World Press


September 27, 2002


BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York this is NPR's On the Media. Bob Garfield is away. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Often on this program we check in with experts to see how Bush administration policies are playing in the overseas press. On the move toward war in Iraq there seemed to be little but skepticism around the world, but then on September 12th President Bush went to the United Nations and on the 16th, Saddam Hussein relented on weapons inspections. And then this week British Prime Minister Tony Blair released a hefty report intended to show the threat the Iraqi leader posed to the world. Joining us now is Bill Falk, editor in chief of The Week Magazine. His staff spends their week watching the international press, and he's here to tell us if the world's press is warming up to the idea of war. Bill, welcome to the show.

BILL FALK: Thank you, Brooke. I'm glad to be here.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:In general, before we get to the specific countries, any common threads? Do you think that the appearance by Bush at the UN did create a kind of unifying effect?

BILL FALK:It's been a partial success. Bush disarmed some of the critics who were in high dudgeon about his unilateralism by just going to the UN -- just walking in the doors -- and there were some I think palpable relief in the UN that the U.S. was not just going to careen off into this war without listening to any of our traditional allies.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:England's Prime Minister Tony Blair released a 50 page anti-Saddam dossier this week. How did his local press react to that and then how did the rest of Europe?

BILL FALK:There was a lot of skepticism and even some horse laughs. I mean he was compared quite unfavorably to Churchill and-- one commentator noted that he needed to practice his deep bulldog growl; that next time he should show up with a Homburg and a watch chain. And Boris Johnson [sp?] in the Daily Telegraph which is actually a more conservative, often pro-American newspaper, laughed at the whole argument about Saddam wanting to procure plutonium or uranium, and he said, you know, if Saddam had some plutonium he could blow up British bases in Cypress in 45 minutes - is what Blair argued. Well if we has some ham, we could have ham and eggs. If we had any eggs. [LAUGHTER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:What about the papers in Germany? I mean Gerhard Schroder seems to have won his election at least in part by opposing what appeared to be the Bush administration's rush to war.

BILL FALK:I think now that he's won there's a little bit of trepidation that we saw in the German press this week about what it will mean for U.S.-German relations, and the Bush administration very quickly said that it would mean a lot --that they were very angered-- and that the relationship had been quote/unquote "poisoned."

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well how about Russia? I mean how is the Russian press covering Putin's relationship with Bush and the war on terror?

BILL FALK:Well the, the Russian press is actually somewhat bemused by the chess game that's going on. We, we saw some speculation last week that basically Putin is going to demand for his vote on the Security Council -- that he's going to ask Bush to stand by and say nothing while he pursues Chechan rebels into Georgia -- across the border, and that he will essentially use the same rubric of pre-emption -- that he feels that these Chechan rebels who are now hiding out of the reach of his military in a, in what is now another nation -- that he, he wants the right to go get them, and that he wants America to stand by and say nothing.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The Russian press is still seeing this as a political-- shell game in the, in the true Kremlinological tradition.

BILL FALK: Yes. Yes. The Russians tend to be fairly cynical about politics.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Now from Kuwait we've seen a softening, it seems at least very recently about the possibility if the UN provides its endorsement of giving the United States a, a place to launch the war from-- but in general has the Middle East been moved by any of the goings-on in New York?

BILL FALK:No, not really. I mean most of the Arab nations are very threatened by the very notion of pre-emption. I mean we saw a piece in a Pakistani newspaper where they basically said this could be open war on Muslims throughout the world. The writer was basically saying we in Pakistan really need to keep our fundamentalists in check, because if there's a lot of demonstration of anti-American sentiment, god knows what could happen to us or perhaps if India could seize on the doctrine of pre-emption to go after our fundamentalists and start a war.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:So aside from-- nervousness, fear and skepticism, were there any unusual or original takes from the European press this week regarding the war in Iraq?

BILL FALK:In the London Guardian which is their most left-leaning newspaper there was a lengthy article comparing the United States in great detail to Imperial Rome whereas the Romans provided their colonies with roads and aqueducts-- and-- bread and circuses, that America provides television, movies-- and Disney World. That we have the internet uniting the world just the way the Roman road system did. And that we are now-- have armies in 40 nations and that-- essentially the whole point of invading Iraq is simply to expand upon our empire. And of course the recurring them there and in, in the French press is that this is really all about oil -- that America just wants to get its hands on Saddam's oil.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Okay. Bill Falk is editor in chief of The Week. Bill, thanks for the update.

BILL FALK: Thank you, Brooke. [MUSIC]