering and pain among millions of Muslims in the world and the reference made to Iraq and Palestine is normal and common among all Muslims," he said.
"I don't think we need to read any other meaning into this reference," he added.
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