US embassy cable - 02HARARE1851

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