MEDIA REACTION; NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT; PRESIDENT OBAMA

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001126 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; NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT; PRESIDENT OBAMA WINNING NOBEL PEACE AWARD; PROJECT SYNDICATE; ARGENTINE BUSINESS OUTLOOK; 10/13/09; BUENOS AIRES ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT Weekend international opinion pieces and editorials are related to UN Security Council Resolution 1887 in favor of nuclear disarmament; President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize; the Project Syndicate association of newspapers' seminar on climate change; and Argentina's contradictions in dealing with the IMF. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS - "The UN favors nuclear disarmament" Leading "Clarin" editorializes (10/10),"While the UN Security Council pledged its backing for broad progress on long-stalled efforts to staunch the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the Iranian government carried out another military exercise to exhibit its missile power... "The UN is redefining its founding, which can no longer be that of the balance of power and nuclear terror... "UN Resolution 1887 calls to 'seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons.' This resolution is two-sided - it certifies a strong US commitment towards multilateralism as well as an agreement among Russia, China and the European countries aimed at reinforcing nuclear disarmament and putting at bay the arms race that is being encouraged by nuclear programs such as that of Iran." - "Obama and the fruits of a tree that has not grown yet" Leading "Clarin" carries an op-ed piece by international editor Marcelo Cantelmi, who opines (10/10),"The Nobel Peace Award granted to Barack Obama is an unexpected gift that perhaps hides a 'trick in the package.' This new load of prestige amplifies his power of negotiation. "What has happened is not big news for Israel and, to a different degree, it is not big news for Iran either. This award will give more voice to those who are against them at the White House. This is what this decision seems to be about. The thorniest conflict in the world is the Middle East confrontation and the Afghanistan-Pakistan 'hell.' The Norwegian Academy seems to have focused on this scenario expecting the fruits of a tree that has not grown yet. "... The Peace Nobel Prize is not necessarily cynical. A more diverse view is warranted. Obama has merits that should be highlighted. After one decade of disintegration of the concepts of State and nation carried out by George W. Bush, the Democratic president revived the ideas of a 'common humanity' and a 'collective awareness' in front of the tremendous horror of these times... "Nevertheless, Obama has had to backtrack in almost all the fields he stepped into. The Guantanamo prison in Cuba (which he had promised to close next year),will stay there with its compelled guests. The president denounced torture, but there will not be any lawsuit against those who implemented it. The rapprochement with Latin America at the Trinidad Tobago Summit and his message to Cuba that 'we are not trying to impose anyone any system of government...', was not the gateway to a new start in the US-Cuban relationship and the relationship between the US and the hemisphere. The embargo remains and the US revisited Cuba's status as a country sponsoring terrorism, which is a Cold War anachronism. "Obama did generate a higher level of confidence with Russia by dismantling the missile bases in order to focus on his main concern, the Middle East and Iran. Now, his administration is determined to put an end to Israel's challenge, which refuses to put an end to its illegal settlements in Palestinian lands, which are crucial to regional instability... He also has to decide whether he will reinforce troops on the Afghan front. Everything is inter-related." - "A call to the world to save the planet" Daily-of-record "La Nacion" carries an opinion piece by its special envoy to Copenhagen, Hugo Caligaris, who writes (10/13),"Pollutant countries do not want to stop polluting the environment. Political leaders dare not to put at bay polluters because they believe that if they do so, they will have less money in the future, and scientists cannot tame what will be the pauperization or total destruction of the Earth... Only journalists are left aside, the only ones who are able to generate a strong trend of opinion that will compel political leaders to change their direction. In part they did so - the topic is already on the table, there is greater awareness than some years ago. However, we should struggle harder because danger is increasing. "This is what important political leaders, economists said at a Project syndicate seminar, in preparation for the UN World Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Copenhagen. "... China's emergence as a power was not a positive environmental news, since it is the bigger green house gas emitter (23%) vis-`-vis 21% of the US. Average temperature increases, the poles are thawed, oceans get warmer. "... How to reverse this? The prevailing idea regarding the December summit is to seek a world commitment to lowering carbon dioxide emissions by 25-40% for 2020. Europe and Japan are already on this front. Only the rest of the world is missing... "Obviously enough, it seems this commitment will fail or will have several exceptions... "Another idea is a world tax on carbon dioxide... However, this is not easy. Who would collect the tax? Who would monitor that the tax is rightly implemented? How would an emerging power be prevented from collecting a lesser tax or from not collecting any tax with the purpose of stealing investors from its neighboring countries? These questions still do not have a unanimous response..." - "Depression and repression" An editorial in liberal English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" reads (10/12),"Perhaps few countries grappling with the global economic crisis offer as contradictory a business outlook as Argentina - on the one hand, Argentine bonds are soaring amid solid reserves and a sturdy trade surplus as the markets take seriously the government' rapprochement with the IMF despite (or perhaps even because of) its rhetoric while on the other hand, the investment climate could hardly be worse amid mass uncertainty. Perhaps the root of this contradiction is a government moving two ways at the same time - on the one hand, a return to international markets is being persistently sought and on the other hand, the government's broadcasting bill drives a coach and horses through legal security by brushing aside acquired rights (quite apart from the threatened expropriation of Papel Prensa newsprint). International investors suspect that the media bill boils down to an elaborate way of hiding the primal lie of INDEC statistics bureau's inflation data with more lies. "Yet the government's churlish overtures to the IMF are accepted internationally as sincere because they are based on genuine fiscal need. The general line taken by the Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner administration is that the IMF's credibility has been so battered by the global crisis that Argentina can return on its own terms but the contradiction of going to the IMF without any admitted need constantly belie this ideological strength... "In fact when the government denies seeking any IMF loan, it is quite right not to perceive this as Argentina's main necessity - the real need... is for more investment and this will not come to a country with a voracious state which does not hesitate to sacrifice private economic interests to its political battles. Perhaps the CFK administration needs to face up to this contradiction between its newfound openness to the outside world and a crudely statist media bill sooner rather than later." To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires MARTINEZ