A possible war in Iraq continues to monopolize the attention of the main European dailies. “Iraq: Bush’s war is not inevitable”, is the front-page headline of Le Monde (9/10), which stresses that President Bush has declared to the Americans that “the threat of a recourse to force does not mean that a military action is either imminent or inevitable”. In his address to the nation, notes the French daily, Bush has in the meantime insisted on the “threat represented by Saddam Hussein and on the biological and chemical weapons systems he controls that could be placed at the disposal of the various terrorist groups”. On the eve of the debate on the USA-Iraq crisis in the French national assembly, La Croix (8/10) contains an investigative report on “those who are pushing Bush into war”, as reads the title of the article signed by François d’Alançon. “The Iraqi obsession of George W. Bush” is first of all that of Paul D. Wolfowitz: he’s the assistant secretary of defense, explains the journalist, who “has never lost an occasion to try to convince the president of the United States that Iraq must serve as an example”. Commenting on the European stance on a possible conflict in Iraq, the neoconservative Robert Kagan declares, on the other hand, that “the Europeans recommend multilateralism and respect for international law because they have neither the means nor the will to maintain a military power”. “Robert Kagan says d’Alançon queries the consequences of this strategic split between the USA and Europe, and concludes by affirming that the former is sufficiently powerful to have no fear of having its hands tied by associating the Europeans in its actions. Gulliver may permit himself to be more ‘understanding’ and ‘generous’ with his Lilliputian allies”. A Bush who “is pressing” for resolutions that would authorize a war and is trying to prepare American public opinion for an eventual conflict in Iraq (even if presented as an extreme solution) is discussed by Brian Knowlton, in the Herald Tribune (9/10): “ Bush has offered a detailed justification for a possible military action against Iraq. He has called Saddam Hussein a ‘homicidal tyrant’ and a ‘student of Stalin'”. The German press too continues to focus on the Iraqi crisis: writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of 5/10, Stefan Ulrich enumerates the possible “ curbs against dictators“: “Sanctions, inspections, tribunal: in the struggle against Saddam, these tools have not yet been exhausted. In extreme cases, however, it may be necessary to have recourse to war. But the states that intervene in it should renounce individual initiatives. Whoever has recourse to the ultimate resource must have the legitimation of law or of the international community, if he does not want to become a despot himself“. Commenting on the post-war situation in Afghanistan, Sophie Mühlmann, writing in Die Welt of 6/10, declares: “ The anti-terrorist front must learn from its experience. Without a clear project for the period subsequent to the military intervention, all the other objectives of establishing a human system are useless“. “ When is a preventive war permitted?“, asks Herbert Kremp in the same paper of 8/10. “ The real problem is whether international law is able to curb terrorism, and especially the States that are its accomplices and furnish it with arms. Terrorism is not, and can never be, juridically recognized. But what about the States that sponsor it? Their governments violate international law“. On the possible entry of Turkey into the EU, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 9/10 notes: “ The enlargement to Eastern Europe of the European Union has not been translated into an act of historical and moral reparation but into a bureaucratic process. This corresponds to the nature of the EU, which is a mechanism of negotiation and compromise… The importance” of Turkey “ for Europe is irrefutable. But what is refutable is” its “belonging to Europe, bearing in mind geography and history, culture and political situation“. The weekly Der Spiegel of 7/10 discusses the tax reforms envisaged by the new Schröder government: “ The poor rich: the red-green government wants to cash in on big business and the well-to-do. What was at the start a vile fund-raising measure could soon be dignified as a political strategy.” ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 48 N.ro relativo : 36 Data pubblicazione : 11/10/2002
