SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA
The Star, Johannesburg, Oct. 9: The attacks on targets in Afghanistan since Sunday night by American and British forces have two clear objectives -- to punish the Taliban regime for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden and the seek retribution for the terrorist atrocities in the United States.
But what's next? Bush and especially his secretary of state Colin Powell must be given credit for trying to build a "moral" alliance among virtually all the member states of the United Nations appalled by the September 11 outrage. Bush was expected to come out guns blazing, but instead launched a diplomatic offensive which may point to the solution and resolution of this global crisis.
True security: South Africa's Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu probably expressed it best when he said at the weekend that the U.S. needed to realize that "true security will never come from the barrel of a gun." We agree with this view that retaliatory action should not deepen resentment and generate a conflict which sees the West pitted against the Muslim world. This would play into the hands of fanatics like Bin Laden.
Military action has severe limitations. What all of humanity must hope and pray for is that Bush and other leaders will realize soonest that "jawing and not warring" is ultimately the best way to curb and isolate global terrorism.
SWEDEN
Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Oct.9: Already during the NATO efforts in Kosovo, we learned that it is difficult to keep a coalition together when bombs start hitting the wrong targets. Then, it was an existing alliance, whose members shared the fundamental values of an organization. Now, the alliance is global, with all that means of strain and internal friction. That the global alliance remains as global as possible is however a precondition for real success.
Al-Qaida network: The U.S.A and Britain can win the military combat on their own. But, as U.S. President George Bush has stressed on several occasions, the fight against terrorism starts with Osama bin Laden's militant network al-Qaida, but does not end there. If the victory is going to be sustainable, if it will be possible to control the weapons of mass destruction, to choke the money supply, to close the training camps, to extradite people and to exchange information, there must be a broad support. Then the battle cannot be fought by a handful of countries.
ITALY
La Repubblica, Rome, Oct. 10: So Italy has discovered it counts very little. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was not one of the leaders personally notified by Bush on the eve of the attacks against Afghanistan.
Every nation's importance will be classified in terms of its role either as a resource in the war against terrorism, or as part of the problem.
If Italy is not able to stake out its claim it won't be able to protect its national interests.
Berlusconi's gaffe: The loss of prestige doesn't just date from after the Sept 11. attacks or Berlusconi's subsequent gaffe on the superiority of Western civilization over Islam.
Italy's decline has structural origins. During the Cold War because of Italy's geographic position -- bordering the Iron Curtain buffer state Yugoslavia -- it was considered a modest resource. But because of its Communist party, the largest in the West, it was regarded as a problem. The West's Cold War victory meant defeat for Italy in terms of geo-political importance -- no longer a problem but also not a resource.
Today, Italy has to hang on to its position in NATO. But even NATO is changing, as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said, it's the mission that defines the alliance, not the other way round.
FRANCE
Le Monde, Paris, Oct. 10: It is understood: Islam does not have a sole spokesman. One of the world's three great monotheistic religions, with a billion followers, it has many schools and interpreters. So we could not have expected an authorized comment on the call for Jihad launched Sunday Oct. 7 by Osama bin Laden and his spokesman.
Considering what we know about its author, it was nothing more nor less than a call for indiscriminate violence -- racist violence, contrary to all the traditions of Islam.
Muslim intellectuals: But we are still waiting for condemnations, public and unequivocal, from the most official Muslim religious authorities. We have hardly heard from the great Muslim intellectuals either. Too uncertain of their legitimacy, the Arab regimes have remained silent also.
The Muslim world is uncomfortable with "Enduring Freedom." Regimes feel threatened, opinions misunderstood. In the face of this dangerous situation, Tony Blair repeated insistently on the Al-Jazeera television station that the West is not against Islam. And that we must not fall into the trap set by bin Laden, that of a war of civilizations.