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Cablegate: Media Reaction: Week of November 10-16; 11/16/09; Buenos

Published: Mon 16 Nov 2009 08:44 PM
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DE RUEHBU #1254/01 3202045
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 162044Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0040
INFO RHMCSUU/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001254
SIPDIS
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KPAO KMDR PREL
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: WEEK OF NOVEMBER 10-16; 11/16/09; BUENOS
AIRES
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: WEEK OF NOVEMBER 10-16; 11/16/09; BUENOS
AIRES
1. SUMMARY STATEMENT
Leading international stories last week were related to: President
Obama's visit to China, Japan and South Korea; the war in
Afghanistan; and Israeli President Shimon Peres' trip to Argentina
and Brazil.
2. PRESIDENT OBAMA'S TRIP TO ASIA
- "Obama accompanies the world power's turn towards the Asian
region"
Leading "Clarin" carries an opinion piece by political analyst
Jorge Castro, who opines (11/15), "Barack Obama's trip to Asia is
in line with the world power's turn from the west to the east, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. Emerging and developing countries
account for more than half of the world GDP in terms of domestic
purchase power... Asia is the central region of the emerging world
and China is the axis of Asia. There is the hard chore of the
change in the world accumulation structure and the focus of the
world power's turn... Obama's rip to Asia indicates that the US is
adapting itself to a process that started two decades ago and that
will extend during the next 20 or 30 years.
"The US change is a response to a need because the power turn
towards the Asian region is a synonym of the most gigantic
industrial revolution in the history of capitalism."
3. AFGHANISTAN
- "Obama could order additional troops to Afghanistan"
Silvia Pisani, daily-of-record "La Nacion's" Washington-based
correspondent, comments (11/12), "Less than one month from his trip
to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama
seems to have made a decision on the difficult US war in
Afghanistan. And the step includes the shipment of additional
troops to the bloody front (15,000, 30,000 or 40,000 troops)...
Whatever decision Obama makes, he will do it against the US
society's increasing rejection of the US troops' stay in the Afghan
war. Obama's strategy is based on the acknowledgement that the
number of Taliban militants has strongly increased as well as their
al Qaeda allies. In parallel to his decision about the number of US
troops to be sent, Obama seeks to convince his NATO allies that
they should provide additional troops to the region. It does not
seem an easy task. So far, only UK and Turkey have offered their
support."
- "Obama's Vietnam"
Centrist "Perfil's" international analyst Fabian Calle (11/14)
comments, "There are few doubts that the war in Afghanistan, in
particular, and the AFPAK, generally speaking, pose a serious
challenge to the Obama administration. The same president himself
has called prestigious historians to analyze the similarities and
differences between this war and that of Vietnam and their impact
on the US domestic and international policy... Obama has already
sent some 34,000 soldiers and he could decide to send 41,000
more... Meanwhile, the US will speed up its retreat from Iraq in
2010. Obviously enough, the president's political and strategic
leadership will have to go through an acid test amid the campaign
for mid-term elections."
4. MIDDLE EAST
- "Middle East: lights and sparks among the shadows"
Marcelo Cantelmi, international editor of leading "Clarin,"
negative opines about the US strategy to obtain an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Cantelmi writes, (11/14) "The
(Middle East) scenario is that of a defeat for President Barack
Obama, whose torch of hope has long extinguished. Not only his
arrival to the Oval Office but his remarkable Cairo discourse last
June had fed the now failed illusion that the time had come for the
resolution of a conflict with a two-state formula... In the
meantime, Saudi Arabia has decided to bury long-standing rancor and
promote a rapprochement with Syria, Tehran's ally, with the
argument that a united Arab world could revive its leadership. The
move has been blessed by Washington, Riyadh's largest partner, and
it was not by chance. The US needs some good news in the Middle
East to prevent this disaster from triggering anti-US rage and to
stop being the symbolic partner of the Afghan-Pakistan rebellion."
5. SHIMON PERES TO ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL
- "Terrorism and aircrafts on the agenda"
Business-financial "Ambito Financiero" carries an opinion piece by
its columnist Edgardo Aguilera, who opines (11/13), "After five
days in Brazil, where he asked Congress to use a 'clear voice'
against terrorism and threats to the integrity of the State of
Israel, Shimon Peres will repeat this same message to the Kirchner
administration and the Argentine Congress. He will do so during a
meeting with the President and with a meeting with all the
ministers, excluding Nilda Garre... Peres will come along 40
businessmen from the sectors of defense, security, communication,
airlines, biotechnology, and the pharmaceutical industry. The
accent will be placed on the first three of them."
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our
classified website at:
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires
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