Less spending, slow business: It's the 'Osama excuse'

Yoichi Funabashi, The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed many aspects of society, one of which is the emergence of the "Osama excuse."

Blaming the attacks for causing consumers to spend less and consequently hurting business has become prevalent among top managers. The market calls such reasoning the "Osama excuse." The sarcasm is targeted at managers who try to put the blame on Osama bin Laden to cover their incompetence.

The restaurant chain Planet Hollywood seems to blame the attacks for declining business. So does Bethlehem Steel, which went belly up. Even MGM also seems to attribute the failure of its newly released film Bandits to draw audiences to the terrorists.

Business is not the only area in which the Osama excuse is raging. Countries taking part in the multilateral effort to support the U.S.-led war against terrorism are also jumping on the bandwagon.

Russia is strengthening its offensive against Chechen guerrilla forces as part of "international solidarity" against terrorist groups that maintain ties with al-Qaeda. Russian President Vladimir Putin is supporting the U.S.-led war. In return, he expects the U.S. to turn a blind eye to Russia's oppression of Chechnya, win its cooperation in U.S.-Russia missile defense, help Russia build new relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and have its debts with the U.S. virtually canceled. The list of favors is getting even longer.

China is also trying to use the international war against terrorism to cover its suppression of separatists of the Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region. It is also treating the Falun Gong sect as if it is a terrorist group.

Islamic countries are also actively using the Osama excuse to suit themselves. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf successfully used it to stop the U.S. from leaning toward India (at least for the time being). U.S. aid that had been suspended since Pakistan's nuclear tests is also set to resume.

Turkey, which was met with a financial crisis in February when its currency suffered a sudden fall, obtained a $3-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund recently. The IMF says the loan is aimed at helping the troubled economy whose situation went from bad to worse after Sept. 11.

The behavior of the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is particularly crude. After Palestinian suicide bombers attacked Israel, he was quick to declare the Palestinian Authority led by President Yasser Arafat "an entity supporting terror." It is as if he was waiting for the opportunity.

Why not blame everything on Osama bin Laden? The trouble is that even the U.S. appears ready to use the Osama excuse to retaliate against Iraq.

However, Europe is wary of such moves. If the U.S. attacks Iraq, the action could be interpreted as revenge to finish off Saddam Hussein which it failed to do in the Persian Gulf War 10 years ago. Should that happen, the framework of existing multilateral cooperation could collapse.

A former Irish Cabinet minister who took part in an international conference in Hong Kong said: "The U.S. should not expand the front (beyond Afghanistan) nor should it prolong the war," and warned that "if the U.S. attacks Iraq, a serious rift will develop between it and Europe."

The multilateral effort to support U.S. action may urge Washington to turn to multilateralism but some participants voiced the view that as it is, it is a single-country multilateralism.

The Osama excuse is also raging in U.S. domestic politics. Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has called on the nation to act as one in the fight against terrorism and contained criticism by the Democrats. In the face of a national crisis, how can anyone raise an objection? The Osama excuse is quite useful.

A senior U.S. Democrat who attended the meeting lamented: "There is simply no domestic politics in the U.S. today. This is very unhealthy. It's time politics recovered esteem." In short, healthy criticism is needed.

Since we are fighting terrorism, people should turn a blind eye to minor violations of human rights, stop complaining and do as told. Such an excuse should not be tolerated.

Only when we persistently stick to the protection of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, can we endure the long and trying fight against terrorism. To begin with, protecting these values is what this war is about.