MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ, MARCH 17, 2004

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000652

SIPDIS

FOR WHA/PDA, IIP/G/WHA, IIP/T/ES, NEA/NGA, WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP PREL KPAO PGOV HO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ, MARCH 17, 2004



1. Editorial in Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El
Heraldo" on 3/17 entitled "They should come back." "The
bloody terrorist attacks in Madrid last week, the defeat of
Jose Maria Aznar's Partido Popular in Spain, and the
announcement by recently elected Spanish Prime Minister
Rodriguez Zapatero that their troops will leave Iraq by June
30 if the U.N. doesn't approve a resolution on the Iraqi
occupation, confirm that everyone who opposed the first
illegal and immoral `preventive war', including EL HERALDO,
were absolutely right, as well as all those who opposed the
sending of Honduran troops to the Iraqi occupation."

"In many ways, the Honduran people have expressed their
disagreement with the decision to get involved in the Iraqi
conflict. The disclosure of all those lies used by the Bush
administration to justify the invasion and occupation has
done nothing but confirm the fact that there were no valid
reasons to destroy the cradle of human civilization and
cause so much pain and suffering to the Iraqi people."

"The war in Iraq wasn't even about fighting terrorism,
because, so far, no one has been able to prove any ties
between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."

"On the other hand, Honduran troops shouldn't be expected to
ensure public safety and help rebuild another country, as
long as there's so much insecurity and so much to do here in
our own country."

"The Maduro administration made a terrible mistake by
sending Honduran troops to Iraq, and that needs to be fixed,
before we seriously have something to regret by getting
involved in a cause that's not fair, moral, legal, and,
especially, not ours."

Palmer