The sending of UN observers to Iraq is variously commented on by the German press. In the Frankfurter Rundschau of 16/11, Ro lf Paasch writes: “ The cynical American policy makes it difficult for truly democratic Iraqis to have any trust in the superpower. More than once they have been betrayed and sold down the river. Unfortunately the victory of self-evident interests over a lasting promotion of democracy is a constant of American policy on Iraq“. Writing in Die Welt of 17/11, Dietrich Alexander comments: “ The return of the UN inspectors to Iraqi territory, after an absence of four years, is a diplomatic success of the international community. But the danger of war has not in the least been averted. A complaint by the inspectors, an impediment by the men of Saddam Hussein, may decide the fate of the country, whether war or peace, and give George W. Bush the (hoped-for?) excuse to resolve the conflict militarily“. The Süddeutsche Zeitung of 19/11 declares: “ Of course, the return of the inspectors after four years of forced absence might appear as an historic moment. But how it goes down in the annals of history depends on one man alone: Saddam Hussein“. To the Iraqi crisis an analysis is also dedicated by the weekly The Economist of 16/11, which asks: “After 8 years of systematic obstruction and four without entering Iraq, can the new round of inspections achieve the success that previous inspections failed to obtain?”. Attempting to answer this question, the magazine notes: “This time the inspectors will have three advantages: stronger support, a clearer mandate and new powers”. These are considered “key elements” in the Iraqi disarmament process. “With these new rules says the weekly there will be little patience. Any Iraqi false statement or omission will represent a breach of the obligations assumed and mean a referral to the Security Council”. “And a united Security Council concludes The Economist could convince Saddam to abandon any attempt at rearmament”. A ‘softer’ position is expressed by the daily Herald Tribune of 19/11 which reports the statements of the head of the UN weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, who sees in the UN-mandated inspections “a new opportunity offered to Iraq”. “The inspections reports the paper, quoting the words of Hans Blix are in the interests of Iraq and of the whole world”, although “no cat and mouse games will be tolerated”. As if to say: “We’ll do our work objectively and professionally”. The French Catholic daily La Croix of 18/11 tries to look further ahead and predict the future of Iraq. According to the paper, the successor of the current Iraqi dictator is likely to be his son Qousai: “Elected to head the Iraqi Ba’ath party, the political organization on which power is based in Iraq, Qousai has pushed through reforms that give him full powers over the military organizations and over the security services. He has managed to install many of his closest supporters in ministerial positions. What still remains to be done is to gain control of the ministry of petroleum, the really key sector in Iraq”. But one doubt still remains: “ Will Washington ever accept this solution?”. No, according to an Arab diplomat, whose blunt comments are published by La Croix: “Washington only wants the end of this regime and the end of the Ba’ath party”. On the question of the reference to the Christian tradition in a future European constitutional treaty, as wished by the Church, Daniel Deckers notes in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 16/11: “ When the European Charter of Fundamental Rights was formulated two years ago, all the proposals to cite or even invoke God foundered… this situation cannot be explained solely by the French secularist mentality with which the European institutions are imbued. Not even the Christian Churches, or the Catholic episcopal conferences of the European States and of the candidate countries, were convinced of the need to insert any reference to God in the preamble“. The weekly Der Spiegel of 18/11 dedicates its cover story to Schröder’s plummeting popularity after the recent elections: “ Four weeks since his re-election to the Bundestag, Schröder seems completely burnt out. He uses his greatest gifts, his power of persuasion, his will to impose himself, only to hold onto power. The chancellor does not have much more to offer than the undemanding slogan ‘Renewal and justice’, with which he tries to give a sense to the wave of tax increases. The only ones to be happy with the performance of the head of the government are the trades-unions bosses. Hitherto despised, then ignored, now they are his most important allies“.
