Should Putin Fear a Kerry Victory?/Moscow TImes/New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

Up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR AUGUST 13, 2004

1//TurkishPress.com, US--SHAKY IRAQ GOVERNMENT PLAYING WITH FIRE IN NAJAF MISSION (Just six weeks after taking power from the US-led occupation, Iraq's shaky interim government is playing with fire by trying to expel militiamen from one of Islam's holiest cities, analysts said Thursday…"It would be very difficult to have a decisive victory in Najaf ... without causing extensive damage and the higher the cost in civilian casualties, the less the political gain," he added…But if Iraqi security forces succeed, it would deliver a strong message to other insurgent groups -- precisely the aim of a government which has to restore national security to survive…On the other hand, Sadr, widely popular among the impoverished and disenfranchised, also stands to gain…But analysts see the Najaf campaign as far less tense than an aborted US mission in the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah, where hundreds of people were killed in April before marines were forced to retreat. Sadr's fighters have proved themselves less effective at inflicting losses among US troops than insurgents in Fallujah, who attracted sympathy and admiration for their standoff against the occupation forces.)



2//The Moscow Times, Russia--SHOULD PUTIN FEAR A KERRY VICTORY? (President Vladimir Putin doesn't get to vote in the U.S. elections in November, but it's clear he'd cast his ballot for George W. Bush if he did… The real cleavage on foreign policy is not between parties but between liberals and realists within the two. Realists see the world in terms of national security threats and power, while liberals emphasize cooperation and principles. The prevailing assumption in Moscow that Republican administrations are easier to work with likely dates back to the era of detente under U.S. President Richard Nixon, a Republican who signed arms control agreements and recognized the Soviet Union as a great power. Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Fond Politika think tank, who has advised Putin on foreign policy, voiced a view common in conservative Moscow circles that the Democratic establishment is "genetically anti-Russian." He pointed to the prominent status of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, and Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, both of whom were born in Eastern Europe.)



3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--HOUSE OF SAUD EXITS COCOON OF DENIAL (By deciding to oust the Saudi monarchy, al-Qaeda has resuscitated the age-old questions related to the commitment of a governing entity to Islam in its birthplace. By entering into a compact with Mohammed Abdel-Wahhab in 1744, the Saudi dynasty had kept those issues dormant. Now the Saudi rulers encounter increasing pressure from within to remain true to Islamic puritanism. From outside, they are facing intense pressure not only to create a distance from those demanding Islamic puritanism, but also to liberalize Islam. The extreme nature of these competing demands promises to push Saudi Arabia toward increasing instability. The greatest challenge for the current regime is not to find a common ground between these extreme demands - for such an option is not even tenable - but merely to keep the implosion of their political system from happening in the near future.)



4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--ANALYSIS: U.S. SET TO ‘GRIN AND BEAR’ CHAVEZ VICTORY (Just days before Venezuelans vote on whether to recall Hugo Chavez, U.S. officials and analysts appear increasingly resigned to at least another two and a half years of a government headed by the fiery populist…In fact, some analysts here prefer a clear win by Chavez at this point, rather than a close finish that could provoke charges of fraud from either or both sides, particularly if observers from the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Carter Centre hedge their own assessment as to whether the election was free and fair. The possibility of civil conflict breaking out in one of Washington's most important and reliable sources of imported oil at a time when global oil prices are hovering around historic highs is a nightmare that George W Bush's political handlers would rather not face less than three months before the November elections here.)



5//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--PM GIVES WAY ON TRADE PACT CHANGES (The free trade deal with the United States is set to go ahead after the Prime Minister, John Howard, caved in to Labor demands for amendments - and was then forced to qualify comments that the demands were causing concerns in the US…Mr Howard, who initially warned that there were "obviously concerns" in the US, later quoted from an official message from the Australian embassy in Washington that made no mention of concerns. The US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, told the embassy he had "no official position" on the Labor amendments until seeing the final Australian law, according to the message Mr Howard quoted…The influential American trade lobbyist Anne Wexler yesterday cast doubt on Mr Howard's claim that the Labor amendments could derail the trade deal. "I'm not aware of any clause of the agreement that could possibly nullify US law," said Ms Wexler, the principal force behind the political lobby that promoted the Australian deal.)