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Journalism of Courage
For those still wondering why India and its neighbourhood must agonise about a US-led war on Iraq, TIME spelt it out. With the 1991 Gulf War, it recalled, Asia8217;s concern was mainly how the conflict would affect the region8217;s economies.
But in a post 9/11 world, terrorists will use the war as an excuse to strike back at US and western interests, including those in Asia. Saddam Hussein will paint any attack on his country as a conflict between Islam and the West, and many Muslims in Asia will be among his believers8230;
There8217;s more. A future Iraqi regime may not honour debts of millions of dollars for construction projects in the 1980s, and the cost of evacuating 40,000 Indians in Iraq must worry New Delhi.
Blix-xard Of Interviews
When in an unwanted diplomatic spat, set aside the megaphone 8212; is how the ECONOMIST explained the US government8217;s remarkable calm in the face of North Korea8217;s nuclear rule-breaking. The US media faithfully took Washington8217;s cue. The WASHINGTON POST was the most inventive.
It reduced the dangerous face-off to an inner tumult 8212; 8216;8216;a conflict between President Bush8217;s heart and head over how to deal with the isolated state8230;8217;8217;
Iraq resumed centrestage as North Korea receded into an ever-fainter clamour. Trapped in the spotlight is chief UN inspector Hans Blix, who has given a flurry of interviews in the past few days.
He says the report he is required to make to the Security Council on January 27 will mark only 8216;8216;the beginning of the inspection and monitoring process, not the end of it8217;8217;. He will report to the council again in March with a list of 8216;8216;key remaining disarmament tasks8217;8217;. And the presence of his team in Iraq is itself a 8216;form of containment8217;.
The WASHINGTON POST, among others, accused Blix of deliberately getting the time-table all wrong. The paper insisted that Iraq had already violated the Security Council8217;s Resolution 1441 by denying that it has any weapons to dismantle and any extension of Blix8217;s mission must be the Council8217;s decision.
Blix8217;s motive, it said, was obvious: he wanted to head off US military action at any cost 8216;8216;even though such action clearly has been justified by Iraq8217;s failure to comply8217;8217;.
Poor Blix. He followed up one set of interviews trying to slow the US down with another set warning the Iraqis to speed up compliance.
No War Please, We8217;re British
It8217;s about different time zones, suggested influential US columnist Jim Hoagland. That8217;s his explanation for why the US rejects the case for caution made out with growing insistence in Europe.
While Bush is relentlessly moving down a 8216;rapidly shortening checklist8217; of steps leading to invasion, 8216;8216;Cross the Atlantic eastward and you leave behind a zone in which time is palpably racing8230;8217;. I
n Europe, 8216;8216;you enter a grayer, slower world more tolerant of letting the status quo linger in Iraq and elsewhere8230;8217;8217;
In Britain, GUARDIAN columnist Seumas Milne was one of many to warn the Blair government against dragging the country into a 8216;profoundly dangerous US imperial adventure8217;.
What is already 8216;Britain8217;s largest-ever anti-war movement8217;, he said, will turn to 8216;civil disobedience8217;. He pointed to the first such incident since Britain8217;s war of intervention against the Soviet Union more than 80 years ago: last week, two traind rivers based at Moherwell in Scotland refused to move a freight train carrying ammunition destined for British forces in the Gulf to protest the threatened war against Iraq. More than a dozen workers at the depot supported the action.
The Colour of Admissions
IN the US media, another debate with a special resonance in India. The Bush administration has decided to take sides in the most important affirmative action case to come before the Supreme Court in a quarter-century.
The case questions the university of Michigan8217;s policy of providing preference 8216;points8217; to Black, Hispanic and native American candidates in its scoring system for entry. It amounts to 8216;8216;a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalises prospective students solely on their race8217;8217; announced Bush in a nationally televised address. In the same breath, he emphasised his support for 8216;diversity of all kinds8217;.
The statement triggered immediate debate. With strictly race-blind admissions, would it be possible to build the 8216;critical mass8217; of minority students necessary to make diversity more than an empty promise? Is it possible to promote policies that lead to diversity without specifically targeting race? From the other side of the fence, doubts were expressed that George Bush may not have shut the door firmly enough on the use of affirmative action nationwide.
With the court set to hear arguments in the case in April and expected to issue a decision this spring, that debate will grow still more charged.
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