MEDIA REACTION; SEPTEMBER 11 ANNIVERSARY; IRAQ; 09/10/07

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001797 SIPDIS STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION; SEPTEMBER 11 ANNIVERSARY; IRAQ; 09/10/07 ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT Weekend major international stories are related to the implications and consequences of the September 11 attacks on its sixth anniversary; and the state of affairs in Iraq. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS - "Doomed to success" Daily-of-record "La Nacisn" carries an opinion piece by international columnist Jorge Elas, who writes (09/09) "... Six years after the September 11 attacks, the US has not recovered the wave of sympathy it generated on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. (The US) did not even manage to change its foreign image, which can be summed up as imperial adventures guided by a certain dangerous arrogance... "... The Muslim world, which is informed more by Al-Jazeera than by CNN, raises a basic question that has never received an adequate response - how can one trust a country that has always supported dictatorships in the name of stability and that, in order to promote democracy, declared pre-emptive wars and, through them, violated human rights and raised suspicion with its need for oil...? Iraq, without WMD or ties to Bin Laden, had no involvement whatsoever in the attacks against the Twin Towers... "... The war against Iraq, which Bush knew from the very beginning was doomed to success, had a lot of collateral damage. Among others, there is the massive exodus of people towards safer areas of the country or other countries - on average, 40,000 per month; in total, over two million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is the largest exodus in the Middle East since ¶1948. "... Six years after the horror, only a few would still dare say 'Nous sommes tous Amricains.'" - "S-11 sixth anniversary - more surveillance, less security" Oscar Ral Cardoso, international analyst of leading "Clarn," opines (09/08) "On the verge of the S-11 sixth anniversary, it seems inevitable that new episodes, some of them even violent, will mark the (anniversary of the) date on which the West entered the endless 'global war on terrorism' by imposing a 'pre-emptive paradigm,' as defined by the Bush administration... "... This is one of the central problems posed by the 'pre-emptive paradigm:' its credibility derives from the fact that government officials distribute blame without feeling obliged to offer the evidence that would make it possible to identify those responsible. "Oh, they also expect that racially profiling those accused (Asian Muslims) will eliminate questions and cause everyone to take it for granted that their announcement is true. It seems to be a Third Reich 'property' that some have decided to pull out of the archives. "... The prevailing climate in Germany seems to have reached a climax in which one can believe the worst could happen. Given that Germany does not have troops in Iraq and its presence in Afghanistan is rather symbolic, Germans appeared convinced that terrorism used to be a problem for the rest of Europe but not for Germany itself. "According to a 2005 opinion survey, only 38 percent of Germans seriously believed that a major terrorist attack could be launched against them during the following decade. The US Marshall Fund in Europe carried out the same opinion survey this year only to find out that the fear is almost two-folded - 70 per cent of the people believe that they will be affected by international terrorism in the future. "The Merkel-led governmental coalition should decide whether it will pass a series of legal amendments that will seriously limit citizens' rights to defend themselves from the Government's intruding scrutiny... "Six years after the September 11 incidents, we should rethink where we are heading for in terms of democratic guarantees." - "Osama comes back in a renewed fashion" Gustavo Sierra, international columnist of leading "Clarn," writes (09/09) "... Six years after the September 11 attacks, the people prefer to... turn the page and let it pass into personal and collective history. However, some more time, perhaps a generation, will have to pass for the September 11 events to be seen from a historic perspective. "The only living reminder is the fact that the man who gave the order to attack is still alive. Bin Laden knows this is his most important asset and uses it adeptly. Five days before the anniversary a video was made public in which he looks renewed... "The September 11 events will not pass into history until Osama is captured, dead or alive. Seemingly, this (as well as the end of the war) will be a duty of the next US President." - "'Coming home'" Santiago O'Donnell, international columnist of left-of-center "Pgina 12," opines (09/09) "After considerable wavering, US troop withdrawal has started in Iraq. It began last Monday with Bush's six-hour trip to Iraq, the third one since the war started in 2003. This time, the US president did not meet with troops, not at least for the photo-op, and instead, he met with Iraqi leaders from several factions, with General David Petraeus, in charge of the invading army, and with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Nothing is by chance... In this way, Bush played a symbolic role, traveling to Iraq to bring troops home and transfering power to Iraqi leaders. "... Additionally, Bush admitted last week that the Iraqi government has not been able to capitalize on the new military scenario in order to meet Washington's political goals... "... What Bush does not say when he criticizes Al Maliki is that there is a direct relationship between the military strategy in Anbar and the president's political weakness, and that Maliki's weakness is the main obstacle to reaching the accord demanded by Washington. "Truly enough - the Sunni leaders in Anbar are very happy. The US army has empowered its militias to act as a police force. In the past, it used to fight them. Now it organizes and trains them... Al Maliki's mostly Shiite government is irritated by the fact that its US allies train Sunni opponents, who only have to wait until their new tutors leave to start attacking the government. "Maliki has already told Bush that he opposes the Anbar strategy and, in order to dispel any doubts about his position, he increased his ties to Iran, the Shiite power in the region. It is not by chance that Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he is willing to 'fill the gap' left by the US in Iraq. "In this way, any illusion of the possibility of coming home covered with glory is at odds with reality. All social, political and military indicators available show that Iraq is worse off than before the invasion. WMD never appeared. Terrorism is multiplying. The boys never learned the White House script. They should have been Rambos, but they died for nothing..." To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires WAYNE