A friend sent this to me. He is a retired history teacher and now, head of the state labor party. He has recently had a book published, All Empires Die, which I haven't had a chance to read, yet. Anyway, I thought this was very interesting:

Here follow editorial excerpts from newspapers around the world, taken from the November 2001 issue of World Press Review:

1. Mail&Guardian, Johannesburg, South Africa: (Sept. 14, 2001)

It is a safe assumption that the trigger for this week's attacks is the spiraling conflict in the Middle East, for which the United States must accept much responsibility. There can be no peace until the Israelis accept a Palestinian state, which in turn hinges on the removal of Israeli settlements from the occupied territories and concessions on the status of Jerusalem. . . .Without U.S. patronage, Israel cannot survive. What has the world's superpower done to push its client to the negotiating table?

2. The Canberra Times, Canberra Australia: (Sept. 19, 2001)

The Bush administration has largely turned a blind eye to Israel's current policy of officially assassinating its Palestinian enemies and has not taken an active role in brokering a peace deal. . . .American television coverage of the terrorist actions seemed sound enough on the basic facts, but there was very little to answer the underlying question as to why anyone would plan and execute such violence. As far as a lot of American commentators were concerned, the culprits were just a bunch of irrational maniacs striking out at a "perceived enemy."

3. Reforma, Mexico City, Mexico: (Sept. 12, 2001)

From the moment television and radio reported the attack, one of the first suspects seemed to be Islamic and Palestinian fundamentalism. The cause is obvious. Over the last several weeks and months we have been horrified at those young men ready to immolate themselves for the sake of wounding or hurting their irreconcilable enemies. Also well-known is the resentment and hate these groups harbor against the United States, the strategic ally of Israel.

4. Gatra (weekly magazine), Jakarta, Indonesia: (Sept. 22, 2001)

"American terrorism is more dangerous than other terrorisms," said Sheik Hamed Betawi, the preacher at a mosque in the Palestinian city of Nablus. According to him, what the U.S. government has committed against the Palestinians is a crime. "An injustice will bring another new injustice," he added. The Associated Press reported that the Friday sermons from Baghdad, Beirut, Gaza, and Palestine repeated the message that the attack was an unavoidable consequence of America's total support for Israel.

5. Semana. Bogota, Columbia: (Sept. 14, 2001

Almost 50 years ago, an Algerian fighting for independence explained, "We plant bombs in supermarkets because we do not have airplanes to bomb French cities, while the French have airplanes, so they bomb Algerian towns." The advance was that instead of putting a bomb in a passenger plane, the terrorists decided to use a passenger plane itself as a bomb.

This is natural progress, of course, in the war between the strong and the weak. It was only natural that after half a century of the American government devastating cities around the world--Tokyo, Dresden, Hiroshima, Korean villages, Hanoi, Beirut, Panama, Tripoli, Kabul, Baghdad, Belgrade--it would be New York and Washington's turn to experience horror. They have spent their whole lives sowing rancor through the world; they should not be surprised now by what they are reaping.

6. Nation Sudsapda Weekly, Bangkok Thailand: (Sept. 23, 2001)

From now on, the U.S. government must review its foreign policy toward the Middle East, particularly toward Israel, which has caused so much anger among Arabs. Otherwise, Americans' life overseas will have no guarantee of safety.

Even after the U.S. retaliates, as promised by President George W. Bush, that does not mean an end or decrease in terrorism. It might, on the contrary, spark a new form of more sophisticated terrorism.

The problem goes beyond the American territory and the American people. U.S. allies also may be targeted in the same manner that the United States targets the suspects as well as the "countries who helped or harbored" them.

7. El Watan, Algiers, Algeria: (Sept. 19, 2001

The West unconditionally backed the monarchies of the Gulf, a breeding ground of fundamentalism, because of their oil resources, while at the same time lending blinkered support to Israel's expansionist policies.

Resentment, widespread in the Arab world by the end of the 20th century, has been exploited by the fundamentalists, who have channeled it into a "holy war" (jihad) against the West. The West, and notably the United States, has learned nothing from all this. Worse, the West has aggravated frustrations the world over by canonizing laissez faire economics, whose centerpiece--globalization--heralds the systematic impoverishment of billions of people.

8. Dani, Sarajevo, Bosnia: (Sept. 14, 2001)

In "the world that should be defended at any price," 30,000 children die of hunger every hour, while most of the developed countries experience a period of prosperity unprecedented in the history of mankind. Three million children in Africa die every year from tropical diseases such as malaria because a US$1 vaccine is out of their reach. America and its allies spent thousands of billions of dollars during the Cold War to stop the spread of communism. The task now is much more complex, and the main goal of foreign policy must be the opposite: to ensure aid so all parts of the world, including the poorest, can be integrated into a global economic and environmental network

9. Vecernji, Zagreb, Croatia: (Sept. 13, 2001)

Terror is never innocent, but there is no terror without reason. Avenging terror, punishing it, does not mean eliminating its causes. Furthermore, an inappropriate reprisal can exacerbate those causes.

The world of capitalism bows to two gods--money and technology. Everything that cannnot adapt, or does not want to adapt, to financial or technological standards faces scorn, poverty, and grief. Is there any person worthy of world renown, aside from the pope, whom the Western world has produced in recent decades? An admirable person, exemplifying morality and unselfishness?

10. Daily Telegraph, London, England: (Sept. 16, 2001)

The United States must punish Islamic fundamentalists for last Tuesday's unfathomable wickedness, but by doing so it could very well destabilize the very states in the Middle East upon which the world economy depends. For one of the geo-religious paradoxes of the planet is that the meridians of oil and Islam coincide, with virtually every state along those meridians being threatened by Islamic militants.

11. Netzeitung, Berlin, Germany: (Sept. 13, 2001)

The mood in the United States is clear: Hit someone, anyone! Show them that we will not tolerate such terrorism.

The problem is that terrorism cannot bve repressed through military reprisals or international morality. There is deeply rooted hostility in wide parts of the Arab world against the West and, especially, against the United States. Have we forgotten the photos of burning American flags? The determination of Hamas members when they attack Israel?

12. Eleftherotypia, Athens, Greece: (Sept. 16, 2001)

The blind clash that leads to "human bombs," in conjunction with contemporary lifestyles, portrays the size of the dangers ahead. Under these circumstances, the weapons are not contemporary technology, intelligence services, a police state, or defense enhancement; they are democracy, education and the interaction of the two civilizations. They are the bridging of the gap, and not the pseudo-economic approach between developed countries and those of the Third World. The organized and stern reaction to terrorism should not lead to any compromises for democracy.