Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=03/20/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=WAR BEGINS

NUMBER=6-12873

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

EDITORS: DUE TO THE LARGE NUMBER OF EDITORIALS ON THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR, THERE IS N O DUPLICATION WITH THE U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST 6-12872 ISSUED EARLIER]

INTRO: The beginning of the war to disarm Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein is drawing a large outpouring of editorial comment in the U-S press. V-O-A's ______________gives us a [further] sampling in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The Chicago Tribune pushes for a swift end to the war.

VOICE: "Now the battle has been joined. It thunders over lands as ancient as war. If fortune is kind, the violence will end quickly and decisively and with mercy to civilians and soldiers on both side." .This is a war that did not have to be. From capital to capital across the continents, the consensus that Hussein is a menace who must be disarmed if not deposed is broad and deep.

TEXT: South Carolina's Myrtle Beach Sun News discusses the future of America as a result of the Bush pre-emption policy.

VOICE: If President Bush had framed the invasion .solely as enforcement of the unmet U-N mandates. unqualified support would be easier to proffer. But the president has placed this war in a much more worrisome context. [It]... is apparently the first in what could become a series of U-S military adventures aimed at pre-empting regimes the president and his advisers deem roguish.

. At first blush, this may seem a compelling vision for use of American power in the 21st century . But the notion that democratic capitalism, U-S style, is globally transplantable seems wildly romantic. . once [it] . is over, we look forward to public [and] congressional .debate. on [Mr.] Bush's bold view of the U-S role in the world. To go farther down this road without such a discussion should be unthinkable.

TEXT: Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal looks beyond the military conflict to post-war reconstruction.

VOICE: . as the war begins, the aftermath looms as the most difficult aspect. .The economic challenge will be great enough. The political challenge will be [even] more formidable . Then, there is the precedent, the potential blowback. Which country will watch [these] events . and conclude it, too, should strike preventively? India? Pakistan? War has it victors, its vanquished [and] its unintended consequences.

TEXT: Fort Lauderdale's [Florida] Sun-Sentinel suggests that America must unite in the war effort:

VOICE: Months of dissent and protest . within the United States and abroad, also failed to prevent this war. Now that it is here, U-S forces must not be allowed to fail. It's time for Americans to unite behind their president and . troops. [However] This is not to say dissent and protest should cease. They are in the finest traditions of America's cherished freedoms. But they must not take on the vitriolic and destructive tone of the Vietnam era.

TEXT: In Michigan, in a highly unusual move, The Detroit Free Press reprints this highly critical editorial of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien from Wednesday's Windsor, Ontario Star.

VOICE: You have to wonder what principle Prime Minister . Chretien was being guided by when he decided Canada would not support the .war against Saddam Hussein. [He] .said . Canada would not participate without U-N approval . But why should a U-N endorsement mean anything?

. Should Canadians give up the right to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong, so that places like Angola, Cameroon and Guinea [current members of the U-N Security Council] can decide for us? Surely that doesn't make any sense. It should be obvious that the world will be a much better, and infinitely more secure, place without Saddam Hussein.

TEXT: With that editorial featured in Thursday's [3-20] Detroit Free Press editorial column, we conclude this further sampling of comment on the war with Iraq.

NEB/ANG/MEM