Western European News Digest
Former British Foreign Secretary: Pull British Troops Out of Iraq
Robin Cook, former British Foreign Secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet, called for British troops to be pulled out of Iraq, in an article in the Sunday Mirror March 30. Cook, who resigned as Leader of the House of Commons in protest of Blair's decision to launch hostilities without international agreement, called the war "bloody and unnecessary."
He also warned that Britain and the United States risk stoking up a "long-term legacy of hatred" for the West across the Arab and Muslim world.
Cook wrote: "I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed."
No one should start a war "on the assumption that the enemy's army will cooperate"but that was exactly what President Bush had done, Cook wrote. He warned that the war could drag on for months.
Former Defense Minister Doug Henderson backed Cook's call, saying troops should be withdrawn from the "hellish" situation in Iraq to avoid another potential Vietnam.
Blair May Be Sued for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity
That is the report from the Stratfor news agency, which reports that British lawyers meeting with unnamed UN officials in Geneva on May 29, have decided to file suit against Tony Blair for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as other violations of law. Sources in Switzerland reported this to Stratfor.
Both the UN officials and British lawyers said that they thought the latest bombings of Iraqi markets, hospitals, and food depots, which resulted in many civilian casualties, make it possible for the case to be heard by a British court.
Former Brit Ambassador to U.S.: Many Alarmed When Bush Announced He Would Strike Iraq
Many top people in Britain were alarmed, when President George W. Bush went public with his intent for a preemptive strike against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador in Washington, declared April 3, in a documentary aired on the PBS television network. Said Sir Christopher: "Taken literally, these words meant a rampaging hyperpower who'll whiz around the world whacking people left, right, and center, whenever it sees its security interests threatened."
This comment fits into the wider theme of the documentary, entitled "Blair's War," which evidently, judging from a London Times account April 4, was that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was constantly trying to contain the Bush Administration's impulse, after Sept. 11, 2001, for immediate war with Iraq. (This interpretation of events is at odds with the picture given, for example, in Bob Woodward's Bush at War book.)
EIR staff have not yet had a chance to view the documentary, but the above statement by Meyer fits into a growing pattern of British Foreign Office-approved critiques of U.S. policies and actions respecting Iraq. Such a high-ranking British diplomat could not go public with such a statement, without highest-level authorization from the British Foreign Office.
Bavarian Governor: We Didn't Want This War
Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber, touring China last week, said "We in Germany did not want this war," adding that "it must be regretted that neither side showed willingness to compromise, so that a political solution in the framework of the United Nations was not possible."
Stoiber, a member of the Christian Social Union/Christian Democratic Union (CSU/CDU), the opposition to the ruling SPD/Green Party coalition, narrowly lost the election for Chancellor last September to incumbent Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democratic Party.
While not naming pro-war CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel, Stoiber's remarks, made in Beijing, were clear enoughand a slap in the face.
Karl Lamers, longtime former foreign policy spokesman of the CDU group in the Bundestag, took Merkel on more directly. In an interview with the March 31 issue of Rheinische Post, Lamers said: "I don't understand Angela Merkel, that she is clinging to the Americans so unconditionally. Thus turns us into a passive appendix, rather than into a subject of political action."
Lamers also said that "the Americans wanted that war in any case," irrespective of how Saddam Hussein behaved. "This is a preventive war. Any reference to an Iraqi threat to the Americans is nonsense." The driving force behind the war is the new U.S. strategic doctrine, nothing else, Lamers said, and the Americans "want a unipolar hegemonic world." He added that the intensification of Franco-German cooperation is crucial, and whereas in his view, Chancellor Schroeder lacks a real design for that, it is also his view that with Merkel's pro-Bush policy, the CDU is out of the picture altogether.
Peter Gauweiler, a leading member of Stoiber's CSU party and also a member of the Bundestag, attacked Merkel and her like in a Bildzeitung guest editorial as "those that continue dancing around people like Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz and whatever their names are. Like around golden calves." The party base is disgusted, and Christian Democratic leaders have to make efforts not to lose contact with the base. The CDU policy towards Bush "must not be an uncritical yes-and-amen relationship," Gauweiler wrote.
German President: Bush Should Not Speak of Religion, but Pope Can
In a nationally televised interview with N-TV last week, German President Johannes Rau called U.S. President George W. Bush's justifying of the Iraq war as "a godlike mission" (in Rau's paraphrase) an ill-placed approach, and "grandiose misunderstanding."
