VZCZCXYZ0028
OO RUEHWEB

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 
 
 
 
MARTINEZ 
MARTINEZ