US embassy cable - 04AMMAN2140

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 AMMAN 002140 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, 
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: PREL, KMDR, JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION:  IRAQ ONE YEAR LATER 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- The first anniversary of the war in Iraq was the 
lead story in all Jordanian papers published over the 
weekend, March 19-21.  The majority of editorial 
commentaries focus on the "failure of the occupation 
to fulfill promises" made to the Iraqi people.  Some 
commentaries view the U.S. occupation of Iraq as part 
of a grand American scheme to reshape the entire 
region "for the sake of Israel". 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The spoils of the war on Iraq" 
 
Commenting on President Bush's address on the 
anniversary of the war, columnist Khaled Mahadin 
writes on the op-ed page of semi-official, influential 
Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/21):  "It was clear that the 
U.S. president was reading his speech amidst a feeling 
of moral and political defeat brought forth upon the 
invaders by the war.  The president summed up the war 
in two personalities: President Saddam Hussein who was 
arrested and Abu Mus'ab Zarqawi, whom the United 
States is exerting every effort to arrest..  President 
Bush said nothing in his speech that is worth thinking 
about.  In fact, when mentioning what he called twenty- 
four member countries in the coalition of the 
aggression against Iraq, he mentioned these countries 
three times in a speech that took only fifteen 
minutes.  He kept repeating the talk about terrorism 
and the need to fight, without daring to admit that 
his war on the Afghani people achieved none of his 
explicit or even implicit objectives.  As for his war 
on the Iraqi people, it brought him moral and 
political defeat and is now inflicting him with 
military defeat due to the Iraqi national resistance.. 
This war of aggression, which was and continues to be 
based on lies and allegations, has placed the world 
and world peace between two terrorisms: the terrorism 
of the United States, Britain and the Israeli entity 
and the terrorism of those who are angry about the 
occupation of their lands, the contempt for their 
religion, the humiliation of their dignity, and the 
efforts to turn them into slaves for the western 
civilization and the false democracy." 
 
-- "A year after the war" 
 
Columnist Fahd Fanek writes on the back page of semi- 
official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/21): 
"In the days and weeks leading to the war on Iraq, the 
U.S. administration believed that the guaranteed 
American victory will provide complete legitimacy for 
the aggression in the eyes of the world.  The leaders 
in the Pentagon and the White House said that the war 
is going to provide America with security, to exercise 
pressure in favor of democracy in the Middle East, to 
open the road towards a peaceful solution to the 
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to terrify Iran and 
Syria enough to force them to yield to American 
conditions, and to direct a knockout blow to 
international terrorism, shutting up the opponents of 
the war.  One year later, it becomes clear that all 
this was more a fantasy than a well-studied policy and 
a calculated decision.  Contrary to that, the war 
opponents' warnings about its cost and its destructive 
influence on the America's reputation and credibility 
were proven, not to mention the fact that it opened 
the door wide to terrorism and isolated America from 
the international community..  Iraq before the war 
stood fast despite the unjust 13-year siege.  Iraq 
today is ruin, destruction, unemployment, poverty and 
sectarianism..  America won militarily within a few 
weeks, but it is politically and morally defeated, and 
for many years to come." 
 
-- "Why the occupation of Iraq?" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/21):  "If Iraq had had weapons of mass 
destruction, then Bush and Blair would not have dared 
launch the war.  The war took place because Washington 
and London were sure that there were no weapons of 
mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein would 
not be capable to resist.  The story of the weapons of 
mass destruction is nothing but a trick and a title 
for the biggest misleading campaign in history.  The 
relationship between Iraq's occupation and Israel's 
security is not merely a thin line subject to debate. 
There is a `highway' linking the two objectives.  The 
ruling extremist right wing in Washington succeeded in 
recruiting the superpower to fight on behalf of Israel 
and on behalf of Zionism..  A balance of terror or 
balance of weapons is not permitted between the Arabs 
and Israel, which has more than 100 nuclear heads. 
Such a balance would impose a peace or a settlement in 
the region that would take into consideration the 
interests of both parties and would be based on 
international legitimacy.  Such peace is not allowed, 
neither for the Israeli or the American sides.  The 
required peace in the Middle East is a peace of 
succumbing and surrendering that would allow Israel to 
be the domineering power and would make the 
Palestinians and the Arabs subject to the language of 
force and a de facto situation.  There are many 
reasons for the occupation of Iraq, but the last is 
the spread of democracy in Iraq and in the Arab 
countries.  Democracy, as it appears in the bill of 
Syrian accountability and the Greater Middle East 
Initiative, is nothing but a cover for the continuous 
American-Zionist campaign to deprive Arabs of any 
weapons whereby they can achieve the balance of terror 
with Israel's weapons of mass destruction.  The lesson 
learned from the occupation of Iraq is that the peace 
process between the Arabs and Israel on the basis of 
international resolutions is no longer a priority." 
 
