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World Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
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1//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--US TROOPS DUST UP AS DESERT STORM SWEEPS GULF (Much of the Gulf has been under a blanket of suffocating dust since Wednesday. "It's extreme and extremely hot, close to the records," Dubai weather forecaster Clive Stevens was quoted as saying by AFP... US and British troops stationed on the Kuwait-Iraq border were clearing the dust from their gun barrels and sweeping out tents yesterday after being caught in the storm.)
2//TurkishPress.com, Turkey--LOGOGLU: UNOFFICIAL PRE-MEETINGS ARE HELD FOR U.S.'S USE OF TURKISH AIRSPACE (Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. Faruk Logoglu said late on Tuesday that unofficial pre-meetings were held about the use of Turkish airspace by the U.S. within the scope of the Iraqi crisis, adding that the U.S. didn't have such an official demand from Turkey yet.)
3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--JORDAN FEELS THE COMBAT HEAT (Jordan is under mounting pressure to open its air space for an attack on Iraq by the United States, despite the Government's fears that support for the war could unleash a wave of violent domestic unrest... General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in the Gulf, is believed to have raised the issue of over-flight access during discreet talks in Amman on Wednesday with Jordanian officials.)
4//The Moscow Times, Russia--AMERICA: NO SECRET DEALS FOR IRAQI OIL (America is not secretly offering Russia oil concessions in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq in exchange for political support, and Moscow better think twice about the consequences of blocking Washington's pursuit of war against Baghdad, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday....[Spencer] Abraham's comments were echoed by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, who reiterated earlier remarks that Washington would likely retaliate economically if Russia used its veto in the United Nations to slap down any resolution that could expedite the use of force against Iraq. "The American people and American congress would see a difference between a veto or an abstention," Vershbow said.)
5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--BUSH'S 'MORNING AFTER' HEADACHE ("Every time [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld opens his mouth," said one Senate staff member this week, "I worry that he's going to say something incredibly stupid about 'Old Europe' again and then [French President Jacques] Chirac or [European Union Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Christopher] Patten is going to say, 'That does it. If the Americans think we're going to help out with the occupation or reconstruction, they can ask those new European countries like Romania and Latvia. I'm sure they'll be happy to help'."... Congress is also worried that the administration's failure to produce realistic estimates about the costs of the war and subsequent occupation is creating a false sense in the public that the Iraqi conquest will be a relatively easy affair, on par with Afghanistan.)
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1//Arab
News 14 March 2003 / 11 Muharram 1424
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=23681
US TROOPS DUST UP AS DESERT STORM SWEEPS GULF
Staff Writer
DAMMAM/KUWAIT, 14 March 2003 - Sand whipped up by searing winds blanketed much of the Gulf yesterday, reducing visibility and forcing the mercury up to record levels.
While a wild Kuwaiti sandstorm pinned down more than 160,000 US and British troops close to the border with Iraq, heavy dust was reported in Dhahran and Bahrain where visibility was as low as 100 meters.
Drivers used headlights as visibility dropped and sand blew across highways, slowing traffic.
Much of the Gulf has been under a blanket of suffocating dust since Wednesday. "It's extreme and extremely hot, close to the records," Dubai weather forecaster Clive Stevens was quoted as saying by AFP.
A trough of low pressure extending from southern central Iran down across Qatar and low pressure to the west of the Empty Quarter sent winds gusting over 30 knots (34.5 miles per hour) through the region.
Abu Dhabi sizzled on Wednesday in 42 degrees C (108 F). Relative humidity dropped as low as eight percent.
US and British troops stationed on the Kuwait-Iraq border were clearing the dust from their gun barrels and sweeping out tents yesterday after being caught in the storm.
Sandstorms are not abnormal in the arid desert region, raising fears that any invasion of Iraq could be hampered by the extreme weather.
(MORE)
2//TurkishPress.com Thursday, March 13, 2003
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=9481
LOGOGLU: UNOFFICIAL PRE-MEETINGS ARE HELD FOR U.S.'S USE OF TURKISH
AIRSPACE
Anadolu Agency: 3/12/2003
WASHINGTON D.C. - Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. Faruk Logoglu said late on Tuesday that unofficial pre-meetings were held about the use of Turkish airspace by the U.S. within the scope of the Iraqi crisis, adding that the U.S. didn't have such an official demand from Turkey yet.
Speaking to correspondents of defense, Logoglu said that if a consensus was reached between the governments in this issue, the approval of the parliament would be necessary.
Logoglu stressed that the U.S. war planes which were used in Incirlik base within the scope of Northern Watch could only be used for defense purposes, adding ''these planes can't take part in an operation against Iraq for the moment.''
(MORE)
3//The Sydney Morning Herald March 14 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/13/1047431154461.html
JORDAN FEELS THE COMBAT HEAT
By Mark Baker
Jordan is under mounting pressure to open its air space for an attack
on Iraq by the United States, despite the Government's fears that
support for the war could unleash a wave of violent domestic unrest.
Turkey's continued refusal to open its bases to allied forces has forced military planners to consider the provocative option of launching attack aircraft and missiles from the US Mediterranean fleet over Israel and Jordan.
General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in the Gulf, is believed to have raised the issue of over-flight access during discreet talks in Amman on Wednesday with Jordanian officials.
