US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA2827

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002827 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/PDA (OHILTON), IIP/G/WHA, IIP/T/ES, NEA/NGA, WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, PREL, KPAO, MOPS, PGOV, HO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE, DECEMBER 
3, 2003 
 
 
1. Editorial in Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" 
on 12/3 entitled "The End".  "At some point in our recent 
history, conventional wars, guerrilla wars like the one the 
U.S. army encountered in Vietnam, gave way to terrorism as 
the most significant threat. We now see in the Middle East, 
Africa, some South American countries, and the 9/11 attack 
in the U.S. that terrorism is the most devastating threat to 
humanity." 
 
"When we hear and read the news about the difficulties of 
the allied forces in Iraq, the attacks against American 
troops, the recent terrorist actions against diplomatic 
missions in other countries, the suicidal attacks of Iraqis 
against their own countrymen or the occupation forces, or 
last weekend's incident that took the lives of seven Spanish 
secret agents, has inevitably brought to our mind what 
 
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happened in Vietnam." 
 
"There are so many war fronts around the world.  Right now, 
North Korea and Iran are being closely watched to prevent 
them from developing nuclear weapons, the eternal clash 
between Arabs and Jews that has made the Middle East such an 
unstable and volatile region, and in the meantime both Osama 
bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are still unaccounted for. 
Humanity is now exposed to a terrible and new threat, and 
it's still impossible to predict how it will end." 
 
Palmer