The early withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is a betrayal of the Afghani people and could exacerbate the problems in the country, writes the conservative daily Die Welt: "A betrayal of the progress-oriented sections of the Afghan population that have been encouraged to put their hope in freedom, democracy and self-determination for a decade. This hurried withdrawal will not give the Western world the isolationist peace of mind it craves, not just because abandoning these people to the Islamist butchers will weigh heavily on its conscience. As soon as hundreds of thousands of refugees start seeking help from their former protectors - as the southern Vietnamese boat people did when they were likewise abandoned by the fleeing US troops - the West will realise that it can't simply shake off the burden of responsibility it once assumed for the future of Afghanistan. The escape from the tough guerilla war in Afghanistan could soon turn out to be a first step towards new conflicts of far greater proportions." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S., » Central Asia
All available articles from » Richard Herzinger

The US is pinning its hopes on secret negotiations to prevent the Taliban from returning to power, the liberal daily La Stampa concludes: "The US plans to release five Guantánamo prisoners to aid the negotiations Washington has been engaged in for weeks with the Taliban and find a political solution to the eleven-year conflict. The goal is an agreement that will placate Karzai's government and the guerrillas. Unfortunately the prisoners are on the list of dangerous terrorists, and only yesterday the contents of a confidential Nato report were made public according to which the Taliban are sure they will be able to reconquer the country. Nato is playing down the significance of the document, but it could be that Washington's negotiations are simply aimed at preventing the Taliban from returning to power as soon as the troops withdraw." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » U.S., » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Paolo Mastrolilli

The Western troops have failed to establish democracy and human rights in Afghanistan, the liberal state-run Wiener Zeitung writes, commenting on the early withdrawal of US troops: "Ignorance and tolerance of the corruption spearheaded by President Hamid Karzai have allowed the Taliban to return to power. The latter is against equal rights and education for girls and women, and enjoys widespread support among the male population. Politics can be this simple, even if some of the politicians at the State Department and the Western reformers refuse to accept this. Democracy and human rights will fail in a society that has survived without these attributes for 3000 years. Re-educating the population requires parallel values, not a view of the world that sees in every non-Muslim an 'enemy of the true God'." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Human rights, » U.S., » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Friedrich Korkisch

The US and France have announced plans to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan earlier than planned. The decision is above all based on election tactics, writes the liberal-conservative daily Financial Times: "President Barack Obama's solution to leave troops there, just not in combat roles, until 2014 is also something of an insurance policy if Afghanistan descends into chaos. But the timing of the US and French withdrawals from combat is less than ideal. It is no coincidence that the retreat comes as presidential elections loom in both countries. In France, the death of four French soldiers last week has made the war a hot campaign issue, while in the US Mr Obama has been under heavy pressure for more troop cuts. Political considerations are finally taking centre stage in the conflict. The tragedy is that they have little to do with stability in Afghanistan." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Social affairs, » France, » U.S., » Afghanistan

Protesting continued in Egypt on Thursday after 74 people died in rioting that broke out during a football match in Port Said. Police shot at demonstrators in Suez, leaving two dead. The angry protesters are calling for the resignation of the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi. The liberal daily Corriere del Ticino backs their demands: "Behind the unrest is the long hand of the old regime, whose main aim is to plunge Egypt into chaos. There can be no doubt, the riots in Port Said were planned and had nothing to do with football. In this way the military council seeks to justify its harsh rule and the need to stay in power until a civil government takes over. That is planned for June 2012, while the demonstrators are calling for an immediate handover of power. In addition the military council wants to prevent the state of emergency from being lifted at all costs. The riots are a further attempt to prevent the democratisation of Egypt." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Unrest / Riots, » Egypt
All available articles from » Marco Alloni
Who's saying what » Arabs fight for freedom

The fiscal pact agreed at the most recent EU summit forces Eurozone countries to reduce their budget deficits, writes the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant, and fears that Europe's pressure on states to cut spending will only escalate the crisis: "Europe continues on the path towards an unprecedented crisis. The decision to bow to German demands paves the way for economic stagnation and social chaos. ... The goal should be to end the imbalances among the different economies and improve our competitiveness. But instead the economy is being put under more pressure. ... First Greece and now Portugal are on the brink of bankruptcy. Portugal has followed the German recipe and cut spending to the point of destroying its economy so that it will never be able to repay its debts. ... And Spain is not much better off than Portugal. There is no reason for Europe to heave a sigh of relief. To use Prime Minister Rajoy's words: the worst is still to come." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Spain, » Europe
All available articles from » Steven Adolf
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Spain's Socialists (PSOE) will elect a new general secretary at their party congress in Seville on the weekend. But the party needs to renew more than just its leadership to regain the people's trust, the conservative daily ABC jokes: "What Spain's Socialists really need is a new party, not a new leader. Because with time the PSOE has lost one letter after the next. The first to go was the E for Español, when it allied itself with forces that didn't want to be Spanish and even had plans to divide Spain. ... It then lost the O for Obrero [worker] with a political caste that lined its pockets while Spanish workers grew ever poorer. ... And the S for socialist disappeared when they unhesitatingly followed the dictates of international conservatism. ... So all that remains is the tight corset of P for party. A party whose members are divided and at each other's throats, as it demonstrates time and again both to its members and the general public." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Spain
All available articles from » José María Carrascal

