Iraqi Resistance Tiring of Foreign FIghters/Daily Star--New WMW

[Gloria]

Up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/current.htm
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JULY 16, 2004

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--THE NEW SADDAM, WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE ("With Allawi, it's like the CIA is marrying Iraq," says a Baghdad intellectual. European diplomats in Brussels prefer to note his old-school but very sound strategy to climb to power: first infiltrating the debris of the Iraqi secret services and then putting them back into place while allying himself with former Ba'ath Sunni generals so he can reconstitute the army in his image. In Baghdad, Allawi is called "Saddam without a moustache". Exactly what Washington wants…Washington tried 19th-century-style colonialism in Iraq. It failed. Now it's trying a remix of 1970s Latin America - with proxy hardcore security forces subjected to the US. It will fail - as it did in Latin America. The United States may be militarily strong in Iraq, but politically it is a midget - as Fallujah demonstrates. Only one desired effect by the White House is already on: the war - at least in this summer silly season - is slowly disappearing from US television. The resistance - and not only in Fallujah - will certainly bring it back.)


2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRAQI RESISTANCE TIRING OF FOREIGN FIGHTERS (The Iraqi interim government hopes to isolate the Islamist militants by drawing off their nationalist allies through offers of amnesty, promises of re-employment for former army officers and some ex-Baathists in state institutions and by opening up the political arena to allow opposition voices to be heard. Yet prolonged military action by foreign - in particular US - troops in Iraq will continue to serve as a stimulus for nationalist insurgents and undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government to marginalize the Islamist component. "I do not believe that these intra-Iraqi conflicts are so important right now," said Juan Cole, modern history professor at the University of Michigan. "Only after the US is expelled would they then have to settle things among themselves.”



3//The Straits Times, Singapore--MANILA’S IRAQ PULLOUT DUE TO CLOUT OF OVERSEAS WORKERS (The impending Philippine retreat from Iraq is a tribute to the humble overseas Filipino worker…So crucial is the contribution that these workers make to the economy that they have been hailed as the 'new heroes' and described as a 'pillar of the Philippines' foreign policy'.

Their clout was evident in President Gloria Arroyo's decision on Wednesday to bow to the demands of Mr de la Cruz's kidnappers and pull troops out of Iraq early despite the risk of straining relations with the United States. Political analyst Gladstone Cuarteros said Mrs Arroyo's decision was 'a recognition of the political clout of overseas workers. There would have been a major political backlash against her government because so many families depend on a relative working abroad'.)



4//The Scotsman, UK--PRESIDENTIAL BLAIR ‘MUST CHANGE’ STYLE OF LEADERSHIP (Since taking office, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has prided himself in his informal style of meetings at No 10 - swapping agendas and minutes for cups of tea and biscuits. However, Lord Butler indicated yesterday that the highly personalised style he uses to run the government has to change…Effectively, the report accuses Mr Blair of rewriting constitutional tradition in order to increase his personal power, the most authoritative condemnation to date of his presidential style of government.)



5//The Independent, UK--ANGER OF A QUIET GERMAN VILLAGE WHERE NEO-NAZIS PLAN AN SS-STYLE BABY FARM (A normally tranquil west German village has been traumatised by a notorious neo-Nazi lawyer's plans to turn its 19th-century manor house and adjoining estate into an Aryan-style baby farm designed to further the Nordic race. The dubious project has been launched by Jürgen Rieger, a wealthy 57-year-old Hamburg lawyer and specialist in defending members of the German far right. He has convictions for incitement to racial hatred…The foundation is funded by the copious financial assets of the late Wilhelm Tietjen, a diehard Nazi loyalist and stock-market speculator who set up his fertility research organisation to further the Nordic races before his death in 2002. Mr Teitjen was infertile.)