US embassy cable - 03OTTAWA2429

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 002429 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN, WHA/PDA 
WHITE HOUSE PASS NSC/WEUROPE, NSC/WHA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, KMDR, OIIP, OPRC, CA, TFUS01, TFUS02, TFUS03 
SUBJECT:  MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ 
 
 
IRAQ 
1.   "U.S. mired in a mess of its own making" 
Contributing foreign editor Eric Margolis commented in 
the conservative tabloid Ottawa Sun (8/24): "First, 
President George W. Bush, VP Dick Cheney and a coterie 
of neo-conservatives led by Paul Wolfowitz and Richard 
Perle misled Americans into an unprovoked, unnecessary 
war by claiming Iraq was about to attack the U.S. with 
nuclear and biowarfare weapons. This was a grotesque 
lie.... Next, the White House gravely misread the 
strategic situation by swallowing neo-con assurances 
the 'liberation' of Iraq would be a cakewalk and oil 
bonanza. Last week, Iraqis responded to Bush's foolish 
challenge...by blowing up UN headquarters in Baghdad 
and inflicting serious sabotage on Iraq's oil 
infrastructure. These attacks show the U.S. has got 
itself into a truly awesome mess in Iraq. Far from 
easily plundering Iraq's oil wealth, U.S. occupation 
troops - almost half the U.S. Army's combat forces - 
are now under siege, at a cost of $1 billion US weekly. 
Bush has literally stuck his head in a hornet's nest in 
Iraq and is now getting royally stung. He, his 
scandalously inept national security advisers, and the 
media's so-called `Iraqi experts' failed to comprehend 
that a U.S. occupation would be a frightful, expensive, 
bloody mess - a disaster that 
was totally predictable. Worse, the U.S. occupation is 
clearly creating the kind of violence and car bomb 
terrorism that Bush used as an excuse to invade Iraq. 
Call this a terrorism perpetual motion machine. Iraqis 
who resist U.S. occupation are branded 'terrorists' and 
lumped into Bush's crusade against Islamic militancy. 
When the U.S. finds itself unable to 
crush Iraqi resistance, it will blame neighbouring Iran 
and Syria for 'fueling terrorism,' and may attack them. 
Tehran and Damascus thus have every reason to stir the 
pot in Iraq to tie down American forces and make it 
less likely the U.S. will next invade them, as neo-cons 
are urging.... Worse for the U.S., Iraq may be emerging 
- like Afghanistan - as a new, pan-national cause for 
the Muslim world.... President Bush has conveniently 
provided anti-American militants and fanatics across 
the Mideast with an ideal target: the U.S. army in 
Iraq.... Each passing day makes Bush's 
ill-fated invasion of Iraq increasingly resemble 
Lebanon's ugly civil war in the 1980s.... The U.S. 
finds itself in a disturbing analogue of the long 
Lebanese civil war, with confused American troops, like 
Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, not knowing why they are 
there or who is the enemy and venting their frustration 
on civilians. Protracted guerrilla warfare eventually 
turns even the best-disciplined troops into brutes, and 
corrupts entire armies. The very neo-cons who fathered 
this disaster are now calling for more American troops 
to be sent to Iraq." 
 
2.   "Baghdad bombing puts U.S. back on the defensive" 
Columnist Jonathan Manthorpe observed in the left-of- 
center Vancouver Sun (8/22): "It is an unpleasant truth 
to admit, but whoever launched the truck bomb attack 
against the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on 
Tuesday has reason to be pleased with the initial 
results of their bloody work.... However, the 
purposeful targeting of the UN, whose prime commitment 
now and for the past decade has been improving the 
lives of ordinary Iraqis, has rewritten the equation. 
The truck bomb announced that the coalition forces 
may be occupying Iraq, but they do not control what 
happens there. It said Iraqis should have no confidence 
that America, the UN or anyone else will be 
able to deliver on promises to rebuild the country on 
the basis of a sound civil society.... It is no 
coincidence that this escalation in the type of 
violence comes amid increasingly detailed reports of 
radical Islamic fighters slipping into Iraq from all 
over the Middle East to join the fight against the 
U.S.... An alliance of convenience is forming between 
these `jehadis' (holy warriors) and the remnants of 
Saddam's secularist Baath Party. A result is the 
creation of a much more sophisticated command structure 
among the resistance guerrillas and a more coherent 
strategic objective.... In Washington, there is an 
effort to grasp the truck bombing as an opportunity to 
persuade allies and others who were opposed to the war 
to now come on board. The administration of George W. 
Bush is very keen to 
make the occupation forces in Iraq more visibly 
international by drafting in contingents from such 
countries as India, Pakistan and even Japan. To that 
end, Secretary of State Colin Powell...was on Thursday 
working the corridors of the UN headquarters in New 
York.... Powell was hobbled, however, by an adamant 
refusal in the heart of the Bush administration to cede 
any military authority in Iraq or to give the UN any 
significant role in the reconstruction of the 
country.... Somewhat understandably, countries such as 
France and Germany which argued for international 
legality before the invasion, aren't rushing to assist 
Washington now.... Behind this too is the more mundane 
matter of money. The way things are structured at the 
minute, Washington is ensuring it will be American 
companies almost exclusively that get contracts to 
rebuild Iraq. But reports from Washington say the 
administration is reluctantly considering giving the UN 
some authority to share the contracts pie more widely. 
Because the alternative for the Bush White House 
probably would be increasing isolation in the midst of 
an unwinnable guerrilla war, it would be worth the 
money." 
 
CELLUCCI