INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Media Reaction Iraq; Harare

Published: Thu 21 Aug 2003 02:52 PM
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
211452Z Aug 03
UNCLAS HARARE 001656
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS
IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER
LONDON FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE
1. Under headline "Will America learn from its past
mistakes?" the pro-government weekly "Business
Tribune" carried the following feature article by
Billet Magara in which he criticizes the United
States for leading a military campaign against
Saddam Hussein, saying "America has made a grievous
error in taking upon itself to put right what went
wrong in the struggle for birthright between the two
sons of Abraham." Excerpts:
2. ". . .If only America could prick the big bag of
misplaced pride it has in itself, if only it could
suture the wounds on the body of its own troubled
conscience, if only the desire for revenge was not a
national policy, if only America could learn to view
its neighbors without suspicion, earth would be a
wondrous planet to live on and leave behind for our
children. . .Iraq is a mirror reflection of past
American campaigns. . .The irony of this conflict is
that it epitomizes the conflict between the world's
two most popular religions, Christianity and Islam.
America has made a grievous error in taking it upon
itself to put right what went wrong in the struggle
for birthright between the two sons of Abraham,
namely Isaac and Ishmael. . .As the blood of their
young patriots flow to form a river of history, the
American public is stricken by conscience, as the
main questions remain unanswered for decades: Can
anyone stop this Jacob and Esau rivalry to the
death? Will the Arabs ever forgive the Jews and
vice versa? Will Anglo-Saxons link hands with
children of the Negev? Will America back out of
this morass in time to save its pride? Can the
world learn from its mistakes? Four months from
now, a universal mass will be held in honor of the
birth of one of the world's foremost religious
protagonists, Emmanuel Yoshua Ben Josef, whom the
Greeks named Jesus the Christ. Among those bending
their knee in deference to this humble prophet of
great wisdom and foresight, will be the American
President George Walker Bush Jr. and his comparably
invisible but charming wife. It would not be too
much to ask from the world's most powerful
President, for him to pray to the most powerful
force in the universe, to teach him the only word
missing from his vocabulary, `peace. . . .'"
SULLIVAN
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