Military

DATE=09/20/01

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=U-S COUNTER ATTACK

NUMBER=6-12468

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: In editorials and commentaries around the world, the foreign press continues to focus on the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States. We get a sampling now from V-O-A's ____________ in this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: In Pakistan, some papers are hoping that a compromise regarding Osama bin Laden, can be reached to spare their country the potential of civil war. While the Islamabad government is supporting Washington under pressure, many Pakistanis are supporters of Mr. bin Laden, the man widely thought to have played a role in the attacks. The European press continues to support their country's alliance with the United States, but several are cautious as regards the breadth of the U-S military retaliation.

The Middle Eastern press is upset that in its view, all Arabs and Muslims appear to be lumped together in the American view, and there are many promoting Israeli conspiracy theories as responsible for the hijackings. In East Asia conservative dailies generally support this country, whereas in Muslim nations there is concern that U-S retaliation will result only in an escalating battle with the terrorists.

We begin our sampling in London, where England's Times suggests that:

VOICE: Whatever action America and its allies take against [Mr.] bin Laden's Afghan lairs, that will be a foretaste only of a vastly more ambitious campaign, waged the world over. ... And it will be a long war...

TEXT: Across town, the Guardian exclaims that:

VOICE: The message for Mr. Bush is that all non-military methods must be fully explored, too, if long-term success is to be assured and unpredictable, mutually destructive consequences avoided. Europe is not alone in [calling] for cooperative action via the U-N, and for joint investigatory, economic and financial measures.

TEXT: To France, where in Paris the big daily Le Figaro is upset at what appears to be a weakening of resolve with its government.

VOICE: There is a whiff of what was once called the 'spirit of Munich' [Editors: this is a veiled reference to the famed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who visited Hitler in Munich and came back saying there would be no war] coming from part of our political elite: it is the temptation to give in to comfort. This attitude is politely being called 'having reservations' ... Solidarity with the United States is not [only] a moral obligation... [but] abandoning it would only exacerbate the situation...

TEXT: Across town, Le Monde makes the obvious point:

VOICE: [President] Bush needs the support of moderate Arab nations. He will get it only if he manages to move ahead on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict...

TEXT: On to Germany, where Die Zeit, the weekly in Hamburg makes this telling point:

VOICE: Those responsible for the massacre are hoping for an apocalyptic answer that would turn the entire Islamic world ...into their ally and thus set off a 'clash of cultures.' ... Kabul is already destroyed. Additional bombs could do no additional damage. ... The attack on the United States was as horrific as the options available are few.

TEXT: In Hamburg, another weekly Die Woche also sees the U-S position as really difficult, noting:

VOICE: The harder the U-S military strike turns out to be and the more innocent people die in it, the better it is in the eyes of the Islamic terrorist network...

TEXT: In Italy, Il Tempo from Rome suggests that:

VOICE: ...America has realized that, if we want to build a new international order, we must reduce the space occupied by this obscure [Editors: understood here "terrorist"] world, by wiping out its financial and military networks and, at the same time, by organizing more efficient defense systems. ...This is ... a matter of defending humanity as a whole.

TEXT: Turning to Russia, Moscow's Izvestiya puts the situation, vis-à-vis the U-S and Russia this way:

VOICE: ... whether the Americans and we like it or not, from now on, Moscow and Washington will objectively have to act as allies- - at least on the issue of Afghanistan.

TEXT: To the Middle East now, and Israel's Yediot Aharonot, from Tel Aviv, which makes the point:

VOICE: The momentum in the building of a world anti-terror coalition has created a - - perhaps unique - - opportunity to stop the one-year-old dance of death between Palestinians and Israelis and to restore the voice of wisdom and reason that is no longer being heard.

TEXT: In Egypt, the well known Al Ahram ran this column Thursday [9-20] suggesting:

VOICE: [Mr.] bin Laden's attack came at the moment when the United States has become the leader of globalization and after it propagated 'the end of history' after the fall of communism. However, bin Laden-ism emerged as an alternative in the face of globalization. ... That is why the war ... will be long and brutal. ... If terrorism won the battle of New York and Washington, it will lose the war [in] the end and the free world will win.

TEXT: In Osama bin Laden's home nation of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh's Al-Riyadh is skeptical of the plans so far announced:

VOICE: To declare enmity against one-point-two-billion-Muslims, and to entertain the illusion of using the same ideological techniques which defeated communism... on the Islamic world, displays absolute ignorance. ... To arbitrarily associate Islam with backwardness and extremism will not solve the roots of the problem with the West.

TEXT: Al-Bilad in Jeddah says in part that:

VOICE: All Muslims and Arabs agree that the attacks which hit the U-S like an earthquake were crimes against Islam and are condemned by all Muslims... Killing innocent people is against the Shari'a [Editors: note Islamic law]

TEXT: To the sub-continent now, and an uneasy Pakistani press where Nawa-e-Waqt, from the Northern City of Lahore says, in part:

VOICE: There is a fear of a hasty U-S led NATO attack on Afghanistan on the pretext of Usama bin Laden. The attack might give impetus to international terrorism. In the course of the conflict a third world war could start...The day of [a] U-S attack on Afghanistan would be a day of celebration for Russia and India. Russia would be happy to see its old enemies America and Afghans pitched against each other. Indians would be happy to see Pakistan's friend Afghanistan trapped in the clutches of whites after getting rid of the black bear.

TEXT: The large, Karachi-based daily Dawn ties in the anti-terrorism campaign to the sudden, reasonably successful truce between Israel and the Palestinians.

VOICE: ... the U-S and its anti-terrorism coalition allies seem to have finally prevailed upon the intransigent Israelis to accept a cease-fire... The U-S can now heave a sigh of relief and carry on with the delicate task of planning its battle against terrorism without ... its strategy ...[being] obstructed by an upsurge of violence in the Middle East...

TEXT: Lastly, in Southeast Asia, the Bangkok Post has this thought in a signed column:

VOICE: If there is one thing we can be certain of, it is that massive retaliation on the part of the United States will not put an end to terrorism. It will simply amplify the upward spiral of violence, as the other side will resort to even more spectacular deeds...

TEXT: On that gloomy note from the capital of Thailand, we conclude this sampling of comment from the four corners of the globe on potential responses to last week's terror attacks in the United States.

NEB/ANG/RH