6-16 June

Compiled by Kathleen Ridolfo

The London-based "Al-Hayat" (16 June): Salamah Ni'mat blames the Arab states for allowing the U.S. to prevent them from playing a role in the future of Iraq and the Palestinian issue.

     "Washington has succeeded in forcing Arab states to reposition themselves so they are always in a defensive state, which has paralyzed their ability to deal with regional issues. Not one Arab voice is being heard in Washington.... There is a semi-total Arab absence from the U.S. media, except for a few rare occasions that arise from time to time allowing some Arab states to defend themselves in an attempt to get a certificate of good conduct from the White House and those who control it.

     "The situation is that Washington does not want Arab partners in restructuring the Middle East after toppling the regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. From an American point of view, any partnership is out of the question unless it serves U.S. interests in combating terrorism or it blesses and supports what the United States is doing in Iraq and Palestine.

     "...Many factors have helped in making Washington decide to sideline the role of Iraq's Arab neighbors in shaping the future of Iraq and Palestine, except within the limits that Washington has set for them. One of the most significant of these factors is the position that these states adopted on the eve of the war on the Iraqi regime.

     "Arab states, which were supposed to contain Saddam Hussein's regime in a way that is consistent with U.S. interests, seemed like they were being contained by the Iraqi regime, which managed to rehabilitate itself on the Arab arena between the summits of Amman and Beirut. An official Arab rejection to the war came from states that are supposed to be Washington's allies. This deprived them of the chance for political partnership with the United States in building the future of Iraq in the postwar stage. The same applies to the question of Palestine. From Washington's perspective, these Arab states played a destructive role when the Palestinians and the Israelis were close to reaching a historic peaceful settlement during the Camp David and Taba talks in the last few weeks of the presidency of President Bill Clinton.

     "The Arab parties that are concerned with the situation can be divided into two groups: The first group depends on U.S. economic aid and cannot live without it. The second group is accused of supporting terrorism and is busy defending itself against the accusation....

     "To make a long story short, the frustrated states of the region are responsible for marginalizing themselves because they have failed to achieve political and economic reform, which could have guaranteed their independence and their ability to do without U.S. assistance. Reform could have also removed the causes of political extremism and violence and the accusations that follow them, such as supporting terrorism and the absence of democracy....

      "We are in a situation in which the states of the region are paying the price of failing their own people, before failing on regional and international levels."

Jeddah-based English-language "Arab News" (14 June): Tariq al-Ma'ina says U.S. President George W. Bush "duped a nation."

     "...Mr. Bush duped a nation about a threat to [the United States'] very existence from the east."

     "Facts emerging today tell of unreliable intelligence reports being questioned by members within the current administration as early as six months before Mr. Bush began his offensive on Iraq."

     "But as interviews and documents reveal, those who rebelled against the building up of the invasion were scuppered by high-level administration officials in the White House because Mr. Bush had already decided that military force would be used to overthrow the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

      "The Bush administration embroidered intelligence and pushed murky 'facts' in order to get Congress and the public to back him in this war, and most honest Americans believed that he was telling the truth."

      "But business for some of Mr. Bush's friends has been brisk.... Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, has been rewarded with an expanding role, costing [U.S.] taxpayers $184.7 million as of last week, up from $76.7 million a month ago....

      "...Isn't it perhaps a bit ironic that this same man who unyieldingly refused to grant Hans Blix and the UN inspectors a little more time to unearth WMDs is today asking his constituents to be patient and give him more time?

      "...Americans today are searching for justifications, good and honest Americans who perhaps have begun to feel the stirrings of conscience that something does indeed smell rotten. They cling to reasons for the carnage that took place, reasons such as the people Saddam gassed and killed, the mass graves, and torture chambers.

      "But most of those heinous crimes took place in 1991, while Mr. Bush Sr. had more than 600,000 coalition troops a stone's throw away in the Gulf, yet chose to turn his back on them as the UN Security Council mandate "limited" his role into just setting Kuwait free. An obscene human tragedy, to put it mildly, has taken place at the hands of Mr. Bush Jr. The loss of the innocent, including soldiers from the invading forces who were misled, points toward a crime of huge proportions.

      "It is a shame that the presidency of the United States has been tainted by lies and deceit successively over the past decade. From Rice to Rumsfeld, from Fleischer to Wolfowitz, lies and deceit have taken over the U.S. government."

Baghdad-based "Al-Adalah" (12 June): Editorial criticizes the United States for not allowing Iraqi groups to contribute to stabilization efforts inside the country.

     "The occupation forces' leaders are postponing the implementation of the Iraqi people's demands for freedom, democracy, and independence pending the stabilization of security. At the same time they are not doing anything but are leaving the security situation forlorn and without treatment, despite the many offers made by the seven-man political leadership committee and other national sides. If the occupation forces' leaders had accepted these offers, security would have definitely stabilized and consequently the attention of everybody would have turned toward building the foundations of a new life for the present and future of the Iraqis.

     "...[This procrastination] can also be interpreted as a deliberate and premeditated attempt to exhaust the Iraqis and enmesh them in successive problems to divert their attention from their demands for democracy, freedom, and independence....

     "...But the other side has rejected every Iraqi effort in this regard and has insisted that it alone is responsible for imposing law and order....

     "...Therefore, in light of the current events in the Iraqi arena it is no longer acceptable for the occupation forces' leaders to postpone the creation of a temporary national government that would pave the way for the election of an Iraqi parliament and consequently the establishment of a permanent government."