Issues of Global Import

5 April 2004


US Authorities Shut Down Iraqi Newspaper
In a message of clearly mixed content, the US proconsul in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has shut down a newspaper in the name of democracy. Al Hawza was an anti-US voice that often claimed the most outrageous pile of non-sense was, in fact, the truth. It was an odious and stupid publication. That does not mean it should have been closed, unless one is to conclude that the occupation has been botched from day one.

Afghan Donors Offer Too Little Too Late
If the occupation of Iraq is going badly, the occupation of Afghanistan is a Potemkin village of reconstruction . With the government of President Hamid Karzai postponing elections for three months owing to security concerns, it is clear that the foreign troops propping up his government have done little to pacify the local warlords. With his government asking for $28.7 billion over seven years to rebuild a country that has spent a quarter of a century at war with itself, the $4.2 billion offered for next year and $8.7 billion over the next three years is just not enough.

NATO Adds 7 New Members
Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia are now members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, bringing the total to 26. When the US and its western allies formed NATO, three of those countries were part of the Soviet Union, three others joined a rival group known as the Warsaw Pact, and Slovakia was married to the Czech Republic and an additional member of the WarPac. Needless to say, the Russians are making all kinds of noise about this expansion, which is meaningless jabbering designed for domestic consumption.