[claudiustg]

---"Chilean journalists were critical of Bush's actions. Marcelo Romero, a reporter Santiago's newspaper La Cuarta, said: "All of us journalists agree that President Bush looked like a cowboy. It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy." ---

Maybe us "cowboys" should just visit some other South American country this winter. Perhaps, oh let's say, Argentina, might be more friendly!

[Salvey]

Bring back Pinochet.

[the_daug]

Chile sales lots of fruit here. Maybe tell the grocery chains not to purchase Chilean fruit.

[papasmurf]

You've only seen cowboys "act" on tv, now, you saw one, for real, in person...be glad he didn't have his "shootin' rrrron" on his side.

Total breach of protocol? Look who's callin' the kitty a pussy!

:O)

P

[JimSEA]

This was a planned series of incidents IMO. You cover security requirements with each country well befor the meeting. At least thyat was how it was here in Thailand, where things went smooothly. The only hitch was when Bush wantedto drive a "tuk tuk" to the dinner and his security didn't want him to go by tuk tuk. Needless to say, this was internal and Bush ended up driving the tuk tuk but Putin went in a limo due to safety concerns.

Chili wanted Bush to look like a jerk and did what they knew would cause a ruckus.

[El Oviedo]

Chilean journalists were critical of Bush's actions. Marcelo Romero, a reporter Santiago's newspaper La Cuarta, said: "All of us journalists agree that President Bush looked like a cowboy. It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy."

Marcelo cool your chiles man. I am glad you noticed the difference. You wished you were in our side huh? We serve 1 lb steaks not fish?

[Larry381]

Trotta walked in behind Bush, who looked enormously pleased with himself. He was wearing the expression that some critics call a smirk, and his eyebrows shot up as if to wink at bystanders

Notice the cheap shot by Mike Allen, scumbag reporter for the WP. Even when the President does something good out of loyalty to his SS detail the news media schmucks try to paint him in a bad light.

[joanie-f]

I am not at home and only in internet access periodically, so can only check in here occasionally over the next couple of weeks. Grabbing a few minutes this morning to write a couple of brief comments about this weekend’s fracas at the Asia-Pacific summit. Forgive any repetition of what may have already been said here … and I realize you all may well have much better-informed insights on this particular event, but I’ve never been one to bypass an opportunity to insert my two cents. :)

First, as generally happens, I don’t believe this extraordinary event is being treated as seriously as it should be by the mainstream media. Although I have had little chance to keep track of news events over the weekend, I am willing to bet that there has been more coverage of the interminable Scott Peterson murder case and the brawl at the Pistons/Pacers basketball game than there has been of this odd, and highly suspicious security breach that involved a man entrusted with protecting the President of the United States. This incident, just as the human atrocities that are currently being perpetrated and uncovered (mutilated bodies, recent victims, torture chambers …) in Iraq, need to be burned into our national consciousness. And both are being artfully side-stepped, and covered almost as an obligatory afterthought.

If my assumption is correct, I’m not surprised at the relative invisibility of this story in the mainstream media, and hope (and suspect) that the administration and its security/intelligence forces are viewing the incident much more seriously than the media are.

President Bush is not beloved in Chile -- or anywhere else other than in red-state (and much of blue-state) America for that matter. Such is often the fate of leaders who act in the name of liberty and human dignity, when the rest of the world is noncommital, at best, about both. Demonstrations against the war in Iraq are commonplace in Chile. The President is despised by terrorist organizations worldwide, most of which have active, spiderlike cells all over the west. We all need to realize that this ‘odd’ incident may well have represented step one in a possible assassination attempt. And any American who has not had that instinctual thought cross his mind over the last twenty-four hours is not as cognizant as he needs to be of the ever-present threat, pervasiveness, and immoral, obsessive nature of the international terrorist ‘crusade’.

The other thing that immediately struck me when I saw the video of the President being separated from his security agent, and then backtracking to retrieve him, is that this President, for all his domestic policy shortcomings, is a genuine leader. He reacted completely instinctually, as a leader so often must. And his instincts revealed courage, a take-charge mindset, loyalty to those entrusted with his protection, and deep strength of character. In the nearly four years since this man has been my President, including his magnificent leadership immediately after the attack of 9/11, his impressive handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the forbearance he showed during the recent vicious campaign, I have been most impressed by this one small incident. There was no time to reflect, no time to consult, no time to debate, no time to delegate responsibility. This potential crisis required an instantaneous response, and President Bush responded in the way I would want my President to respond. I daresay that no one since Ronald Reagan would have handled the situation as courageously, or as skillfully.

I used to be lukewarm in my support of our President, and I still disagree with him on a number of extremely important issues. But, over the past year and a half, where matters of the most urgency are concerned, he has shown himself to be a giant among men. And the taller he grows, the more those (both foreign and domestic) who are ‘stature challenged’ are going to be attempting to place him in their crosshairs. He himself may well have foiled the first stage of just such an attempt on Saturday.

~ joanie