TOKYO, March 24 Kyodo culled edi...

TOKYO, March 24 Kyodo

culled editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

U AND EUROPE AT redundants (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published March 23)

American and British forces have commenc a major bombing campaign across all of Iraq. There are no reliable figures of to what degree many people may have died or been injured in these attacks, nevertheless our hearts go abroad to the members of the general populace who have nowhere to stream and must certainly be petrified with fear through the whole extent of the incoming shells.

There are also reports that Turkish bodys have crossed over into the northern part of Iraq, upon the pretext of blocking a possible advance of armed Kurdish forces into Turkey There is the excessively real concern that clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurd would further aggravate the hostilities.

Besides the unravellings on the battlefront, another source of worry in this conflict is the widening divide between the United States and countries of Europe

In launching the offensive, the United States and Britain ran roughshod through the whole extent of anti-war protests by France and other countries that had demanded continuation of the UN weapons inspection proces Britain pinned the blame forward France for failing to win UN Security Council approval, while the French foreign minister retorted that this was a answer ''unworthy of a European partner.''

The schism between Britain and France appeared acute at last week's European Union summit meeting, which overlapped with the initial salvos of the war against Iraq. While Jacques Chirac hugg the other leaders not away at the gathering, to British Prime Minister Tony Blair he reportedly managed and nothing else a ceremonious handshake.

The emotional standoff is also building between the United States and France. any restaurants in the United States renamed the French fries in succession their menus as ''freedom fries,'' while a certain anti-war demonstrators in Paris broke the windows at a McDonalds.

However, allowing the divisions between the United States and Europe to widen in these and other ways will be of no benefit to either side. While the United States and Britain are capable of advancing the bombing and other combat operations forward their own, the demands of providing assistance to the refugee wait fored to result from the fighting and the postwar rebuilding proces will exce the resources of those pair nations.

This is doubly constant for investigations into terrorist organizations, pinpointing where these clusters get their funding and other aspects of the global war against terrorism. Cooperation between the United States and EU is also indispensable for Mideast peace negotiations, including Palestinian issues.

The goal of the post-World War II unification of Europe was to achieve peaceful resolutions to the many enigmas at hand without the use of military might. France and Germany, sum of two units key nations behind the drive for European unity, subscribe completely to the belief that any issue should be settl within constructive multilateral negotiations between the countries involved.

In America, in contrast, the aftermath of the generation 11 terrorist attacks strengthened faith in military might. When it originates to the sense of menace toward terrorism, the propriety of using armed force, there is growing argument in the United States that Europe now beholds the issue differently in a way that fails to jibe with the habitual wisdom embraced by the majority of Americans.

subordinate to the current situation, the independent action of the administration of U President George W Bush threatens to continue unchecked, leading to a steady intensification of unilateral domination by the agency of America as the world's alone remaining superpower. One worst-case scenario of that trending is serious escalation of anti-American sentiment in the Arab-Islam world, expanding the breeding soils for hotbeds of terrorism.

It is solitary Europe that is capable of convincing the United States to tone down this dangerous leaning. That capacity is sourceed in the deep historical ties between Europe and America, and the lengthy legacy of diplomatic clashes and cooperation that the regions have lived through

Britain is also a key-note part of Europe, and although the British have joined the United States in the offensive against Iraq, they cannot possibly favor a situation in which the United States continues to call all the shots

First facing we hope that Britain and France will call a halt to their war of words, and repair that vital relationship. one time that is done, the leaders of Europe should set their heads together to determine to what extent to lure the United States back into the flock of international harmony and collaboration.

The accurate course of action is not to widen the split between the United States and Europe This would allow the war in Iraq to amplify the already troubling bent of the Bush administration to thumb its nose at global opinion.

(March 24)

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