Posted on 05/02/2006 4:22:33 AM PDT by Kurt_Hectic
US President George W Bush reportedly doesn't want to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Norway also seems to have lost an influential role within NATO, apparently, some say, because of Norway's lack of enthusiasm for the war in Iraq. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg reportedly isn't welcome at the White House.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Tuesday that Bush's staff had turned down a request from Stoltenberg's office for a meeting between the two at the White House. Bush, according to the report, was too busy to make room for Stoltenberg in the foreseeable future.
NRK reported that Bush's staff wouldn't set up the meeting because of the Norwegian left-center coalition government's criticism of the war in Iraq, and Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen's support for a boycott of Israeli products.
Jan Petersen, who was Norway's foreign minister in the last center-right government, told NRK that he feared a phone conversation Stoltenberg had with Bush shortly after last fall's election put a damper on relations between the US and Norway. In the conversation, Stoltenberg told Bush that Norwegian officers would be pulled out of Iraq.
Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor at the University of Oslo, said her sources also indicate that Norway no longer is part of the "inner circle" at NATO.
"My contacts in NATO and Washington say Norway was in the innermost circles in NATO, that we were a partner in this inner circle together with the US," Haaland Matlary told NRK. "Now these contacts say we aren't any longer."
Støre 'unaware'
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told NRK that he wasn't aware that a request for a meeting with Bush was denied. He maintained that the US continued to be an important ally for Norway, while White House officials claimed Norway also was an important ally for the US.
Indeed, Stoltenberg's government often has been criticized within Norway for being too eager to please the US. On issues ranging from the relocation of the US Embassy in Oslo to mixed signals on whether government ministers will meet representatives from Hamas, Stoltenberg has been accused of being too accommodating to US interests.
This in turn has raised concerns about a rift within his coalition government. Stoltenberg's Labour Party needs to cooperate with Halvorsen's Socialist Left, which has a far more critical line towards the US than Labour. A snub by Bush actually might help Stoltenberg appease the more left-leaning members of his government, and voters, at a time when the conservative Progress Party is leading in the polls.
The former center-right coalition government led by Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian Democrats, meanwhile, maintained good relations with Bush, even though Bondevik's government went on record as opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq from the start.
Our GDP growth is higher than of most Western countries and the US. So you are wrong.
As for the snubbing I dont think most people care. So its not a big deal.
The oil revenues are more than likely, millenial. (In fact, huge reserves are known and untouched, and many other areas look promising.) The cash the oil and gas generate is not.
The model is Saudi Arabia, in which the cash generated a population explosion, which no amount of oil revenue can afford to support in socialistic luxury. While I do not expect a Norwegian population explosion, their immigrant population, mostly Muslim, is growing by leaps and bounds. Not being culturally given to enthusiastic labor, these folks will demand the same gravy train as received by Norwegian Norwegians. That'll bust'em!
I definitely recommend that the Norwegian Royal Family lead the nation in demanding an entrance exam for all Muslims ... part of which is to consist of eating pork roast, rye crackers and lutefisk, and washing it all down with Akvavit. Survivors who then accept Lutheran doctrines, may be eligible to apply for residency, if good looking enough.
Survivors who accept Lutheran doctrines, may be eligible to apply for residency, if good looking enough and able to name all the parts of the running rigging of a Colin Archer Ketch, in Norwegian of both the Bergen and Oslo varieties.
I have owned three Cape Dorys. So I am aware of sailing and fishing.
I do however wonder how many good looking arab muslim females you have ever seen. Bet you can count them on one hand.
You need a sense of humor.
I understand that the majority of Norways folk are most wonderful. I also know that there were many during the second world war that resisted the nazis.
I also know that they are as significant as say the good folk of Iceland when it comes to world troubles.
You don't hear of the Hells Angels in Iceland causing great troubles. Nor do you hear of the say the Norwegians getting ready to nuke Latvia.
They did however yield to Germany so as to not get devoured.
I thought that for all intent and purposes Finland had succumed to Stalin ultimately.
Go ahead. We have oil spills bigger than that.
We are the third biggest oil exporter, pal.
Somebody told me the other day that Nato was basically a US operation, and he's right. Europe, fat and comfortable with US protection, climbs out of bed each morning consumed with envy, wondering how to crush the US economically. Kill the golden goose.
Germany's wondering out loud if they don't need nuclear weapons.
If it makes you feel any better, a good many Americans feel their President isn't bothering to listen to them, too. (Glaring lack of border security, invasion by Mexico...)
I'm one of those people!
I recall reading a book about Norway, THE TANGLED SKEIN, many years ago. It was all about Norway's exploits against Nazis in WWII. Perhaps eventually made into a movie under another name.
If Norway, Land of the Quislings, is so great, what are you doing in America? Why don't you go back to your socialist paradise?
Stories like this give fuel to the lefty stereotype of Bush as a vindictive jerk. I really hope it isn't true. Even if it isn't, Bush shouldn't open himself up to this kind of misrepresentation.
By the way, f*** you for your Quisling comments. People like you are a disgrace to this fine website.
My, my!
Aren't we touchy, sensitive and defensive.
When you have to resort to the "F" word, you've lost the the argument. But don't feel bad. We had a traitor in our history name of Benedict Arnold, but we hanged him!
Of course America also has dozens of heros to offset Arnold.
The only hero from Norway that has world-wide fame is Lief Ericson who got lost and found America but was too dumb to realize what he had.....and he's been dead for over 1000 years. Oh well, one hero every 1000 years is par for the course for Norway.
See ya around, Loser.
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