Iraq Press Roundup

Shabab Al Iraq carried an editorial Wednesday with the headline "Bush administration wraps its waist with an explosives belt."

It said the Bush administration hurt the United States in the world's most restive spots.

"Bush poured fuel on himself and wraps his administration with an explosives belt," it said.

The paper said the reason why the world's strongest democratic state commits such mistakes is because of its electoral system that "brings out a presidential rabbit … who ignores the entire world."

It said Bush deals with the world using the language of cowboys.

"As soon as an ignorant president is trained to catch the 'map of the world,' his country will lose credibility, international trust in him fades and he involves his country in destructive wars."

It quoted The New York Times' Maureen Dowd as saying, "The future of our freedom depends on suppression of other people's freedoms" and "Our hope to spread the word of peace is to rely on dictators."

It said that in Pakistan the United States backed Gen. Zia ul-Haq's killing of President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who annoyed the United States at the time.

"When religious schools were formed in Pakistan, many religious officers who graduated from such schools allied with the jihadists to form the Taliban, a militia that the U.S. made use of later," the paper said.

It said that now the "explosives belt" had gone off because the United States supported a general who supports the jihadists while challenging the liberals.

"The U.S. excuse for supporting a dictatorship," the paper said, "is the fear that the Taliban will own the nuclear bomb."

It said though the United States carried the slogan of "serving democracy around the world," it can't satisfy a middle class that is angry at the United States for supporting a military dictatorship.

Turning to Iraq, the editorial said President Bush handed Iraq to Shiite parties loyal to Iran, and turned Iraq into a base for Osama bin Laden.

"While the Kurds announced their independence under the U.S. umbrella and started to cause a mess with their neighbors, Iran came out to fill the gap in the region," the editorial said.

It said Turkey, an important U.S. ally, was unhappy with Bush supporting the Kurds. It concluded Arabs feared that if the United States bombed Iran, Tehran might attack U.S. forces in Iraq and carry out suicide attacks in Gulf countries, which means "Bush will be causing a Third World War."

Al Basaer newspaper carried an editorial Tuesday with the headline "What should Iraqis be doing?"

It said Iraq had been a graveyard for U.S. occupation forces due to the continuous hits from "the courageous resistance."

"The resistance made U.S. forces hide in their shelters and behind their concrete barriers and if they for one time tried to go out, they would drive through very fast then go back to their bases," the paper said.

It said that no matter how much the occupiers tried to hide their loss in Iraq, the reality is they can't because of the coffins, disabled young people, diseases and public demonstrations calling for the United States to withdraw from Iraq.

"Pulling the troops out will happen as soon as the Iraqi groups and tribes are united on getting rid of the occupier and liberate the country from the oppressors," it said.

Addressing Iraqis, the paper said: "Iraqis shouldn't be trying to find excuses not to fight the occupiers especially after the latter started to plant the seed of division" between Iraqis.

"The occupiers turned Iraqi brothers into enemies fighting each other instead of fighting the real enemy," it said.