Nowhere in the Bible is there any call for crusades, Rau said. "I don't believe that any people receives a hint from God to liberate another people." What Bush says is "not representative of Christianity, in any way. The Pontiff, however, has more right to speak for mankind as a whole," Rau said. He added that in his view, war could have been avoided, as the inspections were making good progress. In any case, this war is superfluous, whereas the political solution of the Israeli-Palestine conflict is of much higher urgencybut the Bush Administration has been totally inactive there, unfortunately.
Former German Chancellor Warns Iraq War May Trigger Clash of Civilizations
In his laudatio for former German President Roman Herzog, at an event of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich March 29, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said that, whereas one may understand the emotions that arose in the United States after Sept. 11, one cannot tolerate the response to terrorism bypassing international law. Under grave terrorist threats in the past, like the Munich Olympics 1972 (where Israeli athletes were slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists) or the year 1977, Germany's elites always responded in respect of law, Schmidt said.
The ongoing Iraq war might provoke a "new, general enmity of the 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, against America, maybe against Western civilization in general," Schmidt warned. "It is possible that Samuel Huntington's gloomy prognosis of a worldwide 'clash of civilizations' might become real." Schmidt quoted from a speech that Herzog gave as President, while in Islamabad in 1995, in which he said: "I do not share the view of Samuel Huntington that a clash of civilizations is unavoidable.... Nothing could be more disastrous.... Even the propagation of such ideas, I deem entirely inappropriate."
Schmidt also warned that another casualty of the Iraq war, and the new U.S. drive for world hegemony, may be the project of European integration, which is being disrupted by the Bush Administration in seeking allies for its war drive.
Only 18% of Germans Support Iraq War
The latest opinion poll finds that only 18% of Germans support the Iraq war. An opinion poll compiled at the end of March by the Emnid Institute for the N-TV television station, found 82% of Germans consider this war unjustified, and 79% consider it against international law. Some 90% view the present US policy as negative or even unbearable, and only 3% consider themselves as outright pro-American, at this moment.
Positive ratings of foreign politicians on the Iraq issue are as follows: Chirac 74%; Putin 58%; Blair 38%; Bush 19%.
Among German politicians, Angela Merkel's star is falling: at the end of 2002, she had a rating of 66%, three months later it was at 42% (during the week after her U.S. trip, where she supported the war, it dropped by 12%).
France, Germany, Russia Launch New UN Initiative
Central to the initiative of the three governments is their firm intent to make sure that the postwar administration of Iraq is not dominated by the United States and Britain.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who, because of the escalation in Iraq March 28, called off his planned visits to Berlin, Moscow, Rome, and Madrid, met with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Paris March 31; there the two Foreign Ministers planned to meet with their Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov in Paris on April 4. French diplomatic sources are reported to have leaked that there is also a special initiative by French President Jacques Chirac, to contact other governments that are opposed to the war, for a new (though not specified) "initiative at the United Nations."
After the April 4 meeting of the Foreign Ministers, they called for "the United Nations to immediately take over a central role" in Iraq, in special view of the "worrisome humanitarian conditions in the country."
Only the United Nations, the three diplomats stressed, has the legitimacy to take over a transition government after the cessation of warfare. Furthermore, the territorial integrity of Iraq must be preserved, to prevent a destabilization of the surrounding region.
Reflecting what U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had told them at the European Union-U.S. meeting in Brussels April 3, the three Foreign Ministers conceded that a U.S.-led military regime would be in control after the end of the war, but they added it should not assume government functions, nor have influence on the formation of a new postwar government.
At the joint press conference, de Villepin criticized ideas to exclude certain countries from postwar reconstruction in Iraq: The country must not be considered a "cake, from which everyone can cut his slice at will." Fischer and Ivanov added that the end of warfare has priority now, to limit the extent of destruction, and to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
Chirac, Raffarin, and French Opposition Parties Deploy To Reaffirm Alliance with U.S.
