Posted on 06/07/2004 3:14:55 PM PDT by quidnunc
A couple of weeks ago, an important player at the G-8 summit meeting that begins Tuesday told another international gathering to lay off beating up on the United States about the Iraq torture scandal. Enough had been said, he insisted, and the Americans were working "urgently to elucidate the situation."
Over on Sea Island, Georgia, where the summit talks are being held about 45 minutes' drive from here, even the Glynn County Committee to re-elect George W. Bush could not have shushed the detractors more confidently. They were a group of developing countries at a meeting of Latin American and European Union government leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico, who wanted to sharpen the wording of a joint statement that included disapproval of American prisoner abuse. No "new, explicit condemnation" was necessary, came the message from the administration's friend.
The straight-arm was the work of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, one of a series of tacit, don't-make-problems-for-Bush gestures from him since January that serve as broad political signals beyond divesting Schröder's Germany of its brand as American antagonist. Schröder's effort, which seems certain to win him the Strange Political Bedfellow of the Year Award, is a mixture of sincerity and calculation, now spelled out with a kind of shirt- tugging directness.
"I'm convinced of it," the chancellor said over the weekend when he was asked if the America of intervention in Iraq was the same generous nation of D-Day. "American democracy has not been diminished, whatever must be criticized about the war in Iraq or what's been learned about torture. The process of self-cleansing has been immediate and remarkable. Nobody has to doubt American democracy."
In some real respects, there is more here than verbal foam.
With the New Year, Germany signed onto Bush's Greater Middle East Initiative, and still spoke for it hopefully before the G-8 meeting. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who calls jihadist terrorism the new totalitarianism and the greatest global threat, has persisted in referring to the United States both as a beacon of democracy and a unique source of international stability. In March, Schröder agreed to a grandiloquently named German-American Alliance for the 21st century which, at the least, gave the Germans and Americans a sense of diminished tension and a common denominator for Middle East policy.
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(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Gee..the idea of removing a few divisions from Germany has a powerful ability to make one "focus"
Someone pinch me...
If we see any reform there, it's going to be transferring the seat from France to the EU.
Exactly my thoughts.
That would be a good thing, wouldnt it?
You noticed that, too, huh?
can't happen, the United Kingdom also has a seat. They're in the EEC too.
Multiply this butt-kissing a few dozen times, and just maybe we'll have our troops wave politely on their way out, Herr Schroeder.
It takes some places in the world longer to wake up to the threats to freedom than others. Not sure where their tack is taking them, but it's better than before. Murphy was an optimist, I sleep with one eye open, support "W" with trust but verify.
Redact on that..... I trust "W" and meant for it to mean exactly that. As far as some of our allies....that is where "trust but verify" is directed.
Not that the EU is a good thing but it would sway power away from France, which is a good thing.
Oil For Food, too?
The EU is not and will not be politically stable or viable enough for such a status enhancer. If the Security Council is to change it will be in the context of major overall reform. It's too archaic to be fixed by tinkering.
That what I think. A lot of recently "liberated" countries, like the Baltic States and Bulgaria, have shown a willingness to back the US, and would be a good counter to the commie french..
That won't happen because of the UK. But It would be wonderful if we could keep the UK and have just one EU seat in the either UN. It will never happen.
That won't happen because of the UK. But It would be wonderful if we could keep the UK and have just one EU seat in the either UN. It will never happen.
Schroeder has kissed up to Bush twice in the past and shafted him twice when it was politically expedient for him. I don't trust any of that bunch in Germany . . . and neither should W.
I was just thinking that too!! LOL!
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