Military

DATE=05/22/03

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=U-S "HAWKS" VS. "DOVES" CONFLICT

NUMBER=6-12941

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The foreign press is beginning to notice a division in United States policy between the so-called "hawks" in the Pentagon and elsewhere, and the "doves" at the State Department. It is a foreign policy split that is increasingly being debated in the American press as well. We get some samples of the global view now from V-O-A's ______________in this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Some of the divergence of views within the Bush administration is becoming increasingly apparent. Leading "hawks" are considered to be Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his assistant, Paul Wolfowitz, while the leading "dove" is considered Secretary of State Colin Powell.

According to one foreign analyst, these men and their followers are aiming "poisoned arrows" at each other, and the result is a kind of "tribal warfare" that produces an inconsistent foreign policy. One international daily calls this "non-stop guerrilla warfare" that is causing ambiguity in foreign policy. With that background, let's go first to France, where Le Figaro in Paris says the change of U-S command in Baghdad reflects this division.

VOICE: [President] Bush has once again opted for a compromise: He has ... chosen Paul Bremer, a career diplomat whose views are close to those of the Pentagon in an attempt to spare the rival sensibilities of Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. . The choice . is far from a success for [Secretary] Powell: The ambassador remains subordinate to Donald Rumsfeld. the final authority on all areas of Iraq's reconstruction. [Ambassador Bremer . is close to the 'neo-conservatives' who populate the Defense Department.

TEXT: Across the city, Liberation has a similar view.

VOICE: Who is running Iraq today? If the answer is in Washington, it is nonetheless not easy to come up with, given the still lively quarrel between the Pentagon and the State Department, two powers separated by [both] the Potomac River and ideology. No one any longer dares to deny these tensions.

TEXT: More analysis from Germany, where Munich's big Sueddeutsche Zeitung postulates:

VOICE: European politicians and journalists cling to the hope that Secretary Powell is the man who represents their views in the White House, which otherwise seems to be [deaf] to advice. . In the controversy over the leading role in post-war Iraq, the Defense and the State Departments entered into such a conflict . the battle noise could be heard outside.

TEXT: In Italy, Milan's Corriere della Sera says:

VOICE: In the Bush administration, more than in previous ones, the autonomy of the Secretary of State is limited. This is due to internal divisions, to the antagonism of the 'hawks' and to Bush's strong personality. That is why the President ought to intervene personally on the diplomatic level.

TEXT: Eastward now, to Russia, where Izvestiya in Moscow, speaks of post-war Iraq as a possible victim of this feud.

VOICE: The Pentagon has won a war against Iraq, but it has screwed up [Editors: U-S slang for "mishandled"] an operation for Iraq rehabilitation. . Replacing [interim administration Jay] Garner is considered a serious victory for moderate [Secretary] Powell over hawks [Messers] Cheney and Rumsfeld.

TEXT: In Athens, the big Greek daily To Vim tis Kiriakis even sees a possible change at State.

VOICE: Now, the team of neo-conservative technocrats of U-S foreign policy, which let the [U-S] to its intervention in Iraq, completely guides the foreign policy . president . Bush . is following. According to diplomatic observers . the resignation of the U-S secretary of state, who appears to be weakened within the . administration . is also possible.

TEXT: As for China's impression, Beijing's Guangming Daily says:

VOICE: Differences between the U-S Department of State and . Defense are an open secret. The two sides have lots of differences on how to arrange the interim (Iraqi) government or how long the military garrison should be [maintained] . Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has been getting the edge on [Secretary] Powell in the competition.

TEXT: Moving on to this hemisphere, Argentina's Pagina 12's from Buenos Aires suggests:

VOICE: .remember that [Secretary] Powell .started his Middle East tour with a peace plan strongly resisted by the .Pentagon['s] Donald Rumsfeld. [Secretary] Powell returns without a peace deal, and with his diplomacy humiliated by bombs. It is exactly what [Mr.] Rumsfeld needs to suggest that [Secretary] Powell [is] not only not obtaining peace but [also] . is turning Washington into al-Qaida's laughingstock.

TEXT: And lastly, from our French-speaking northern neighbor, the Canadian province of Quebec, Montreal's Le Devoir observes:

VOICE: Unless [Secretary] Rumsfeld is able once again to overtake [Secretary] Powell upon whom he has been waging non-stop guerrilla warfare for two years, diplomacy will be called to find solutions to the countless problems facing Iraqis.

TEXT: This concludes our sampling of comment on the alleged internecine feud between the U-S secretaries of Defense and State.

NEB/ANG/MAR