While not changing one iota of their political line, French President Chirac and Prime Minister Raffarin, along with leaders of the Socialist Party, have made statements in recent days insisting that, even though they did not agree with the American strategy, they are favorable to a quick U.S. victory over Saddam, something which they view as a "victory of democracy." One of the main reasons given for this propaganda offensive was a poll published Le Monde and TF1 (National TV channel 1), according to which 33% of the French population is favorable to the Iraqis winning the war! Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who has been deployed by Chirac to try to mend fence with the Spanish, the Italians, and the British, has now been asked to calm things down with the Americans. "I do not hope for the victory of dictatorship above democracy," stated Raffarin in an official visit to Clermond Ferrand. "The Americans are not our enemies," he stated. Receiving the Parliamentary groups at his office, Raffarin stated "how indispensable it is to be vigilant vis-à-vis all forms of unacceptable anti-Americanism."
Other deputies of Chirac's party, the UMP, have been quoted making similar statements, as have members of the opposition. Jean Marc Ayrault, head of the Socialist group at the National Assembly, warned in an interview with Radio France International against people waving portraits of Saddam and bin Laden during anti-war demonstrations. This is the wrong message to send, he declared; the Americans are our allies, despite differences. We are favorable to democracy, he stated in essence.
Chirac to UMP Senators: U.S. Is Our 'Ally and Friend'
During a luncheon with the Senators leading the different right-wing political groups at the French Senate, President Jacques Chirac reiterated that, in spite of different outlooks, the United States is nonetheless "our ally and our friend." For the head of the state, "the trans-Atlantic link cannot be called into question," even though France is in favor of a multipolar world where states are allies and not vassals. The French and the Americans are "in the same boat," he asserted, even though there might be some turbulence.
Chirac apparently expressed his conviction in favor of a military victory for the U.S., and judged that the military situation was less difficult for the U.S. than was being generally stated early last week.
Chirac Invites Developing Sector to Pre-Meeting of Group of 8
French President Jacques Chirac has, according to the Malaysia Star April 4, invited 15 world leaders from the developing sector, including Malaysia's Dr. Mahathir, to attend the pre-meeting of the Group of Eight in June. (The Group of Eight: U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, plus Russia.)
The pre-meeting will be held on June 1 in Evian, with France the chairman, and the formal sessions June 2-3. The Malaysian Star reports that "Chirac views Dr. Mahathir's participation as being of great importance." The four designated topics are: Solidarity With Emphasis on African Development; Spirit of Responsibility in Financial, Social, Environmental and Ethical Spheres; Security in Relation to the Fight against Terrorism; and Upholding Democracy Through Dialogue.
Expert: U.S. Could Have Negotiated Everything with Iraq
Aziz Alkazaz, the Iraq expert at the German Orient Institute, reiterated in a discussion with EIR a point he has made repeatedly in public addresses: "If the U.S. government had negotiated with Saddam Hussein, given him a chance, everything would have been possible. The U.S. could have served its own oil interests, could have received contracts, even privileges. In addition, the U.S. could have received guarantees for its Kurdish allies, and for other things, including matters related to the regional political discussion. If only they had negotiated; but they did not want to."
As if to illustrate Alkazaz's point, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld stated in the Pentagon's April 1 press briefing: "There will be no outcome that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power. Let there be no doubt. His time will end, and soon. The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is unconditional surrender."
Chinese Firms Prominent at This Year's Hanover Industrial Fair
Chinese firms were in prominent attendance at this year's Hanover Industrial Fair in Hanover, Germany. The exhibit, to date the biggest international event of this kind for industrial producers, notably builders of machines and machine-tools, will see 282 firms from China with information and exhibition booths. An increase by 117 from last year, this shows the importance China attributes to the fair, which opened over the April 5-6 weekend.
But German hosts also give it high importance, which explains why no Chinese, not even from Hong Kong or Guandong, was disinvited for fear of SARS (as other Western events have done). The Chinese attendance was seen as "just too important," an official of the fair organization agency was quoted as saying.
The Frankfurter Rundschau reported in its preview of the fair that China has shown a steep increase as the leading importer of German industrial goods: exports from Germany to China jumped by 35% last year alone, and the Chinese market now ranks fourth, behind the U.S.A., France, and Italy, as importer for German makers of machines and machine-tools. In terms of construction of big industrial facilities, China has replaced the United States as the number-one market for German exporters outside of Europe.
As is noted, China is also developing its capabilities in refined products for exports: It has become the fourth-largest exporter of electronics and other electric equipment, on a global scale, last year, after the U.S.A., Japan, and Germany. (This implies that in the not-too-distant future, China will also be able to produce and export crucial electronic components for the maglev train for other countries. Today, it largely depends on Germany in that respect.)
|