VZCZCXYZ0017
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSG #0011 0041505
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041505Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0660

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