| Author | Message | | Guest | | Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2002 6:28 am Post subject: Sharon's war? |
| http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20021226.shtml
Robert Novak
December 26, 2002
Sharon's war?
WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, having just returned from a week-long fact-finding trip to the Middle East, addressed the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations Dec. 16 and said out loud what is whispered on Capitol Hill: "The road to Arab-Israeli peace will not likely go through Baghdad, as some may claim." The "some" are led by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In private conversation with Hagel and many other members of Congress, the former general leaves no doubt that the greatest U.S. assistance to Israel would be to overthrow Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime. That view is widely shared inside the Bush administration, and is a major reason why U.S. forces today are assembling for war. "Military force alone," Hagel told his Chicago audience, "will neither assure a democratic transition in Iraq, bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians, nor assure stability in the Middle East." Indeed, the senator returned from the Mideast more concerned than his prepared speech indicates. As the U.S. gets ready for war, its standing in Islam -- even among longtime allies -- stands low. Yet, the Bush administration has tied itself firmly to Gen. Sharon and his policies. Gen. Amran Mitzna, the new Labor Party leader challenging the heavily favored Sharon in the Jan. 28 election, is denied access to senior U.S. officials. In private conversation, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has insisted that Hezbollah -- not al Qaeda -- is the world's most dangerous terrorist organization. How could that be, considering al Qaeda's global record of mass carnage? In truth, Hezbollah is the world's most dangerous terrorist organization from Israel's standpoint. While viciously anti-American in rhetoric, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah is focused on the destruction of Israel. "Outside this fight (against Israel), we have done nothing," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the organization's secretary general, said in a recent New York Times interview. Thus, Rice's comments suggest that the U.S. war against terrorism, accused of being Iraq-centric, actually is Israel-centric. That ties George W. Bush to Arik Sharon. The prime minister says astonishing things to U.S. visitors. He once rejected hope for negotiations, contending that Arabs and Jews will kill each other for a hundred years. More recently, he promised to put a Jewish settlement on top of any high ground. What is widely perceived as an indissoluble Bush-Sharon bond creates tension throughout Islam -- including Turkey, long a faithful U.S. ally and even longer a secularized state. A poll of Turks by Pew Global Attitudes released Dec. 4 shows 83 percent opposition to permission for U.S. use of bases in their country. Furthermore, a 53 percent Turkish majority asserted that the U.S. wants to oust Saddam Hussein as part of an anti-Muslim crusade rather than because he is a threat to peace. Turkish cooperation in the war must be approved by Turkey's newly elected parliament, consisting of about 90 percent new members with an Islamic party in a heavy majority. The parliament's mood did not improve when the European Union on Dec. 12 rebuffed both the Turkish and the U.S. governments by rejecting Turkey's application for membership. Abdullah Gul, the new prime minister, accused European leaders of "discrimination" and "prejudice" -- reflecting Islam's current view of the West. That is the background for an attack on Iraq by a coalition of English-speaking countries. "We should refrain from a rush to declare a 'material breach' because of the gaps in Iraq's 12,000-page document," Hagel advised in Chicago, calling on the U.S. to "marshal our own evidence." Nevertheless, Hagel's close associate, Secretary of State Colin Powell, declared a material breach three days after the senator's advice. Powell's uncharacteristic bellicosity may have been necessary for him to stay in the complicated game played within the Bush administration. Without Powell, President Bush may not have gone to Congress and the United Nations or delivered his masterful speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Day to day, only the secretary of state stands up to the forceful Vice President Dick Cheney. On balance, war with Iraq may not be inevitable but is highly probable. That it looks like Sharon's war disturbs Americans such as Chuck Hagel, who have no use for Saddam Hussein but worry about the background of an attack against him. | |  | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2002 8:12 am Post subject: Hero: Robert Fisk & Villian: Ariel Sharon |
| Hero: Robert Fisk & Villian: Ariel Sharon
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=364492
Hero: Robert Fisk
I've nominated him for the clarity and bravery of his reporting, in contrast to most other journalism about the Israel-Palestine conflict, which can be characterised by its cowardice, its clichés, its laziness and its mendacity. He's been prepared to say that what's going on in the Palestinian territories is as appalling as what went on in apartheid South Africa. It's the first thing that sprang to my mind when I first went to the West Bank, but Fisk is the only person who'll point it out.
Villain: Ariel Sharon
He's a stupid thug and that isn't just a gratuitous insult. He's stupid because the policies he has pursued relentlessly and brutally have proved to be counter-productive, yet still he fails to recognise it. And he's a thug. He's a mass murderer. He's a war criminal. He's a child-killer. He's wrecked the peace process, he's wrecked any hope of a settlement in the near future. What he's trying to do is eliminate what remains of Palestine and he's now even talking about what amounts to ethnic cleansing. He's a terrorist, by any definition.
ANN LESLIE, writer, Daily Mail
Hero: Noam Chomsky
Heroes are few, but the American refusenik Noam Chomsky deserves the appellation. His integrity and steadfastness in the face of imperial depredations is in polar contrast to all the hand-wringing of pundits, politicians and the belligerati in the face of a naked attempt by Washington to dominate the world.
Villain: Ariel Sharon
This unpunished war criminal regards the Palestinians as Untermenschen (subhumans), orders the killings of the leaders and the led, and is busy destroying both the social and political infrastructure of the Palestinian nation. This is an attempt to erase the political identity of a people who became the indirect victims of the European Judeocide. | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | *Mutt American | | Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2002 6:32 am Post subject: |
|  | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2002 3:21 pm Post subject: |
| Inspectors preparing to leave North Korea
UN nuclear inspectors in North Korea are preparing to leave denouncing the nation as "a country in defiance of its international obligations."
Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the agency's three inspectors would leave by Tuesday.
The agency decided to withdraw its inspectors a day after North Korea threatened to expel them.
The inspectors have been monitoring a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, north of the capital, Pyongyang.
"IAEA inspectors in Yongbyon are making arrangements to leave the country. This is in response to DPRK officials confirming directly to the inspectors that they should leave the country immediately," Fleming said.
She said the IAEA was pulling the inspectors out because North Korea had decided not to respond to a letter of protest by agency Drector-General Mohamed ElBaradei.
Meanwhile South Korea says it will send envoys to Russia and China to discuss moves by the North to reactivate its nuclear facilities.
Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong called his Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, to ask for support in dissuading North Korea from its nuclear ambitions.
Russia and China are among the few countries in the world that maintain friendly relations with isolated North Korea.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov urged the United States to seek dialogue rather than confrontation with North Korea.
South Korea is also eyeing trilateral talks with its longtime allies United States and Japan early next month. The three nations have routinely held such talks in the past several years to coordinate their policy toward North Korea. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
