By Charles Trueheart
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 21, 1998; Page A24

PARIS, Dec. 20 – A global audience today sought to make sense of the bizarrely linked dramas emanating from Washington over the weekend.

The provisional reaction was relief that the U.S. and British airstrikes against Iraq had ended after four days, mixed with lingering bitterness in many quarters that force had been used at all. The coincidence of President Clinton's impeachment at the climax of the second Persian Gulf air war only intensified the impression of the lone global superpower operating under historic duress.

To the Journal de Dimanche, the only Sunday newspaper here in Paris, the political struggle in Washington was nothing short of "pitiable," with the bombings in Iraq "only adding drama to the ridiculous."

To editor Alain Genestar, writing in a front-page editorial, "these days have an air of decadence, of the end of something. Already it is the end of an illusion born in the ruins of the Berlin Wall: that of a world where America would be the example of modern democracy and the guarantor of law. It is neither one nor the other."

Outside the United States, the personal failings and deceptions of politicians are considered par for the course, so the spectacle of the generally admired Clinton under attack for adultery and for trying to hide it has been watched with persistent disbelief lately turned to sadness and even anguish.

The vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday to impeach the president was more evidence, in many foreign eyes, of a system gone badly awry – "the beginning of the loss of faith in the right course of American politics," in the words of Shinichi Yoshida in the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, or "an attempted constitutional coup d'etat by the Republicans," in the words of the left-leaning British newspaper the Observer.

At the same time, Clinton's decision to punish Saddam Hussein with a bombing campaign was regarded as at best a geopolitical misjudgment and at worst a cynical effort to rescue his faltering presidency. Protesters in Paris Saturday called Clinton an "assassin," reflecting not just popular opinion in France and elsewhere in Western Europe, but echoing that in many capitals of Muslim countries.

The New Sunday Times of Malaysia, in an editorial, described the Iraqi operation as "less to do with destroying the weapons of mass destruction . . . than a last-ditch attempt to stall the impeachment proceedings."

There was something about the combination of events besetting Clinton that stoked a sense of pessimism about the U.S. president's future. "It's time to show Bill the door and say hello to Gore," said a flippant editorial in Britain's best-selling tabloid, Rupert Murdoch's News of the World. Columnist Max Soliven of the Philippine Star newspaper lashed out at the Republican-dominated Congress: "Stabbing an American president and commander in the back while American servicemen, sailors, aviators and marines are in the process of engaging an enemy . . . is never forgiven."

Leaders found various ways to say they were happy the bombing was over, while generally reserving comment on Clinton's domestic political problems.

"What's most important is that the raids have ended and that there is a cease-fire," said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Clinton's partner in Operation Desert Fox, said it was "not right" for him to comment on the impeachment proceedings.

France, Japan and Australia were among the countries whose governments coupled their relief with renewed admonitions against Saddam Hussein to become a better world citizen. "Any new provocations will not be without consequences," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

One of the most stinging repudiations of the airstrikes came from Pope John Paul II. "Not only do I feel profound sorrow for the Iraqi people, but I am also bitter to see how often the hopes invested in the power and validity of international law . . . are disappointed," the pope said in his weekly Angelus speech to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in Rome. "I say again: War has never been and will never be the right way to solve problems between nations."