To: Thomas M. who wrote (16308 ) 8/15/2002 4:40:54 AM From: GUSTAVE JAEGER Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 23908 Follow-up to my previous post:August 15, 2002 Iraq-invasion talk roils Morocco By Doris H. Gray THE WASHINGTON TIMES RABAT, Morocco — Talk of a U.S. military strike against Iraq is feeding public anger toward the United States, threatening the stability of one of the most firmly pro-American governments in the region. Sympathy for Islamic fundamentalist groups is at an all-time high, which does not bode well for the government, a long-standing friend and ally of the United States, in scheduled elections next month. Warm relations between the nations date from 1777, when Morocco became the first country to recognize America's independence from Britain. The United States returned the favor after World War II, pressuring France to end its colonial hold on the North African country. But in recent weeks, harsh criticism of the United States is being heard from across the political spectrum, with America's uncritical support of Israel and its threats of military action against Iraq the most frequent complaints. [...]washtimes.com The real crux of the problem in selling a new war against Iraq is that all Muslim/North African immigrants in Europe, as well as their fellows in the Arab world, view the issue as a RACIST, ARABOPHOBIC war against a brother country --whereas the US administration "innocently" presents it as a rightful attack on Iraq's political regime . Of course, European media (TVs, newsmags,...) are only too happy to stir it up and brand the US as an Arabophobic machine.... It's an easy trick to play with Europe's disenfranchised immigrants since the latter tend to project Europe's racism onto the US. They don't see that Albanians and Bosnians were only too relieved to be rescued by the Yanks, they don't know that the first Western leader to call Turkey's PM Bulent Ecevit in the wake of the Turkish crisis (early in 2001) was President Bush --not a single EU head of state took the trouble to phone PM Ecevit. Gus