Military

DATE=01/27/03

TYPE=U-S EDITORIALS DIGEST

TITLE=MONDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-12805

BYLINE=Andrew Guthrie

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

INTRO: While opposition to a war with Iraq grows in the U-S press, some papers are decrying French and German indecision on the issue. Other commentaries deal with U-S Homeland Security; Israel's election; and Libya's Chairmanship of a U-N Commission. Now, here is ___________ with a closer look in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Today at the United Nations Hans Blix issued his first report on the Iraq inspection process, and tomorrow, President Bush is expected to discuss U-S policy toward Iraq in his annual State of the Union address. Many papers are calling on the White House to go slow. The San Francisco [California] Chronicle says:

VOICE: Turn down the flame. Study the facts. Line up your allies. These should be the guiding thoughts for President Bush as he contemplates war with Iraq. Today will be a chance for restraint and reflection, not snap judgments. [as] The first formal report from the weapons inspection team will be given to the [U-N.]

TEXT: Oklahoma's Tulsa World worries that:

VOICE: President Bush seems to be taking his disagreement with Iraq's Saddam Hussein a little too personally . [making it sound] . more like a personal vendetta . than a gut wrenching decision ... on behalf of the [country].

TEXT: Eastern Connecticut's New London Day adds:

VOICE: .Despite the strong objections of Germany and France, the Bush administration is pushing hard for war in Iraq, and that is a major . mistake.

TEXT: The Washington Times however, is furious at the European stance.

VOICE: We have just seen a week of diplomatic chaos on Iraq . cynically initiated by France and Germany for their own domestic purposes and gullibly reported as meaningful by many American news outlets.

TEXT: New York's Wall Street Journal warns that if Saddam Hussein is not confronted soon, the effort at containing him and his weapons will fail. //

Domestically, there is also comment on the formal establishment of the Homeland Security Department. The Tennessean in Nashville suggests that as the new department begins work:

VOICE: A number of doubts remain as former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge assumes the secretary's job of an office that won't be fully operational for months.

TEXT: Internationally, Florida's Palm Beach Post says of Tuesday's Israeli election:

VOICE: The economy is in bad shape, but terrorist attacks have given the head of state Ariel Sharon a bump [Editors: "lead"] in the polls that should carry his party to victory.

TEXT: Libya's assumption of the chair of the U-N Human Rights Commission in Geneva draws more ire from The Detroit [Michigan] News, which calls it:

VOICE: .an insulting spectacle [from which]. America should try and spare the world in the future."

TEXT: Cuba's recent parliamentary elections, in which only Communist party candidates won is labeled "farcical" by Charleston's [S-C] Post and Courier. And

Lastly, on the subject of Sunday's American football championship Super Bowl, our equivalent of the World Cup final, The San Francisco Chronicle laments the bitter loss by The Oakland [California] Raiders to the Tampa Bay [Florida] Buccaneers as "especially bitter," while Florida's papers rejoice. And that concludes this editorial sampling of Monday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/KBK