US embassy cable - 03HARARE494

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000494 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR INR/R/MR AND AF/PDPA DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE 
 
  1.   The standoff with Iraq remains fodder for opinion 
      articles being carried in the mainstream newspapers. 
      Excerpts follow: 
 
  2.   Under headline "Imminent war against Iraq: The ironies 
      and contradictions" the pro-government weekly "The Sunday 
      Mirror" (03/09) dedicated its ghost column "The Scrutator" 
      to warning that "the conflict over Iraq will spill over the 
      entire Middle East and constitute a conflagration so 
      frightening as to distort the current balance of forces in 
      the world, with both unforeseen and immeasurable 
      consequences for humanity."  Excerpts: 
 
      "The ironies and contradictions attendant to the 
      current campaign for war against Iraq are becoming 
      increasingly compelling.  Even before the U. S. and 
      Britain declare formal hostilities against Iraq, the 
      leaders of the two countries are finding it 
      difficult to deal with a public opinion, at home and 
      abroad, which is blowing holes in the argument that 
      Iraq is a threat to peace.  Therefore, one of the 
      glaring ironies is that the U. S. A. and Britain are 
      now being projected as the real war-mongers, 
      determined to defy public opinion that has grown so 
      loud in its anti-war campaign throughout the western 
      world and beyond, and ignoring the obvious 
      devastation that war will bring to both the people 
      of Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. 
      Accordingly, gaining currency is the conclusion that 
      the underlying motivation for war against Iraq on 
      the part of the U. S. A. and Britain is oil and 
      Israel. . .In the final analysis, the Iraq question 
      will see many other political casualties in the 
      western hemisphere, including the leadership in such 
      countries as Spain and Italy.  It will provoke and 
      exacerbate internal conflicts in a number of 
      countries in the Islamic world; not least those 
      viewed to be close to the U. S. A., namely, Egypt, 
      Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  As I have already 
      stated, the conflict over Iraq will spill over the 
      entire Middle East and constitute a conflagration so 
      frightening as to distort the current balance of 
      forces in the world, with both unforeseen and 
      immeasurable consequences for humanity.  Quite 
      characteristic of imperialism per se, there is the 
      usual overestimation of one's power and a 
      corresponding underestimation of unforeseen 
      consequences.  Bush's U. S. A. may have bitten more 
      than it can chew." 
 
  3.   Under headline "U. S. unilateralism cause of 
      terrorism" the government-controlled weekly "The Sunday 
      Mail" (03/09) carried an opinion piece by Tafataona Mahoso 
      under his weekly column "African Focus," in which he 
      accused the United States and Britain for "white-mailing 
      the world by claiming that their threatened unilateral and 
      illegal war on Iraq is the best way to fight terrorism." 
      Excerpts: 
 
      ". . .The global dominance of the media of the North 
      Atlantic states, combined with the African 
      preoccupation with Western ties, made Africans 
      forget that Russia had suffered horrific acts to 
      terrorism long before the September 11 attack on New 
      York, Washington and Pentagon.  In fact, the people 
      and movement accused of perpetrating the September 
      11 attacks in the U. S. had been groomed as an anti- 
      communist force against Russia and the former Soviet 
      Union by the very same United States which on 
      September 11, 2001 allegedly fell victim to its own 
      supposed `freedom fighters' against communism. . 
      .From the point of view of the Russian Federation . 
      . .unilateralism is, in fact, one of the biggest 
      causes of international terrorism. . .The worst 
      example of this tendency is the U. S.-U. K. position 
      on Iraq.  These two countries are white-mailing the 
      world by claiming that their threatened unilateral 
      and illegal war on Iraq is the best way to fight 
      terrorism.  They are also claiming that they have 
      proof that Al-Qaeda has relations with Iraq.  This 
      claim is a lie and it has the effect of actually 
      taking the rest of the world away from dealing with 
      real terrorism and its causes. . .The horrors of 
      September 11 did succeed in shifting the Western 
      view and appreciation of terrorism, but any gains 
      made since then in seeking a collective global 
      position on the problem were going to be destroyed 
      if the U. S. and UK succeeded in using the cover of 
      combating terrorism to justify a genocidal war 
      against Iraq. . . ." 
 
  4.   Under headline "U. S. not providing enough resources 
      to schools" the government-controlled daily "The Herald" 
      (03/10) carried the following op-ed by Bob Herbert in which 
      he attacked the United States of wanting "to spend hundreds 
      of billions of dollars on the war against Iraq" at the 
      expense of the provision of adequate resources for children 
      in public schools in the United States.  Excerpts: 
 
      "Here's something surreal about the fact that the 
      United States of America - the richest, most 
      powerful nation in history - can't provide a basic 
      public school education for all its children. 
      Actually, that's wrong.  Strike the word `can't.' 
      The correct word is more damning, more reflective of 
      the motives of the people in power.  The correct 
      word is `won't.'  Without giving the costs much 
      thought, we'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars 
      on an oil-powered misadventure in the Middle East. 
      But we won't scrape together the money for 
      sufficient textbooks and teachers, or even, in some 
      cases, to keep the doors open at public schools in 
      struggling districts from Boston on the East Coast 
      to Portland on the West. . .It's everyone's 
      obligation to educate the next generation of 
      Americans.  It's an insane society that can 
      contemplate devastating and then rebuilding Iraq, 
      but can't bring itself to provide schooling for all 
      of its young people here at home." 
 
SULLIVAN