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Hearts, Minds and Padlocks - editorial from the NYT 
New York Times, March 30, 2004 Hearts, Minds and Padlocks With so many forces trying to prove that America cannot bring stability and democracy to Iraq, it was sad to see the Bush administration's proconsul there, Paul Bremer III, issuing an order that is likely to set back both of those desirable goals. In a scene distressingly evocative of neighboring Middle Eastern autocracies, Mr. Bremer sent American soldiers to shut down and padlock a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday. The stated reason was that by printing false anti-American rumors, the Shiite weekly, Al Hawza, stirred up hatred, undermined stability and indirectly incited violence. One of the dispatches that led to the closing of Al Hawza was a February report claiming that an American missile, not a terrorist car bomb, had caused an explosion that killed more than 50 Iraqi police recruits. False charges like that have helped poison Iraqi opinion against American forces and made their difficult and dangerous job even more so. Yet it is possible to condemn such malicious rumor-mongering without endorsing the paper's shutdown, which, though ostensibly for 60 days, could prove permanent. Newspapers like Al Hawza do not create the hostility Americans face in Iraq - they reflect it. Shutting them down, however satisfying it may feel to the Bush administration, is not a promising way to dissolve that hostility. The occupation authorities have plenty of means, including their own television station, to get out a more favorable message. It is hard to believe that the thousands of outraged Baghdadis who watched American forces chain and lock the doors of the newspaper offices will now refuse to believe hateful rumors circulated by preachers, leaflets and word of mouth. Nor is this demonstration of military censorship likely to help convince skeptical Iraqis that the main reason for America's continued occupation of their country is to help transform it into a regional showcase of American-style freedoms. There are times when the demands of security and the demands of democracy tug in opposite directions. This was not one of them. By driving Al Hawza's rumors and anti-American sentiments underground, Mr. Bremer made both of those central goals that much harder to achieve. |