MEDIA REACTION - IRAQ

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000011 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR R/MR, I/PP, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA, PM STATE FOR INL, INR/R/MR, NEA/IR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR KPAO OPRC PTER CI IR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - IRAQ ¶1. On January 4, conservative, influential newspaper-of-record "El Mercurio" (circ. 129,000) carried a column by international analyst Karin Ebensperger entitled "Iraq: The World is Waiting." Quote: ¶2. "Since my early studies of Political Science I have admired the values chosen by the American people to build up their republic. It is precisely because Washington brandishes such values in its international conduct that it can be required to respect them. Especially if the results, such as in Iraq, affect the rest of humankind by exacerbating hatred among civilizations.... Five years ago Islamic terrorists struck the New York Twin Towers. A heartbreaking attack that due to its implications required the United States, the Western world's symbolic power, to react by pursuing the authors and at the same time restoring the world's faith in a civilized world and the rule of law. Instead, we now have Saddam Hussein in the gallows, thousands of Iraqis and Americans dead, Iraq under civil war, and the U.S. President looking for a political exit to his invasion.... There is no doubt about the evil of Hussein's regime...but Islamic terrorism is something different.... President Bush seems to not have understood the spirit of the times in which he has had to lead his nation.... But what is worse is that he still does not understand the importance of gaining trusts, convincing his own and others that a war is inevitable, fair and necessary.... After the mistakes in Iraq, and considering the ill-fated consequences of his destabilization, the world anxiously awaits President Bush to distinguish himself and show a plan that rises to the occasion of a leading great power." YAMAUCHI