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