Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said the world must learn to 'respect' America as he again voiced his support for war in Iraq. By Jason Deans.
By Guardian Newspapers, 4/3/2003
Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has shown true American patriotism by declaring that it was important that the world learned to "respect" America.
Referring to the American people as "we" , Mr Murdoch said the public was far too worried about what the rest of the world thought of the US's declaration of war on Iraq.
He said he believed Americans had an "inferiority complex" about world opinion and that Iraqis would eventually welcome US troops as liberators.
Mr Murdoch told a conference in California it would be "better to get [the Iraq] war done now" rather than have a longer conflict that could prove more damaging to the world economy.
"We worry about what people think about us too much in this country. We have an inferiority complex, it seems," he said at the Milken Institute Global Conference yesterday.
"I think what's important is that the world respects us, much more important than they love us," added Mr Murdoch, who is Australian but took American citizenship in 1985 to get around ownership rules that barred foreigners from owning TV stations.
He had just bought 20th Century Fox and a set of local American TV stations but battled to persuade the Reagan administration that the companies remained in American control. In the end he had to change nationalities in order to convince the federal communications commission.
His company News Corporation's media interests in the US include the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, the Fox film and TV production studio and the New York Post.
Mr Murdoch, who is based in New York, said a long war could heavily influence the US and global economies, while creating political instability in the Middle East and elsewhere.
He suggested a decisive US effort for a quick end to the conflict would be better than a protracted battle.
"There is going to be collateral damage. And if you really want to be brutal about it, better we get it done now than spread it over months," he said.
Mr Murdoch also warned that the world should be prepared for more terrorist attacks.
"It's very possible to see freelance suicide attempts both here and in London, and that would psychologically shake this country up," he said.
Mr Murdoch has been a staunch supporter of war and has given several interviews in the run up to the attack on Iraq expounding his beliefs.
All of his newspapers back the war, which he believes is the only way to rid the Middle East of Saddam Hussein.
In his Sydney Daily Telegraph earlier this year, he said he thought "Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it".
