'There is no rationale for the invasion'
The assault finds little support in the region's press
Thursday November 11, 2004
The Guardian
Gulf News
Editorial, United Arab Emirates, November 10
"As the city of Falluja came under full-scale military attack [on Tuesday],
one must question the reasoning behind launching the offensive and wonder at
the cost ... With more than 15,000 US, British and Iraqi government forces,
the US-led offensive is intended to 're-establish government control' before
next January's elections ...
"No doubt this is a decisive moment for both the occupation and the
occupied. Any future relationship ... will be defined not by the final
outcome of the attack, but by the final casualty count and the level of
destruction. In the end, it is the innocent Iraqis who are paying the price
.... The real question is whether the Falluja offensive, which is named as
Operation Al Fajr (Dawn), will mark dusk rather than a dawn."
Gulf Times
Editorial, Qatar, November 10
"Perhaps the destruction of Falluja is meant to be a lesson to the Sunnis,
just as the gassing of Halabja and the draining of the marshes were Saddam
Hussein's lesson to the Kurds and Marsh Arabs, respectively. But tanks
cannot win political battles. Washington's only hope was to conquer the
insurgents through peaceful persuasion, all attempts at which seem now to
have been abandoned ... America's overwhelming military might will silence
the insurgents' guns in Falluja. But nothing will have changed. The anger
that is driving the insurgency will still be in place and may well be
stronger than ever."
Samir Ragab
Al-Gomhuria, Egypt, November 10
"What did the inhabitants of Falluja do to deserve this fierce attack? ...
What makes our hearts bleed is the participation of the Iraqi government in
committing such a massacre by backing the US occupation forces and
encouraging them to kill innocent Iraqis ...
"Arab and Muslim countries [must] achieve unity in ... sending the message
that terrorism can never be brought to an end by imposing ready-made recipes
on Middle East countries."
Al-Watan
Editorial, Saudi Arabia, November 9
"The US forces are expected to increase their barbaric acts in the hope of
finishing off once and for all the Iraqi resistance so that they can have
peace and realise their aims, foremost of which is the rearrangement of the
country in such a way that would enable their new allies to hide behind 'a
false legitimacy', which they will use to open a new phase in which the
final word will be that of a ruling gang in Tel Aviv."
Via BBC Monitoring
Al-Quds al-Arabi
London (pan-Arab), November 9
"There is no rationale whatsoever for the invasion of Falluja. The attack is
basically to express Schadenfreude at the Iraqis and get even with them ...
However, as we are in the holy month of Ramadan, we would like to say here
that such an aggression against the innocents will not be accepted by God,
and that there is another superpower up there monitoring developments."
Via BBC Monitoring
Jerusalem Post
Editorial, November 9
"[This battle] is a critical one for the future of Iraq, which has become a
crucial test in the global war against militant Islamism ... Though the
government is indeed backed by foreign coalition forces, the terrorists' war
is, if anything, a more foreign attempt to hijack Iraq's future ...
"The terrorists are not really fighting to evict the Americans - though they
would consider that a great victory - but to prevent Iraq from forming a
stable, democratic government. We suspect that the great majority of Iraqis,
having tasted freedom from Saddam, do not want to emulate either the
theocracy in Iran or the more secular dictatorships typical of the rest of
the Arab world. The terrorists realise that their fight is indivisible. Free
peoples should realise that the fight of the marines in Falluja is theirs as
well."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5060010-103550,00.html
--
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.costofwar.com
http://icasualties.org/oif/
--
It is a historical fact that Saudi Arabia and the Bush family have a history
of deal making. It is a historical fact that the Saudi Arabian government
was funding 911 terrorists as they lived in the U.S. It is a historical
fact that Bush was warned on August 6, 2001 that al Qaeda was planning
terrorist attacks inside the U.S. using air planes. It is a historical fact
that John Ashcroft cut funding to the FBI's counter terrorism budget in the
summer of 2001 and told the acting director that he didn't want to hear any
more about al Qaeda or the Islamic terrorist threat. It is a historical fact
that fifteen out of the eighteen 911 terrorists were Saudi Arabian. It is a
historical fact that Bush allowed the bin Laden family and other Saudi
Arabians to fly out of the U.S. as quickly as possible after 911, even with
U.S. airliners grounded. It is a historical fact Saudi Arabia is helping
fund the Iraqi insurgency.
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