Transcript
World Press
December 1, 2001
BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Nearly every week since September 11th we've invited Martin Walker, international correspondent for UPI International to review the foreign press and keep us apprised of what the rest of the world is saying. Martin, welcome back.
MARTIN WALKER: Thank you.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: We've got what appears to be a, a war nearly won on our hands. Is, is that how the press you're reading is interpreting it?
MARTIN WALKER: Well indeed the, the Daily Telegraph of, of Britain is saying everyone who cast doubt on the possibilities of success and everyone who sneered at American gung ho spirit should observe a period of silence. [LAUGHTER] The rest of us should, to use a famous phrase from another war, just rejoice, rejoice. They're referring of course to Margaret Thatcher after the Falklands War. But in the leftish Liberation of Paris they say the collapse of the Taliban is a blessed surprise for the U.S. and Great Britain and a huge relief for Paris; a sense of doubt fueled by pacifism and anti-Americanism had marked both the ranks of the French government and public opinion in general. The success of the war has made it possible to forget today the collateral damage of yesterday.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ah, the dark note.
MARTIN WALKER: Well, indeed, because a lot of people are saying that yes the war has been won, but it's been won ugly.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: By winning ugly, what do they mean? Collateral damage is certainly one thing. Any other quotations?
MARTIN WALKER:Yes. From Le Monde of, of Paris talking about the, the battle in the prison camp just outside Mazar-e-Sharif of Qala Jangi and they said that Qala Jangi will go down in history as the place where no prisoners were taken. The symbolic place of a war after the war, like a love affair without end and with no other limits than capitulation by death and the silence of cemeteries. This will be a war long and pitiless. Frankfurt Allgemeine in Germany which is a centrist kind of paper is saying: "The war is not even half-won considering the political challenges that remain. The air strikes and the Taliban's retaliation have prevented the transport of United Nations food aid, but worse still the western alliance has yet to win the Afghans' hearts and minds. Even if the price of Osama bin Laden tee shirts is lower than it was, many across South Asia remain convinced the United States is fighting not terrorism but Islam as a whole.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:So when they look ahead, do the newspapers that you read suggest that the next battle will be harder than the one we just pretty much have won or-- do they strike a more positive note given the experience we just had?
MARTIN WALKER: Well, no they don't. I was very struck by the front page of one of Britain's mast tabloids, the Daily Mirror which led its front page with a, a terrible color photograph of a, a Taliban soldier with, with trousers around his ankles, and the headline: Our Civilized Friends Take Over, and they, the called the win of the alliance a false victory. Many people rather worry that the next war is coming somewhere else. Frankfurt Allgemeine again: It's sobering to realize that nuclear terrorism is not just a hobby horse for idle strategists or politicians. It's a global task of the highest priority to make sure that weapons of mass destruction do not end up in the wrong hands, and in Iraq they may already have done so. Die Veld goes on: Still you [find ?] from the quick win against the self-proclaimed army of God, President Bush seems inclined to resolve all the rest of the world's problems, but we are doubtful of the wisdom of attacking Baghdad despite the well-based fears that Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction again. One other voice I came across talking about a war in Iraq, and it was in the old Communist Party paper Pravda. "Today America is being stampeded into a new undeclared war against Iraq. It's a time for truth, a time for the American Congress to do its duty and debate and decide whether we should have war or peace." And it was written, by all people, Pat Buchanan!
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ah!
MARTIN WALKER: The old American conservative!
BROOKE GLADSTONE: That great fellow traveler.
MARTIN WALKER: In Pravda how the world has changed.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Martin Walker is international correspondent for UPI International.