US embassy cable - 03HARARE1656

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