Agust Flygenring - semsagt.net

Írak í NYT

Á leiðarasíðum New York Times birtast hvorki meira né minna en sex greinar um Írak, árásina á höfuðstöðvar SÞ í Bagdad og vandamálin sem steðja að þar.

Thomas Friedman: No Time to Lose in Iraq

The Pentagon, with its insistence on doing nation-building in Iraq on the cheap, has been too slow in forming a provisional Iraqi government, too slow in getting the electricity on, too slow in turning security over to Iraqis. As a result, while most Iraqis are happy to be rid of Saddam, too many feel that their lives are tangibly worse in every other respect — jobs, electricity, roadblocks — because of the U.S. presence. "Saddam was paranoid, but he kept the streets open — you're closing all the arteries," Muhammad Kadhim, a Baghdad professor, said to me.

Maureen Dowd: Magnet for Evil

Since America began its occupation, Iraq has become the mecca for every angry, hate-crazed Arab extremist who wants to liberate the Middle East from the "despoiling" grasp of the infidels.

John S. Burnett sem dvaldi við höfuðstöðvar SÞ í Bagdad fyrr í sumar: Waiting for the Inevitable in Baghdad

Set far from the center of Baghdad, the United Nations compound was a small, isolated island. Once there, you felt very, very alone. There were coalition troops around, but they had their hands full. Spread so thin, they could do little to stop an attack.

Jessica Stern: How America Created a Terrorist Haven

Why would ordinary Iraqis not rush to condemn violence against the soldiers who liberated them from Saddam Hussein? Mustapha Alani, an Iraqi scholar with the Royal United Services Institute in London, gave me a possible explanation: even in the darkest days of the Iran-Iraq war, most Iraqis (other than Kurds and Marsh Arabs) did not have to worry about personal security. They could not speak their minds, but they could count on electricity, water and telephone service for at least part of the day. Today they fear being attacked in their bedrooms; power, water and telephones are routinely unavailable. As Mr. Alani put it, Iraqis today could could care less about democracy, they just want assurance that their daughters won't be raped or their sons kidnapped en route to the grocery store.

A Mission Imperiled (leiðari)

The Bush administration has to commit sufficient additional resources, and, if necessary, additional troops, to prevent that. Iraqis need to see that Washington has the will and the means to get their country back on its feet. American soldiers cannot be left fearing so much for their own safety that they start treating all Iraqis as potential enemies. And international relief agencies must not be frightened away from what is now the most important American foreign policy endeavor.

A Nation-Builder Slain (leiðari)

Mr. Vieira de Mello, a 55-year-old Brazilian who was widely viewed as a candidate for U.N. secretary general, represented international civil service at its best. Dynamic and debonair, fluent in English, French, Spanish and his native Portuguese, he was selected last year to be the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Tilvitnanir: © 2003 The New York Times Company
Agust skrifaði 20.08.03 20:11

Flokkun: Meðmæli , Mið-Austurlönd