(c)sKerry
Posted on 11/21/2005 5:31:27 PM PST by freedom44
DESCENDANTS of Genghis Khan, the man who conquered half the world in the 13th century, rolled out the red carpet yesterday for the most powerful man of the 21st century.
George Bush stood to attention in the biting cold before an honour guard of Mongolian soldiers in blue and red uniforms and with sabres at the ready as the United States national anthem played to welcome the first serving American President to set foot in Ulan Bator.
Mr Bush chose to wrap up a four-nation Asian trip in this young democracy, where fewer than three million people, mostly nomads, live in a land three times the size of France. It was an opportunity to showcase Asia’s first communist country to adopt democracy, after his visit to China, where tougher issues such as freedom of religion, China’s yawning trade surplus and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions topped his agenda.
Buffeted by fierce criticism at home over his Iraq policies, Mr Bush saluted Mongolia’s troops taking part in the military coalition there. He paid tribute to two soldiers who shot a suicide lorry bomber before he could strike a mess tent in Iraq.
Mongolia’s force of 130 in Iraq makes it, with its population of 2.8 million, the third-largest contributor per capita to the coalition. “US armed forces are proud to serve beside such fearless warriors,” Mr Bush said.
Mongolia’s soldiers in Iraq serve within the Polish-led division and their work is confined largely to construction and logistics outside the town of Hilla. The last Mongolian forces to go to Iraq, led by a grandson of Genghis Khan in 1258, sacked Baghdad and killed an estimated 800,000 people.
Mr Bush spent about four hours in Mongolia — time enough for a brief speech in which he drew comparisons between his homeland and the country on the Central Asia steppes.
“Americans and Mongolians have much in common. Both our nations were settled by pioneers on horseback who tamed the rugged plains.
“Both our nations shook the yoke of colonial rule, and built successful free societies,” he said.
He proclaimed solidarity with Mongolia, and the crowd cheered when Mr Bush said that the US was Mongolia’s “third neighbour” — after China and Russia.
He met Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the Mongolian President, inside a ger — a white felt tent — in a courtyard of the government building. There he sat beneath a towering white statue of Genghis Khan, the legendary horseman warrior whose empire once stretched as far south as South-East Asia and west to Hungary.
Mr Bush hailed Mongolia’s vibrant democracy as an example to the region. Then the Texan rancher had his own close encounter with Mongolia’s horses, venturing outside the capital to sip fermented mare’s milk. “Really special,” he said.
"The last Mongolian forces to go to Iraq, led by a grandson of Genghis Khan in 1258, sacked Baghdad and killed an estimated 800,000 people."
And Murtha, Reid, Kerry and communist company are complaining about the 2200 US loses and 18000 mangeled or injured.
Something is wrong with this picture. I call it cowardice and not democratic debate!
John Kerry knows Genghis Khan!
That's "Jenjis" for those in the know.
That's actually a totally false statement. There was no Iraq at the time. Iraq was created in the 1920's. It was the Persian Empire and it was far before the Arabs invaded so the people were actually Persians or Iranians and not Arabs or modern Iraqis.
"John Kerry knows Genghis Khan!"
Yes indeed. Kerry et al "know" everything.
"That's actually a totally false statement."
I think inaccurate might be more precise than false.
But I didn't come to carp, I came to say, thanks for posting this. Good on W for visiting Mongolia, I read a very interesting piece on their emerging democracy a while ago. It was in the New Yorker Magazine, of all places.
And thanks to the Mongolians for serving bravely in Iraq.
Ah, the good old days.
"They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan..."
Um, there were certainly Arabs there, for jihad swept through much of the known world all the way into France within one century of Muhammad.
Jingiz Khan (Kerry tried to pronounce it 'correct' but got ti wrong) and his boys were operating in the 13th century.
Islam, with Arabs as its vanguard, had long ago conquered most of the Middle East.
(c)sKerry
It'd be nice if we could have an operation like that without any American casualties, but 2000 killed sounds like about the first half hour of Iwo Jima or any of those other small island battles in WW-II. The demokkkrat party has basically gone rogue and should be outlawed.
The Mongols of that time put a big dent in the Muslim empire. If it hadn't been for that, perhaps Christian Europe would not have prevailed in later times.
A version of the story is told in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great.
Bush as a modern day Marco Polo? ping
Seriously, who goes to Mongolia?
BTTT!!
"Seriously, who goes to Mongolia?"
Well, I had a thing going with this girl who was from Mongolia, some years ago.
So, you could say Mongolia came to me...or some permutation based on those words....
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