-- "Both the occupation and the terrorism must end in 
Iraq" 
 
Daily columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/21):  "A year after the American aggression on 
Iraq, we can understand the reality of the war as 
being similar to the war of elimination between gang 
leaders.  This war was the outcome of a process of 
elimination launched by the big gang leader in 
Washington against a small gang leader in Baghdad, who 
happens to have many riches that the former wanted. 
This very clearly is the war.  Lies about weapons of 
mass destruction and liberating the Iraqi people 
cannot convince anyone anymore.  The weapons do not 
exist and the promise of freedom is not fulfilled.. 
The United States turned Iraq from a state that might 
have been oppressive and totalitarian to a vast land 
of chaos and destruction, where people die without 
cause and where murderous groups, be they the American 
army or terrorist or religious extremist organization, 
are rampant..  A year later, the war proved a big 
failure, not because of the bombings or the resistance 
operations, but because it failed to fulfill its 
promises to the Iraqi people.  All the illusions and 
the slogans that have accompanied the American 
aggression are disappearing, the governing council is 
proving its failure in running the affairs of the 
Iraqi people, and the American occupation is spreading 
chaos and destruction and is gradually disintegrating 
the Iraqi state..  Why don't we move from the position 
of cursing, condemning and rebuking to a state of 
assisting the Iraqi people so they can achieve their 
freedom and rid themselves of the occupation and the 
terrorism?.  If we want to help the Iraqi people, then 
the way is not ululating the resistance and former 
regime, but rather by supporting every effort towards 
ending the occupation and achieving stability." 
 
-- "The events of one year of occupation" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/20):  "'Democracy' and `rebuilding Iraq' have 
become the mottos of the occupation forces after the 
fall of Baghdad.  Yet, a year later, these mottos seem 
to have entered the same realm of lies as that of the 
story of `Iraq's weapons of mass destruction' and the 
tale of Saddam Hussein's capability to destroy the 
world within 45 minutes.  This is not all.  The new 
Iraq is not Bremer's constitution that cast aside the 
Arabic identity of Iraq, nor the celebrations of 
Talbani and Barzani of the veto they got to divide up 
Iraq, but rather the heroic resistance to the 
occupation, a resistance that grows solid with every 
passing day..  As for the identity of this resistance, 
its quality and momentum stress that it is Iraqi and 
that it enjoys popular protection, and this is enough. 
The talk about Zarqawi and Al-Qa'eda is nothing but 
fabrications from the American war on terrorism that 
are designed to cover up the American-British failure 
of achieving security, democracy, reconstruction and 
such other false promises." 
 
-- "One year on the occupation of Iraq: the failed 
march of the administration's war on terrorism" 
 
Daily columnist Jamil Nimri writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/20):  "True, Washington got rid of two regimes 
[Saddam Hussein's and the Taliban] that we are not 
sorry to see go, but that was the easy part, that 
required muscle and not brains.  Apart from that, 
everything the administration did was wrong.  It is no 
coincidence that at the end of every discussion, the 
American official has nothing left to say but that `if 
we had not done that, Saddam's regime would still be 
standing'.  This is important for the people of the 
two countries and maybe for the opponents, but as far 
as the international community and the cause of the 
war on terrorism, which is the headline for everything 
that America did, is concerned, this administration 
recorded an enormous failure and politicians who had 
orchestrated this failure must feel great shame." 
 
-- "Marking the anniversary of the aggression on Iraq" 
 
Daily columnist Mohammad Amayreh write on the op-ed 
page of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai 
(03/20):  "On the eve of the first anniversary of the 
American-British aggression on brotherly Iraq, which 
concluded in the occupation of Iraqi territory, the 
fall of the political regime and the capture of the 
Iraqi president and tens of his political and military 
leaders, Iraq remains suffering from `fear and 
loneliness' and terrorism continues to strike here and 
there, and all the while, the occupiers continue their 
claims and their allegations of freedom, democracy and 
human rights for the Iraqi people.  Despite the 
attempt of the occupation and its media apparatus - 
new and old - to beautify the Iraqi image, failure is 
the title of this attempt.  The real image of occupied 
Iraq is that of misery, with everything this word 
means: chaos, ruin, destruction, killing, arrests, 
blood-shedding and continuous foreign efforts to 
provoke an ethnic or civil war.  These efforts are 
relentless and the Mossad's playing fingers are 
noticeably clear, although the occupiers are trying to 
pin everything on Al-Qa'eda organization or Ansar Al- 
Islam or other organizations..  Much could be said on 
this painful anniversary, but the major events that 
are taking place in Iraq every day confirm two basic 
facts:  the first is that what happened is an 
occupation . and the second is that resisting this 
occupation is a legitimate right to all Iraqis..  A 
point to keep in mind here is that the real resistance 
would not lie to its people and would not kill its own 
sons and daughters.  Therefore, people should look for 
western foreign hands behind the terrorist operations, 
for those who stand to benefit from them are enemies 
of the nation and enemies of Iraq." 
 
-- "From August 2 to March 20" 
 
Daily columnist Rakan Majali writes on the back page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/20):  "It is no secret that Iraq fell in the trap 
on August 2, 1990 and that the crazy adventure of 
occupying Kuwait was designed to pave the way for 
occupying Iraq.  It is regretful that the events of 
August 2nd have led to the events of March 20th 
without there being reasons and justifications for 
invading Iraq, which recognized the state of Kuwait. 
But the real reasons for occupying Iraq are not a 
secret, where Israel and American have been planning 
 
SIPDIS 
for the longest time to grab Iraq, being the backbone 
of the Arab nation in the east.  The occupation of 
Iraq clearly paves the way for implementing the 
American project of reshaping the region, the basis of 
which is the disarmament of all the countries of the 
region of any power and maintaining Israel as the sole 
regional power." 
 
-- "One year after the war" 
 
Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (03/19) 
editorial concludes:  "A year has gone by after the 
war and the consequences on the ground answer the many 
questions that are related to the crises of 
international relations.  The former Iraqi regime 
fell, but no one won.  In fact, everyone lost.  Is 
there anyone to learn the lesson?" 
GNEHM