World Reacts To Impeachment
The impeachment of the leader of the world's only remaining superpower has sent shock waves around the globe.
European newspapers warned on Sunday that U.S. democracy risked being undermined by President Cinton's impeachment, but were markedly more critical of the president than when the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal first broke.
Many pointed out the irony of a superpower president ordering last week's strikes on Iraq while being threatened with removal from office at home.
"Not since the Tet offensive of 1968 has America experienced a festive season so traumatic and absurd at the same time," Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper said in an editorial, referring to action in the Vietnam War.
"The Christmas of the president's impeachment and the Iraq bombings are set to go down in history as a stain -- and one that grows bigger by the day," it said.
In Asia, analysts suggested Mr. Clinton's woes could harm U.S. influence in the region.
"The vote could mark the beginning of the loss of faith in the right course of American politics," said Shinichi Yoshida, senior political writer for the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun.
He said the Clinton scandal had led to a partial loss of faith among the Japanese people in the American system of government.
Some Asian analysts also feared that the impeachment could lead to a freeze on U.S. policy-making, upsetting markets worldwide.
"We are worried that the news will place downward pressure on New York stocks and we have to watch carefully what this news will mean for currency, bond and stock markets around the world," said Masaaki Higashida of Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo.
Malaysian newspapers, harsh critics of the Iraq air strikes, saw a connection between President Clinton's problems in Washington and the military strikes in Iraq.
"The latest round of missile attacks on Iraq has less to do with destroying the weapons of mass destruction, as the U.S. and its allies are accusing Iraq of manufacturing, than a last-ditch attempt by Clinton to stall the impeachment proceedings," the New Sunday Times said in an editorial.
In France, there was more sympathy for Mr. Clinton.
"The United States might well come out of this affair weakened...Clinton has without doubt much sinned. But the responsibility for this mad situation lies above all with the Republican majority in Congress," France's Le Monde said.
In a commentary headlined "Bloodsports," the liberal German daily Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung commented that the Republicans' pursuit of Mr. Clinton "rode roughshod over the will of the voters."
"It is no longer possible to explain the warlike and uncompromising mood in Washington in rational terms," it said.
©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report