Monday, February 10, 2003

HOPEFULNESS at taz: Germany's leftist die tageszeitung greets the Berlin-Paris peacekeeping invasion plan as a possibility to save the authority of the U.N., to counter the authority of the U.S., and to prevent the "clear" results that would follow from a war, namely, "chaos" in the region and an influx of new sympathizers for islamist radicalism. taz adds a bit of realism as well: Schroeder will be able to save himself with the plan at any rate: if the plan fails either in the U.N. or, later, in Iraq, he can more easily frame his seemingly necessary move away from a bare "no" to U.S. policy.