US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA762

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000762 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/PDA(BUCKLEY), WHA/CEN, PD TASK FORCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, PREL, KPAO, PGOV, IZ, HO 
SUBJECT:  MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ MARCH 3/22-24/03 
 
 
1.  "El Heraldo" moderate Tegucigalpa-based daily 3/22: 
Apuntes: "The European Union, the Republic of China and 
Vladimir Putin have discovered that Bush can count on the 
complete support of the Senate, including that of senators 
who were against the Iraq invasion." "The U.S. is the empire 
no matter who is in power, and the `empire' won't stop until 
it consolidates its rule of the planet.unless, of course, a 
bipolar world re-emerges with the Europeans or Chinese on 
one side and the U.S. on the other." 
 
2. "El Heraldo" "Shock and Awe" 3/24: The unpopular invasion 
of Iraq is in its most devastating phase - the  `Shock and 
Awe' phase, which equals `terrorism' according to some of 
the posters held by protesters. There are many people who 
lived the terror and lost dear ones on September 11 
participating in the protests against the war. They better 
than anyone understand the pain and damage caused by 
terrorism --the longer this war lasts, the bigger will be 
the number of victims."  Now that the U.S. has broken 
international law with the invasion, we have no choice but 
to pray for this nightmare to end sooner than later so that 
the Iraqi people can stop suffering." 
 
3. "El Heraldo" 3/22, "Pandora's Box"  by Noe Pineda 
Portillo. 
"The attempt to force the U.N. Security Counsel to authorize 
military action opened a large breach between the U.S and 
the countries that supported a diplomatic resolution." 
Before opening the Pandora's box, the U.S. and England 
should have listened and pondered the U.N. role, and 
understood that the world is a system of nations. 
 
" Bush believes that those who criticize its unilateral war 
against Iraq are opposed the U.S.  That is a false 
assumption.  It is public knowledge that Saddam Hussein is a 
dictator even with his own family.  But it is up to the 
International Court of Justice to look for a resolution 
through a course of action like they did with Milosevic.  A 
one-sided war will not only bring terrible economic 
consequences, it'll increase Islam reaction around the 
world, exacerbating fundamentalism to a real terrorist 
threat around the globe." 
 
4. El Heraldo 3/24  - in their daily section called "Today's 
villain," "Today's Hero,--"the Villain was "Fidel Castro: 
For taking advantage of the war against Iraq to send to 
prison those who oppose to his communist regime." The Hero 
was Pacifism: "For bringing hope to people around the world 
and standing against those who love death, pain and 
destruction." 
 
Palmer