Jordanian Dailies On Cheneys Middle

Jordanian newspapers published on 10 May are observed to carry the following commentaries on the recent tour by US Vice President Dick Cheney to the Middle East, particularly to Iraq.

In a 300-word article on page 28 of Amman Al-Ra’y in Arabic, Jordanian daily of widest circulation; partially owned by government; Internet version also available at [al-Ra’i], columnist Fahd al-Fanik commenting on Dick Cheney’s tour of the Middle East under the headline “What Does Cheney Want?” says: “The US Administration under Bush and his Vice President Cheney has lost credibility and Cheney in particular is no longer taken seriously even in his country. Now he hopes to be taken seriously in the Middle East where he has committed the biggest mistake of attacking Iraq and destroying an independent country that had nothing to do with terrorism.” The article adds: “If Cheney wants to instigate the Arab countries against Iran, his mission will backfire because he will be serving Iran by portraying it as a counter force of the United States. The Arab countries fear Iran for Arab and not US reasons unless Cheney’s task is to mobilize the Arab people against the regime of the Mullas in Tehran.” The article adds: “If Cheney seeks the Arab countries cooperation, he must employ his influence in Israel to seek a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause in accordance with the Arab initiative and the road map because the Israeli threat is concrete and is embodied in the never-ending occupation of the Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories while the Iranian threat is just a possibility that calls for alertness but has no priority.” The article says: “Cheney cannot expect the Arabs to give up their priorities and replace them with the US priorities, for we know that the United States is courting Iran and wishes to conclude a deal with it at the expense of Iraq and the Arab world.”

As for Amman Al-Arab al-Yawm in Arabic, independent newspaper often critical of government policies; [ Internet version is also available . . .], it carries an article by Muhammad Ka’wash on the same issue under the headline ” The Old Hawk and The Impotent Politician” saying that Dick Cheney landed in Baghdad in the midst of stringent security measures and wearing a bulletproof vest “to prove to the Americans that Iraq is secure and that the Iraqis bask under Bush’s good deeds and enjoy freedom, democracy, and reconstruction. Cheney might lie to some segments of the US people who are not aware of what is actually taking place in Iraq” and the “old hawk can lie to the old impotent politician Al-Maliki but cannot lie to the Iraqis because they are aware of the truth and know the objectives the occupation armies have come to achieve.” The article concludes: “Cheney has the right to repeat what he wants, deceive, and maneuver to cover up for the defeat of his party, army, and administration, conceal the objectives of the occupation, and defend the behavior and crimes of his forces, but what is surprising is that his acolytes in the green zone agree with him and support his lies and defend the virtues of the occupation, and consider Iraq as an independent and free country.”

Al-Arab al-Yawm, carrying another article by Columnist Tahir al-Udwan on page 16 under the headline “Salvation Course” says: “We do not know so far if Vice President Dick Cheney’s mission in the region takes place under the title of “changing course in Iraq” or the insistence on Bush’s slogan “until the mission is completed” that is part of the failed security plan in Baghdad called the road map.” The article says that press reports mention that Cheney’s visit to Iraq seeks to pressure the Iraqi parliament into ratifying the oil law “to have the US companies put their hands on Iraq’s resources.” After affirming that all the US plans in Iraq will fail, the article says: “The adoption of the current draft oil bill will not contribute to national reconciliation and all indications show that it will nurture the ongoing violence, division, and resistance and Cheney needs more than one tour of the region to learn the unavoidable lesson. This lesson is that he has to withdraw the forces of his country and leave Iraqi oil and the question of national reconciliation to the Iraqis, the Arab countries, and the Arab League. This is the road to salvation, the irreplaceable new road.”

Amman Al-Ghadd in Arabic, independent Jordanian daily; [Internet version is also available . . .] carries an article by Ayman al-Safadi on page 32 under the headline “Cheney on Salvation Mission” saying: “US Vice President Dick Cheney visits the region to seek a solution for the dilemma that his administration is encountering. His visit has one objective. He wants to blame the neighbor countries for the failure of the US policy that he engineered for Iraq” believing that “holding the neighbor countries largely responsible for the deterioration in Iraq will provide the Bush administration with a scapegoat that it can use to lessen the anger of the US people against it.” After affirming that Cheney will not discuss the Palestinian cause or any other issue in the region except the Iraqi issue, the article says: “Cheney is in the region on a salvation mission because he knows that the anger against the US policies in Iraq primarily is against him for he was behind the decision to go to war, he was the one to lead his country into failure, and he was the one who has shown more arrogance and vanity than he has shown wisdom and political acumen. The result was this unending deterioration in Iraq.”

The article says: “The neighbor countries, with the exception of a few countries that have their own designs and interests, are eager to establish stability in Iraq. They realize that the perpetuation of the conflict there will endanger them and destabilize them. This is why they want a genuine tackling of the Iraqi crisis that will save Iraq from the chaos that is killing people and not a plastic surgery operation with which Cheney wants to embellish the ugly picture that his policies and decisions have created.”