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### Viewing cable 03OTTAWA2388, MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ; AFRICA

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
03OTTAWA2388 | 2003-08-21 19:07 | 2011-04-28 00:12 | UNCLASSIFIED | Embassy Ottawa

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 002388

    SIPDIS

    STATE FOR WHA/CAN, WHA/PDA
    WHITE HOUSE PASS NSC/WEUROPE, NSC/WHA

    E.O. 12958:  N/A
    TAGS: KPAO KMDR OIIP OPRC CA
    SUBJECT:  MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ; AFRICA

    IRAQ
    ¶1.   "Rebuilding Iraq remains crucial"
    The leading Globe and Mail opined (8/21): "Horrific as
    Tuesday's bomb attack was on Iraq's United Nations
    headquarters, no one who has followed events in
    that country can be surprised that matters have taken a
    turn for the worse. From the moment the United States
    attacked Saddam Hussein, it was clear that
    handling the instability caused by his departure might
    be as difficult as dealing with Iraq while he was in
    power, if not more so. The question is what Washington
    and the international community should do about it....
    The bombing of the UN clearly marks an escalation of
    anti-American and anti-Western tendencies in Iraq....
    This too should come as little surprise. It was all but
    inevitable that a host of anti-U.S. forces both inside
    and outside Iraq would seize on any opportunity to
    imperil the reconstruction effort, in order to make the
    West look as bad as possible and to drive disaffected
    Iraqis into the arms of the militant Islamist movement.
    There are any number of countries nearby with
    extremists to spare, including Syria, Iran and Saudi
    Arabia. That is precisely why the United States and
    others involved in the effort to rebuild Iraq should
    stay the course, if not redouble their efforts to bring
    about stability as quickly as possible. Any sign of
    weakness - any sign, for example, that President George
    ¶W. Bush is wavering as a result of simplistic
    criticisms that his country is in for 'another
    Vietnam'...will only encourage anti-U.S. forces in Iraq
    and elsewhere.... Rather than pull staff or troops out,
    the United States needs to provide more of both, and
    other countries need to help as part of a broad UN
    effort.... Rebuilding countries - or, rather, helping a
    beaten and starving populace to rebuild them - is not
    easy. It took years in Japan and even longer in
    Germany, and cost billions of dollars to finance. The
    reconstruction is likely to take just as long in both
    Iraq and Afghanistan.
    American and international forces don't want to take
    too much on themselves for fear of being seen as
    occupiers. Yet if they don't do enough, quickly enough,
    they will be seen as uncaring. More than anything, they
    cannot give up."

    ¶2.   "Sometimes it is 'us' and 'them'"
    Columnist Marcus Gee observed in the leading Globe and
    Mail (8/21): "If Tuesday's bombings in Jerusalem and
    Baghdad did anything, they served to remind us what we
    are up against. Any act of terrorism is savage,
    senseless, cowardly - the past couple of years have
    exhausted our language of condemnation. But these were
    acts of particular barbarism.... The United Nations
    says it will stay, despite Tuesday's attack, and that
    is good. However, Washington has had trouble persuading
    other countries to join a multinational force that
    would help relieve U.S. troops. Those countries should
    step up to help. The United States, in return, should
    be more willing to share interim control of Iraq with
    the UN and other international
    partners. In the Holy Land, confronting terrorism means
    taking a still harder line with countries in the region
    that support violence, such as Syria, Iran and Sudan.
    It means supporting Israel when it acts in its own
    defence to combat terrorist organizations. It means
    pressing the Palestinian leadership to crack down on
    terrorist groups. It means encouraging both
    sides to move toward a negotiated settlement that would
    help undermine support for terrorism. Just as
    important, confronting terrorists requires clear
    thinking about us and about them. And, yes, sometimes,
    there is an 'us' and a 'them.' This is one of those
    times. The fight we are waging is nothing less than the
    fight between civilization and barbarism. If Tuesday's
    murderous bombings did not prove that, then they proved
    nothing."

    ¶3.   "A truckful of evil"
    The conservative National Post editorialized (8/21):
    "The ongoing guerrilla war against U.S. troops in Iraq
    provides ample proof that, contrary to the Polyannish
    predictions offered by some American officials, a
    substantial number of Iraqis are bristling at the
    presence of foreign troops in their land. But Tuesday's
    truck bombing of the United Nations Iraqi headquarters
    in Baghdad...shows that the United States is dealing
    with something far more pathological than militant
    nationalism. The function of United Nations
    personnel in Iraq is to provide aid and alleviate
    hardship. Yet the terrorists who struck on Tuesday were
    willing to slaughter these good Samaritans merely so
    they could discredit the United States and its ability
    to maintain order.... Those who delight in skewering
    the U.S. war effort have pointed out that Iraq is home
    to more terrorists now, in the wake of
    its liberation, than when it suffered under Saddam
    Hussein's jackboot. That's true - but it misses the
    point. The perceived threat from Iraq, as we
    have noted often in this space, was not merely garden-
    variety terrorism - it was the intersection of
    terrorism, rogue power and weapons of mass
    destruction.... Iraq is now a magnet for Arab and
    Muslim terrorists worldwide.... Washington should warn
    Tehran, Riyadh and Damascus that if they wage war
    against the United States through terrorist proxies,
    they will be treated accordingly. Another crucial
    ingredient in any terrorist struggle is the support of
    the local civilian population. Despite the terrorists'
    best efforts, the United States must win over as many
    Iraqis as possible by providing them with a better life
    - which means food, clean water, dependable electric
    power and as much security as circumstances permit. A
    homegrown army and police force should also be trained
    and deployed as soon as possible. In blowing up foreign
    soldiers and aid workers, terrorists can hide behind
    the conceit that they are martyrs and patriots. Once
    they are forced to confront Iraqis in uniform, it will
    become apparent to all that
    they are merely murderous thugs bent on denying the
    country a better future."

