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United States Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent presentation to the Congress sent a message that the US would take the opportunity of an Iraqi war to redraw the political and economic map in the Middle East, the leading Chinese newspaper, the People's Daily, said Feb. 18.
An article in the paper quoted Powell as telling US senators earlier this month that a "success" in Iraq could reshape the Middle East in a way that serves US interests.
There was wide-spreading suspicion in the Arabian world following Powell's senate speech that the purpose of the United States to launch a war against Iraq was not only to topple Saddam, but also is to restructure the Middle East politically and economically through an Iraqi war for its own interests, the article said.
The ambitious US plan has been conceived after US President George W. Bush last year raised the theory of the "axis of evil" consisting of Iraq, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Bush claimed that to eliminate terrorism threats, the United States should check the anti-US trend in those "evil nations."
After Sept. 11, the United States went further, dividing the Arab world into "pro" or "against" American camps. It labeled all nations not in alliance with Washington on the anti-terrorism issue as its enemies, the article said.
Some US military officers even revealed that a regime change in Iraq was only a prelude to a US reshaping of the Middle East as a whole, according to the article.
"To force some nations into compliance, political hegemony was used to entice others with benefits on the one hand and intimidate them on the other hand," it continued.
Now, Washington was forcing Arab nations to take sides on the Iraq issue, the paper said. Obviously, the US reshaping of the Middle East meant the United States would only allow countries following its line to stay, and would make those against it perish, it added.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2003)
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