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