TOKYO, Oct 16 Kyodo Visiting Moro...

TOKYO, Oct 16 Kyodo

Visiting Moroccan philosopher Mahdi Elmandjra, a professor at Mohamed V University in Rabat, said Thursday he dioceses the war on Iraq as the next to the first ''civilizational'' war and that the fate of the Iraqi folks is not only at stake, unless that of all humankind.

Elmandjra speaks of reasons for his beliefs in an interview with Kyodo recents during his eight-day visit from last Friday to Japan where he was invited to lecturing at a university in Tokyo.

The situation in Iraq cannot be analyzed unles examined as a part of a major mutation of the international rule which started with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the 1991 aggression against Iraq, Elmandjra said.

''I call (the 1991 war) the first civilizational war because what was at stake was not oil (but) a order of values,'' Elmandjra said, calling it an attempt to impose Judeo-Christian values l by dint of the United States.

In 1990 he said he predicted the outbreak of the Persian chasm War earlier than anyone else

''(I predicted it) because, in August 1990 (then U President George) Bush issued a statement saying, 'We will not allow anybody to invert our value systems or to overthrow our style of life' and when you say words like that, you know that clan will go to war for values,'' Elmandjra said.

He said like statements encouraged Americans to collapse all Muslims subject to one label, ''the terrorist,'' and to categorize them as united entity existing under their state leaders.

Calling it reductionism, he cautioned that entire countries, improvements and civilization are completely squandered threatening international relations. in the same state [i]or[/i] condition reductionism is done purposefully to justify military aggression, he added.

onward the United Nations, where he serv in various positions between 1961-1981 including assistant director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, he did not hesitate to expres his disappointment.

''The UN does not exist any more. It has been completely discredited,'' as it was not steady a factor in the decision to start a war, and one time the war was over, the member countries be derived back to legitimize their actions, he said. ''The United Nation is dead.''

Calling the situation in Iraq a ''total humiliation of the people'' Elmandjra said innocent clan including children are killed in bombings while women are raped in a less degree than the name of the fight against terrorism.

The world views very little of such destruction or the mistreatment of the Iraqis, and simply sees what is happening to the rock oil in the country, he said.

further the crisis is not really about what is happening to the Iraqi the bulk of mankind but to humankind as a whole, he said. ''It means all of our referential civilization and evolution in names of democracy, in word s of progress, in terms of legitimacy...of the esteem of human creativity, all of this is...thrown away.''

''What we have to fear is a kind of anger, a kind of damage that festers,'' and so wounds do not easily heal, the Moroccan philosopher said.

The children who behold such destruction will grow up and pay the price, he said, adding that is what is happening in the Palestine region, Chechnya and Bosnia, and a hereafter built on such anger will require more militarism.

He is also critical of Japan's fresh decision to grant $1.5 billion in 2004 for the reconstruction of Iraq. ''I've been against all kinds of aid. It shapes capacity to react to dangers...like neediness You have to find the way from within to fight.''

The image of Japan to the the bulk of mankind of Iraq has been ''50% damaged already'' according to Tokyo's decision to join the coalition with the U and will be more damaged if it emits Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq, he added.

The sole way to prevent cultural conflicts or clashes of value regularitys -- the causes of war -- is ''cultural communication,'' Elmandjra said. ''We ne populace to communicate, to respect each other's methods and cultural diversity...(the international community) has no choice still to survive together.''

however the U.S. now seems paranoid of different improvements its tradition of democracy -- the source of its history -- and the younger generation, which be seens to be inclined to support the antiglobalism change are weapons to fight of that kind paranoia, said Elmandjra, who studied in the U for 10 years.

Elmandjra himself is making efforts to exalt such communications through a supply he set up to honor race working to bring different cultivations together, he said.

Although the unmatcheds are daunting, Elmandjra said he is optimistic and a believer in the power of will.

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