JAPAN
JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, July 17: It has been a year since the African Union was formed on the model of the European Union, to promote united self-help efforts rather than rely on assistance from advanced nations. But the African Union faces a difficult future. African leaders have discussed an African version of the U.N. Security Council to mediate armed conflict. But because of conflicting interests, the proposal got nowhere.
The will of advanced nations to help Africa is being questioned. American officials are considering sending U.S. troops to restore peace in Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves. But if the United States, which could put 200,000 troops in Iraq, cannot send a mere 2,000 to Liberia, it cannot gain the trust of African nations.
Cold War
In the four decades since African nations won independence from European colonizers, they have been beset by Cold War. Most have been left out of the information technology revolution and economic globalization.
NORWAY
Bergens Tidende, Bergen, July 19: The claim that Saddam Hussein tried to get uranium from Niger did not hold up. The image arises of a president who did not care whether that was correct, because for George W. Bush it was right to go to war against Iraq. That is something we should worry about.
The war was justified with a threat picture that allies the United States and Britain could not prove afterward. We were told that Saddam Hussein's regime had chemical and biological weapons -- weapons of mass destruction -- that were an immediate danger. The Niger-trade has been exposed as an undocumented claim.
Intelligence war
There is no doubt about the Iraqi regime's abuses, but before the war it was the danger Iraq presented to the world, not to the Iraqis, that was the basis for military action. President Bush has gone right from war in Iraq to an intelligence war at home, where he has lost the battles so far.