In their negotiations for resolving the European debt crisis the European heads of state and government tend to forget that in the long term Europe's youth will foot the bill, economics professor Bruno Colmant admonishes in the business paper Trends Tendances: "Debts are a mortgage on the prosperity of future generations, indisputably hindering their democratic participation. Consequently our European community will doubtless be confronted with vigorous ideological debates that have been smothered by the favourable economic trend of the past 30 years. The coming years will be marked by increasing tensions between an individualist capitalism and collective forces that campaign against speculation and call for higher taxes and inflationary measures. This conflict will be intensified by the social tensions arising from the already visible unequal distribution of wealth among the generations. Because for all these scenarios the truth is that the young are the victims." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Social affairs, » Politics, » Society, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Bruno Colmant
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Over the last few days Slovakia has registered a gradual reduction in gas supplies from Russia. The liberal daily Sme draws parallels with the shortages of three years ago and complains that not enough is being done to reduce dependency on Russian energy: "We're in a similar situation to the one we saw three years ago - similar right down to the conflicting information. While our local supplier SPP claims less gas is coming through the pipelines, Gazprom says that on the contrary, gas exports have risen. And we still don't know what the Ukrainians have in store for us. ... We are too unprepared for such situations. We are still completely dependent on Russian gas, but also on oil and nuclear fuel. Two measures are indispensable: We must do something to counteract our dependency. And we must have a clear, pro-European foreign policy. As far as Moscow is concerned we're nothing but a Russian satellite or an insignificant scrap of land. Such a scrap of land needs a good lawyer in Brussels." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » Slovakia, » Russia, » Europe
All available articles from » Juraj Javorský

Several media have reported that the Greek government plans to make its creditors an offer to exchange their old government bonds for new ones in a bid to secure a new rescue package from the EU and IMF. The Greeks must once again demonstrate against further austerity measures, the left-leaning daily Avgi urges: "The decisions that will be made in the next few days in a swift and undemocratic process will have an impact on the future of entire generations. Involving the private sector in the planned debt restructuring and the second rescue package from the EU and IMF will drive Greece even further into recession and turn it into a state with limited sovereignty. ... It's time the citizens of Greece returned to the streets. If the country now stages demonstrations like those of last June the political class that has always supported these rescue packages would be defeated. The political carnival would come to an end, and the blackmailing would be ineffectual." (02/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Social movements, » Greece, » Europe
Who's saying what » Greece in dire straits

The Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska died on Wednesday aged 88.The conservative news portal Wprost Online praises her as a great - yet virtually unknown - artist: "She was born, wrote verse and died. Szymborska wrote poetry for us, it's true, but she kept her private life entirely to herself. ... She wrote in such a way that even those who don't like poetry could understand without difficulty what her poems meant. Even though, as she herself once said, only 'two in a thousand' people actually like poetry. She didn't write with a pedantic tone or seek to shock people with her style, but only to describe the world with the simplest possible words." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Poland
All available articles from » Artur Bartkiewicz

In recent days up to 50,000 people have demonstrated against the Anti-Counterfeit Trading Agreement (Acta). Informatics professor Wojciech Cellary condemns their actions in the left-liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "They are well educated and have accumulated considerable knowledge at university. ... All with the aim of selling that knowledge in the form of digital products and services and living on the money they earn from this. But they will only receive the money they are due if people are made to pay for Internet content. Because today the Internet is the main platform for selling knowledge and creative achievements. But they don't want this. They want all the content to be free of charge because they have no money to pay for it. But things can't go on like this. You can't expect to earn your money through your knowledge and creativity on the Internet yet at the same time demand that the knowledge and creative achievements of others be available for free. This is a blatant contradiction!" (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Media policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Wojciech Cellary

The founding of an Orthodox priests' union in Romania is lawful because for the most part the priests are paid by the state. This was the ruling handed down by the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday. Ciprian Domnişoru hopes in the blog portal Voxpublica that Romania's government will not appeal the sentence: "Romania's Orthodox Church continues to reject the idea of a priests' union, and has consequently complained to the government. The Church leadership finds such a union pointless, arguing that priests have a duty to ensure social peace. ... But in their communication to the government the Church leadership forgot to mention that there are already two priests' unions. ... All three unions will in the future expose abuse and corruption in Romania's Orthodox Churches. ... And it would certainly be problematic if in addition to paying for the priests' salaries and new churches, the government were also to pay for the expensive legal appeal." (03/02/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Social movements, » Trade unions, » Romania
All available articles from » Ciprian Domnişoru