The official Petra news agency confirmed that General Franks had met Jordan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Khaled Jamil Sarayreh, but gave no further details. The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Marwan Muasher, in an interview with the American NBC network on Tuesday, did not rule out the possibility of its air space being used.
(MORE)
4//The Moscow Times Thursday, Mar. 13, 2003. Page 5
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/03/13/041.html
AMERICA: NO SECRET DEALS FOR IRAQI OIL
By Valeria Korchagina, Staff Writer
America is not secretly offering Russia oil concessions in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq in exchange for political support, and Moscow better think twice about the consequences of blocking Washington's pursuit of war against Baghdad, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
"In America, there will certainly be concern about the way other nations respond [to the Iraq crisis]," visiting U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters.
"Obviously, those actions have consequences."
Abraham's comments were echoed by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, who reiterated earlier remarks that Washington would likely retaliate economically if Russia used its veto in the United Nations to slap down any resolution that could expedite the use of force against Iraq.
"The American people and American congress would see a difference between a veto or an abstention," Vershbow said.
A number of Russian oil companies, most notably LUKoil, have billions of dollars' worth of future business in Iraq lined up if UN sanctions on the country are ever lifted. They are also positioning themselves for new opportunities in the event of a regime change -- but Abraham insisted that he was not in Moscow to discuss Iraq, but rather to pursue energy cooperation.
He said increasing Russia's crude export capacity was among the topics of his meeting with Energy Minister Igor Yusufov.
Russia has been expanding production at breakneck speed, but exports are constricted by port and pipeline bottlenecks.
Abraham said U.S. would welcome Russia's expanding its infrastructure to ease the flow of its crude to world markets, singling out a project put forward by private Russian oil majors that would greatly expand the capacity of the Murmansk port and sharply increase direct supplies to America. Although the Russian government has already warned that all pipelines built -- either with private or state money -- will remain under its control, U.S. investors would be keen to participate in the project, Abraham said.
(MORE)
5//Asia Times Online March 14, 2003
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC14Ak02.html
BUSH'S 'MORNING AFTER' HEADACHE
By Jim Lobe (Inter Press Service)
WASHINGTON - While 225,000 United States troops deployed around Iraq are now ready for their commander-in-chief, President George W Bush, to give the order to invade, skepticism is growing steadily back home about what Washington will do once its forces reach Baghdad.
Some lawmakers in Congress on both sides of the aisle are especially frustrated because they will have to appropriate the money that taxpayers will pay, not only for the invasion itself but also for the occupation afterwards.
(SNIP)
"Every time [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld opens his mouth," said one Senate staff member this week, "I worry that he's going to say something incredibly stupid about 'Old Europe' again and then [French President Jacques] Chirac or [European Union Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Christopher] Patten is going to say, 'That does it. If the Americans think we're going to help out with the occupation or reconstruction, they can ask those new European countries like Romania and Latvia. I'm sure they'll be happy to help'."
The notion that Washington by itself, or even with help from Britain, Spain and other parts of Rumsfeld's "new Europe" or a "coalition of the willing", can afford the costs of occupation and reconstruction was blasted by at least one member of a blue-ribbon task force convened by the influential Council on Foreign Relations in a report released on Wednesday. It found that Washington would have to devote a minimum of about US$20 billion a year for at least several years to sustain peace and recovery in Iraq.
"The United States can win the war with Iraq alone, or at the head of a narrow coalition," wrote James Dobbins in a supplementary note to the 58-page report, "Iraq: The Day After". "It can win the peace, however, only with much broader backing."
"The price of policing Iraq, holding it together, reconstructing its economy and reforming its society goes beyond anything the American taxpayer will or should be ready to bear," wrote Dobbins, whose expertise derives from his work as special envoy to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo during the tenure of former president Bill Clinton and in Afghanistan under Bush.
The task force, which was headed by former defense secretary James Schlesinger, a Republican who has publicly supported invading Iraq, and former UN ambassador Thomas Pickering, said that Washington will have to deploy at least 75,000 troops to stabilize the country and keep the peace, at an estimated cost nearly $17 billion a year, or greater than the entire US annual foreign aid bill.
(SNIP)
After a war, the CBO staff said, a US occupation could cost anywhere from $1 billion to $4 billion a month, a range that clearly discomfits Congress, including Republicans, who see their hopes for enacting a major tax cut this year sink with every new estimate about the war's cost.
Congress is also worried that the administration's failure to produce realistic estimates about the costs of the war and subsequent occupation is creating a false sense in the public that the Iraqi conquest will be a relatively easy affair, on par with Afghanistan.
"It is not clear to me that the American people understand we are engaged in the long haul if we are to be successful," said Schlesinger, who called on Bush to be more forthcoming about internal estimates.
Meanwhile, US non-governmental relief groups that have been briefed by administration officials about their plans to ensure that needy people get life-sustaining supplies once a war breaks out have said the plans appear to be "inadequate" and could result in greater suffering.
The groups have also voiced outrage at reports that several US corporations, including Halliburton, Inc, where Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO until his election, have been asked to bid on reconstruction contracts worth nearly $1 billion that include the provision of emergency water and other supplies, services that are normally carried out by voluntary groups.
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© 2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
