Eye on a crisis: Bush goes on offensive with military buildup

Major newspapers around the world focused on America's military buildup with the launching of Operation Infinite Justice.

In India, the Times of India after reporting the details of the story, focused on a a regional angle, quoting United States President George W. Bush as saying the terrorist strikes had given Washington the opportunity to "refashion thinking" between India and Pakistan."

"We will work and consult closely with Pakistan and India to make sure that that part of the world is as stable as it can possibly be stable," he said.

In an editorial, the paper contrasts two photographs it published, one showing schoolchildren in Mumbai (Bombay) showing support for the war against terrorism and the other image of students protesting on the streets of Karachi against the US. The images showed how conditioned responses of "adversarial otherness can be superimprinted on young impressionable minds."

Pakistani newspaper the Dawn reports on President Pervez Musharraf's key speech outlining the reasons for Pakistan's support for the US.

It says the country's existence, its economic survival, its defence of its nuclear installations and the Kashmir situation were the main factors.

In an editorial the paper looks at whether America's new "tough line" on Israel "represents a basic change in policy or is merely a temporary shift prompted by the crisis over terrorism."

Le Monde reports on French President Jacques Chirac's visit to the White House saying he had declared that military cooperation with the US was "conceivable." Die Welt reports on 30 "terror nests" in Germany.

The American press leads with the start of Operation Infinite Justice, which USA Today calls the "first concrete evidence" of war preparations.

In an editorial, the paper talks about the doubts of America's European allies who were "scuttling away" from even the word "war" and were forming a "parade of concerned foreign ministers" to the White House.

"But resolving allies' doubts and patiently developing a common mission, as the Bush Administration appears to be doing, should make the war plan more effective and the alliance more reliable."

In Britain, the Mirror, under the headline 'More to come?' raises the spectre of more attacks at the weekend. The paper says that a three-man death squad is being hunted in America. And other nations are believed to be on the hit list. The paper claims the FBI believes the three planned to hijack two internal US flights on Sunday New Zealand time.

The Sun breaks ranks with other papers by leading not with a terrorism story but with one about a TV quiz show.

The Daily Mail uses Bush's words "It's time for action, not words," with an article on his decision to order warplanes to the Middle East and Indian Ocean.

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