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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (11066)	11/27/2001 5:29:39 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27724

Looming danger. Arabs urged to fight anti-Muslim campaign. AS THE war against terror continues to rage unabated, and with no foreseeable end in sight, the risk of it expanding to other countries remains a major concern; and Iraq remains a primary target. A fierce debate has arisen in leading American newspapers and within the US administration's policy team on whether the war should be limited to Afghanistan, or widened to include countries like Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran and Lebanon. The hardliners in Washington are exerting persistent pressure in favour of pursuing other targets regardless; and it is feared that the advocates of this extremist line could be a majority. The irony is that the success of the present US-led anti-terror campaign may strengthen the argument in favour of a wider campaign with all the indicators pointing at Iraq. In a tense and highly charged international atmosphere the room for patient planning, logical considerations and justified action is narrowing. These are dangerous times indeed. The duty of all of us is to exercise as much common sense and wisdom to save the world the consequences of miscalculated military adventures that may create many more problems than they can ever solve. Still, more is required from Iraq. Baghdad has been relying on the validity of its case against the continuation of sanctions and on that basis it has for almost three years now refused to allow UN weapons inspectors to enter the country. The sympathy which Iraq has been receiving from many countries in the world, including some in the UN Security Council, should not be taken for granted. Even those very supporters — Russia, France and China — never endorsed the Iraqi policy of rejecting inspections or of non-cooperation with relevant resolutions of the Security Council. They have managed though to prevent the worse so far. But, Baghdad should clearly recognise that the situation is radically different after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US and that patience and tolerance is thinning. Iraq would be wise and right to realise the seriousness of the threat and stop relying on the value of any argument which they may have as a deterrent especially that it is a matter of days before the UN revisits the Iraqi file. It seems that Iraq's oil-for-food programme with the UN will not be automatically rolled over when it expires on Nov. 30. The United States and Britain have dropped their insistence on a revamped embargo known as “smart sanctions” in return for introducing changes to the current oil-for-food scheme whereby they place more restrictions on the imports of goods with dual-use. Iraq has said that it will reject any such modifications. And herein lies the danger since it will be presenting the proponents of military action with a golden opportunity to stress that Iraq refuses to respect the rule of international law, is not abiding by Security Council resolutions, and worse, in the absence of inspections, is building huge stocks of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq should shield itself by reviewing its years-old rejectionist policies and offer some kind of positive cooperation and engagement with the UN. There is no doubt that such a change of heart, if it happens, will be facilitated by the UN secretary general and Iraq's supporters on the Security Council. This may or may not prevent what is seriously feared, but it is the least Iraq can do to try to preempt danger and to effectively confront a hostile propaganda which has been comfortably feeding on its negative policies of inaction and rejection. jordantimes.com