Bumpy Road Ahead to Peaceful Samarra/Jordan Times--New WMW

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR OCTOBER 6, 2004

1/The Jordan Times, Jordan--BUMPY ROAD AHEAD TO PEACEFUL SAMARRA (The US military campaign in Samarra is being hailed as a model for taking back rebel enclaves in Iraq, but the hard work of winning over a hostile or ambivalent population is just beginning…"Based on the fact they have no police force in Samarra, there will be coalition forces here for quite awhile," US Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schacht said as he surveyed the path ahead…In the military's view, success hinges on US forces staying in Samarra until they are confident the general population supports the US-backed city power structure. Dragon, like his fellow commanders across the country, bets millions of dollars in reconstruction funds can win the vaunted hearts and minds of the country's angry Sunni Muslim population, still embittered by the downfall of Saddam Hussein, whose patronage benefitted them.)



2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--UNCLE SAM’S MAN ("Much of the political pressure and threats reported here may in fact merely be part of efforts by factions to create malleable factional voting blocs, which the factions can then deliver for Karzai on election day - for a price," said Sifton. The worry, therefore, is not that the election will descend into violence, but that Karzai will enjoy a "hollow victory in which he is forced to appoint an unrepresentative cabinet, similar to the current one - a body stocked with warlords".)



3//The Independent, UK--AFGHANISTAN HITS FEVER PITCH AS WARLORDS TURN ‘DEMOCRAT’ (The received wisdom is that President Hamid Karzai is almost certain to win re-election. He may, but in a country where there are no opinion polls, and as many voters live in remote places where nobody has been to ask them their voting intentions, the truth is that nobody really knows. This is supposed to be a crowning moment on Afghanistan's path from failed state to burgeoning democracy. And if many Afghans are disappointed with the progress their country has made so far, they remain immensely enthusiastic about the election.)



4//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRAN ADDS TO CONCERNS BY INCREASING MISSILE RANGE (Iran gave cause for fresh international alarm Tuesday, as a top regime official announced the Islamic Republic had boosted the range of its ballistic missiles and hard-line MPs backed a move to defy the UN's nuclear watchdog. "Today, we have the power to send our missiles up to 2,000 kilometers," former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA…Previous figures had put the missile's range at between 1,300 and 1,700 kilometers, already bringing arch-enemy Israel and U.S. bases in the region well within range.)



5//The Telegraph, UK--SPAIN SNUBS US AS FRANCE JOINS THE BIG PARADE (The Spanish government snubbed the United States yesterday by cancelling an annual invitation to US troops to join the celebrations of Spain's national holiday parade and instead invited French soldiers to Madrid. The Spanish defence minister, Jose Bono, told the COPE radio station there would be no Americans in this year's "fiesta nacional" which commemorates the day on which Christopher Columbus sighted the New World…"This is in no way an insult nor a sign of contempt towards the United States." However, the minister then added that Spain was "no longer subordinated" and "kneeling" before Washington. "With Bush, peace and liberty have not exactly triumphed," he said. Then in reference to the former prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, who was often lampooned as a puppet of President Bush, Mr Bono said the new Socialist administration wanted to "show its sovereignty".