    ¶4.   "Attack in Iraq must be answered by greater
    international effort"
    The left-of-center Vancouver Sun commented (8/20): "It
    is a struggle to imagine what was going through the
    minds of the terrorists who engineered the massive
    truck bomb attack on the United Nations compound in
    Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon. What did they imagine
    they would accomplish by killing and wounding dozens of
    civilians whose only purpose was to help to rebuild
    an Iraq stricken by war and decades of brutal
    dictatorship? The question may contain the seeds of the
    answer. The purpose was perhaps a coldly  conceived,
    brutal act of terror against a soft target and aimed
    with malign forethought at the vanguard of civilian
    reconstructors. The message to the UN and to
    countries contemplating involvement in the rebuilding
    of Iraq is that they take their lives in their hands
    undertaking such work.... Iraq needs a functional, not
    necessarily perfect, level of security behind which the
    work of reconstruction can go on. And essential to that
    task must be a recognition by Washington that, like it
    or not, it is in the business of nation-building in
    Iraq. So far Washington has envisaged only a highly
    restricted role for the UN in the work of
    reconstruction. The attack on the UN in Baghdad should
    give Washington stark forewarning of the quagmire that
    awaits it if the terrorists succeed in isolating the
    coalition from the international community. Equally,
    the international community - Canada included - must
    recognize this attack on it cannot be allowed to serve
    the bombers' purpose."

    ¶5.   "The tragedy of denial"
    Under the sub-heading, "A truck bomb forces the United
    Nations to confront terrorism," the nationalist Ottawa
    Citizen observed (8/20): "In the weeks after the Sept.
    11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the United
    Nations Security Council passed various resolutions
    calling on its members to cut off funding and support
    for terrorist groups. Nevertheless, the 15-member
    council could not bring itself to define terrorism. Now
    that the UN itself has been attacked by terrorists,
    perhaps it can.... The attack, like the one that
    followed a few hours later in Israel, is to be
    condemned, and, no doubt, there will be Security
    Council resolutions to that effect. But will the UN
    grasp its deeper significance and its lesson?  It's a
    sad irony that the UN has long been criticized as the
    patron of illiberal Arab-Muslim regimes.... Why would
    terrorists attack an institution that has been such a
    self-abasing apologist for Arab dictatorships? It is
    not hard to discern the 'mind' and the motive behind
    the Baghdad bombing. On one level, this attack, like
    the recent acts of sabotage on oil and water pipelines,
    is intended to undermine the efforts of the U.S. and
    its partners to foster a stable and democratic society
    in Iraq. The terrorists want to show that the U.S.
    cannot provide the security Iraqis need to feel before
    they actively turn away from
    Saddam's lingering hold on the country. But there is
    also a deeper significance to this attack. Even though
    the UN has become an instrument of Third World
    appeasement, it is also regarded by Muslim extremists
    to embody western ideas of pluralism, human rights and
    cosmopolitanism.... The Islamists may have no rational
    political program beyond nihilism, but blowing up the
    UN headquarters, and killing a man like Mr. de Mello,
    who was once the UN's human rights commissioner,
    suggests a hatred for modernity, tolerance and
    globalism. How should the UN respond to this
    'rejection'? It can start by having the courage to
    define terrorism.... The UN, for so many years, ignored
    or minimized the crimes of states known to sponsor
    terror. Perhaps the UN wanted simply to be an honest
    broker. Instead, it became weak and ineffective, and
    all the while still despised by the very people it
    hoped to appease.

    AFRICA
    ¶6.   "No tears for a brute"
    Under the sub-heading, "Idi Amin's legacy was to
    entrench the cult of African strongmen," the
    nationalist Ottawa Citizen opined (8/21): "...Uganda
    was in bad shape when Mr. Amin took control, but he
    took his country to new depths. In the process, he
    entrenched a tradition that haunts the entire continent
    to this day, the cult of African strongmen - strongmen
    who plunder their countries' natural wealth for their
    personal gratification, all the while repressing their
    own people with sadistic, almost bestial glee.... Other
    African strongmen such as Charles Taylor and Robert
    Mugabe are spiritual descendants of Mr. Amin. Mr.
    Mugabe in particular, through his persecution of
    Zimbabwe's white farmers, has carried on Mr. Amin's
    legacy of Afro-centric racism.... Today, Robert Mugabe
    continues to confiscate white-owned farms and
    distribute them to his cronies, just as Mr. Amin
    confiscated property belonging to non-black Ugandans.
    Mr. Mugabe is
    condemning Zimbabwe to poverty, just as Mr. Amin did
    Uganda. There is a lesson here, and some hope. Mr.
    Amin's long exile was morally unsatisfying,
    but the best thing for Ugandans. And last week,
    Liberian dictator Charles Taylor surrendered power and
    went into exile in Nigeria. Even Mr. Mugabe is losing
    control, as his African neighbours begin to lose
    patience with him. The developed world has done much,
    and could always do more, to help Africa, but
    ultimately it is up to Africans themselves to stop
    producing military strongmen who plunder rather than
    govern."

    CELLUCCI

`