Cablegate: Media Reaction: Iraq Study Group Report; Western

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TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT; WESTERN
HEMISPHERE: PINOCHET'S DEATH; SAO PAULO

1. "Exit Door"

Liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo
editorialized (12/10): "The Iraq Study Group report clearly says
that the situation is bad and that there is not much one can do to
improve it.... The document is an opportunity for the White House to
change the focus of its policy and prepare the withdrawal, a
graceful exit, as the US media says. The question is to know whether
President Bush will grab it. So far, indications have been
ambiguous. Bush continues to say that the US will remain in Iraq
'until the victory' - something that the report discards as a
feasible goal - but he has already removed the Secretary of Defense
who planned the invasion, and replaced him with Robert Gates, who
has a very critical view of the situation. Bush maintains that he
will not negotiate with Iran or Syria directly, but has already
authorized Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki to call a regional
peace conference, an event that would put Washington in contact with
Tehran and Damascus. Everything indicates that without admitting
that the Iraqi adventure was a disaster, Bush is willing to adopt a
damage reduction policy. It is possible, however, that it is too
late for Iraq. The invasion launched Iraq into a civil war that is
expected to prolong for years. If the US troops leave Iraq in a
hurry it is possible that the nation will fragment into smaller
states. The only certainty is that the intervention, whose only goal
was to democratize and pacify the Middle East, has become another
focus of tensions and terror."

2. "Bush's Chance To Save Face"

The lead editorial in cener-right national circulation daily O
Estado de S. Paulo (12/8) underscored: The Iraq Study Group report
giver President Bush everything he could hope for if he has a spark
of common sense: bipartisan political support to terminate his
[Iraqi] adventure before leaving the White House in January 2009.
The report is highly realistic: it does not see any possibility of a
proud US withdrawal or civilized Ira after that, in addition to
condemning the conduction of the post war period. It recognizes that
there is no hypothesis for Washington to win by the force the
insurrection against the occupation.... The Group supports the
participation of both Iran and Syria in the process, and goes deep
into the problem by indicating that without fostering peace between
Israelis and Palestinians, involving Syrians and Lebanese, nothing
good will happen in the Middle East. The report does not leave room
for misunderstandings. Its intention is to pave the way to prevent
the worst - a bloodshed tending to spread as result of an
intervention, in opposite fields, of Saudi Arabia and Iran, and
possibly Turkey, thereby inexorably involving the 140,000 US troops
who are already cornered and disoriented midst the chaos (already
longer that the US involvement in the WWII).... But Bush's initial
reaction to the document was only tepid.... Actually, Bush does not
need to surrender. It will be sufficient just by continuing saying
the wrong things, and allowing the right thing to be done that he
can save face."

3. "Two Pinochet periods - One Alive, Another Dead"

Political columnist Clovis Rossi wrote in liberal, largest national
circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (12/11): "Pinochet, synonymous
with human rights violations and disrespect to public liberties and
civil rights, has fortunately disappeared from Latin America. The
fact that Pinochet died in the same month that concluded a
successful electoral cycle in the region - the civilized way of
resolving political or ideological differences - is a pleasant
coincidence. It is true that in the recent series of elections,
voters elected in some cases caudillo candidates such as Venezuelan
Hugo Chvez and Bolivian Evo Morales. But regardless of totalitarian
temptations, the fact is that there are no political prisoners in
Venezuela or Bolivia, the media is free, the political parties are
working regularly, the elections were considered free and fair by
foreign observers - everything contrary to what happened in
Pinochet's Chile."
Wolfe

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