War between Hard-liners and Soft-liners in U.S

The conservative Wall Street Journal and the progressive New York Times are waging fierce proxy war on the result of war in Iraq representing hawks and doves respectively.

The Wall Street Journal opened fire through the last Wednesday`s editorial saying “editors of the New York Times, the assistants of the CNN, major broadcasting stations, and most Democrats are liberals who spread pessimism even before the start of war with Iraq.” “They marshaled all sorts of gloomy views such as democratic uprising like happened in Vietnam, huge casualities in street-to-street fighting, firing on oil wells, surge in oil price, invasion of Northern Iraq by Turkey, world wide violence, eruption of anti America sentiment among Arab countries, and massive civilian casualities, yet none of the leftists` claim were correct,” ruthlessly criticized the paper.

The Wall Street Journal also said “These self-righteous left wings indulged in elitism are embarrassed by the U.S. Victory… can`t they congratulates the fall of the dictator before worrying the future.”

In response to the Wall Street Journal`s criticism, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist of New York Times said in his Tuesday article that it is a fact that U.S. couldn`t have found weapons of mass destruction which was the excuse of war and retorted “if Iraq never had any weaponized chemical or biological agents, then Mr. Bush has plenty of explaining to do to the children of the Americans and the Iraqis who died in the war.”

As for the reaction of the Iraqi people, Mr. Kristof said “Frankly, the reaction varied hugely. There were some places where our troops were greeted as `liberators.` But even in the Shiite, where Saddam Hussein`s oppression was great, U.S. troops had to feel a great threat,” and recommended to those Americans who contend that Iraqis hail Americans as liberators to try traveling around Iraq.

Mr. Kristof also said that “the hawks also look increasingly naive in their expectations that Iraq will soon blossom into a pro-American democracy. For now, the figures who inspire mass support in postwar Iraq are Shiite clerics, all of whom criticize the United States.”

In addition to this `media war`, the hawks of U.S. who have gained power after the victory of war are attacking the Department of State which can be referred to be symbols of doves.

Former Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives who served as an adviser for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld criticized it on Tuesday that "the Department of the State made incapable policy and it caused the international community to be hostile to our effort to oust Saddam Hussein”

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com