Cablegate: Media Reaction; Iraq; Us Financial Crisis and Hegemony;

VZCZCXYZ0021
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1658/01 2351317
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 231317Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9002
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001658

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; IRAQ; US FINANCIAL CRISIS AND HEGEMONY;
PDVSA; 08/23/07

1. SUMMARY STATEMENT

Local media carry opinion pieces on US President Bush's address to a
Veterans Convention; the US handling of the international financial
crisis; and PDVSA's special privileges in Argentina.

2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS

- "Specters"

Marcelo Cantelmi, international editor of leading "Clarn," writes
(08/23) "... Not long ago, the White House found out that its allied
Afghan President Hamid Karzai recognized Iranian cooperation against
Taliban's' fanaticism.

"Just a few days later, another president also featured as a
Washington puppet, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki, traveled to Tehran to
hug his counterparts and praise the Iraqi role in nothing less than
the pacification of the chaos in the Persian Gulf country...

"Those gestures from (Bush's) 'buddies' reveal the urgency of
finding ways of putting a brake on a war that has served no purpose
but to increase Iran's political power and bring the U.S. closer to
a resounding public defeat. What is surprising now is that Bush, in
contrast to what he has maintained for years, now compares the Iraqi
morass to Vietnam. Reportedly, he did so in a final effort to
prevent troops from returning home, which would give the worst
prospects to his party for next year's presidential elections.
However, it will be difficult for him to avoid it, and much less
with the threat of those specters.

"To connect Iraq to Vietnam is to evoke a similar fate and everyone
knows the way the US had to leave Southeast Asia. At the same time,
it adds an irrefutable element - if that collapse happened once,
what is different today to prevent it from occurring again?"

- "US crisis and hegemony"

Business-financial "El Cronista" carries an opinion piece by
economist Marcelo Lascano, who writes (08/23) "If something is clear
today, it is that US international hegemony remains unbreakable,
regardless of the difficulties the country may be going through...

"The challenge posed by the global financial crisis has been
successfully handled so far, although this does not mean that
underlying financial imbalances might disappear as a result of the
timely intervention of the US Federal Reserve and other central
banks...

"What we should stress is that without decisive US intervention, it
was unlikely that markets would have calmed down... This proves that
the US remains a sort of guarantor of relative international
financial stability, even when it should be held liable for some
institutional misdemeanors...

"Neither the new Europe, nor the Asian tigers, nor Russia or China
can parallel US decision-making and capacity for recovery. Whatever
the reason, the US is the least vulnerable power-broker in the
world...

"The value of the dollar may vary in the world..., but in view of a
crisis or official intervention, the truth is that the dollar
recovers its value, whether the result may not be convenient for the
exporters of the hemisphere... This is why the US should be set
apart from the rest of the world. It serves as harbor and guarantor
whenever difficulties become threats."

- "PDVSA's gloomy privileges"

Daily-of-record "La Nacisn" (08/23) editorializes "While the
cash-filled suitcase scandal remains unclear, and mysterious
Venezuelan businessman Guido Antonini Wilson's whereabouts are still
unknown, the indignation has come to the attention of the public
hat PDVSA flights have received unusual privileges for every
arrival in Argentina.

"This preferential treatment consisted of letting passengers on
those flights get off the plane in the military section of the
airport..., in which luggage is neither subject to thorough control
procedures nor scanned...

"... Why would the Kirchner administration have authorized such a
privilege?.. In addition to asking the Venezuelan government to fire
the PDVSA official involved, Argentine authorities should respond to
the many questions that are emerging about the circumstances, the
response for which they know and hide."

To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our
classified website at:
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires

WAYNE

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