These are excerpts from newspaper editorials from around the world that may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers:

The Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News, on the possible invasion of Iraq:

Pennsylvania's Sen. Arlen Specter is right.

President George W. Bush should spell out a case for invading Iraq and get Congress' consent before beginning a military engagement to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.

There's little doubt the president could make a strong case for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam.

... Yet try as it may, the US government has thus far been unable to make any solid connection.

Shouldn't we have something more like a smoking gun before we commit perhaps 250,000 troops to an invasion? This time around, it probably won't be like Gulf War I.

The sequel is likely to involve biological and/or chemical weapons if Saddam indeed has them (and who in his right mind doubts that?). Faced with an invasion by the world's only remaining superpower, the Iraqi dictator would have little to lose by unleashing such pestilence. These realities must be debated by Congress and the public before such an expensive and risky operation takes place. ...

Many argue a congressional declaration of war would remove the element of surprise.

As if our president's active planning to oust Saddam isn't already the worst-kept secret in the world. ...

Keep the pressure on for debate, Sen. Specter.

The Scotsman, Edinburgh, on land reform in Mugabe's Zimbabwe (August 14):

Radical land reform was both essential, and inevitable, for post-independence Zimbabwe. Rhodesia's founding in the late 19th Century saw the wholesale seizure of the country's fertile and most habitable high veldt in favour of white farming dynasties who lived extraordinarily well in an horrifically unequal society. The advent of black majority rule in 1980 demanded a fair redistribution of land.

What has been appalling, and disastrous, is the way the process has been hijacked by Robert Mugabe and his cronies, as a means of lining their pockets and staying in power. The willing-seller, willing-buyer structured land reform in which British officials once played a key role has given way to chaotic, murderous land-grabbing. ...

Private-plot black farmers can still grow maize. The majority Shona tribe, in particular, have proved themselves skilled land managers. But it is Zimbabwe's crop of flue-cured tobacco that has delivered up to one-third of the country's export earnings, and this cash crop is simply not suitable for small-scale farming. The resulting desperation for foreign exchange to pay for oil has put Mr. Mugabe ever more in hock to his friend, Libyas Colonel Muammar Gadhafi.

Pressure from Mr. Mugabe's African neighbours may have tempered the brutality and speed of farm evictions, but it has not changed his basic policy. Mr. Mugabe has amply demonstrated that he will never let the ballot box stand between him and power.

The opposition is no position to force him out. It is thought that 60 percent of white farmers now targeted by his government are defying eviction orders. Nine have been murdered to date. Another tragic showdown surely beckons in Zimbabwe.