Posted on 08/12/2006 12:59:12 PM PDT by Wolfstar
_ Tuesday, the President will participate in a National Security Council and Homeland Security Council briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia. He will have a meeting with the counterterrorism team, attend lunch with the counterterrorism and homeland security teams, and also meet separately with the homeland security team. According to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, these are long-scheduled meetings, and are not a reaction to the recently discovered plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States. However, the investigation will be part of their discussion.
_ Wednesday, the President will travel to York, Pennsylvania, where he will participate in a tour of Harley Davidson vehicle operations. He will also participate in a roundtable on the economy and attend a Lynn Swann for Governor reception.
_ Thursday, the President will sign HR4, the Pension Protection Act of 2006, at the White House. Later in the day he will travel to Camp David.
_ Friday, GWB will participate in a meeting with his economic advisers. He will spend Saturday at Camp David and return to the White House on Sunday, the 20th.
What other theme could there be this Saturday, just two days after the magnificent work the United Kingdom did in breaking up a monstrous terrorist plot to take down multiple airliners? Today's photo essay tells a story that will be more fully told in the years to come, but photos can be uniquely revealing at any time.
Rarely on the world stage are such close professional, personal, and consequential bonds formed between two national leaders such as the remarkable relationship between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Honorable Tony Blair, and the President of the United States, the Honorable George W. Bush. (This thread is a tribute to both of them. I place Mr. Blair's name first here only in the same sense as one puts a guest in one's home first.)
Certainly other comparable pairings occurred in the vast sweep of human history: At the birth of our country, the unlikely duo of Washington and Lafayette formed both a life-long friendship and political alliance that eventually brought France into the War for Independence on the American side. Closer to our own time, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, while perhaps never truly friends, nevertheless formed a very close alliance that towered over their era and won WWII. More recently, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher formed a life-long friendship and political alliance that defeated the Soviet Union.
Those relationships (and comparable parings going back as far as Antony and Cleopatra) certainly have make their mark on world history. But there is something quite unique about the bond between Tony Blair and George Bush. Something that is at once easy to see in these photos, and yet difficult to capture in words. The best way I can put it is that they truly appear to have become like brothers and yet more.
In their respective domestic politics, the two men could hardly be more different. We American conservatives surely would chafe under Mr. Blair's domestic policies, which would have a home in the American Democrat Party. Nor are the two men in total lock-step in international affairs. Yet, as the photos on this thread will clearly show, the two have formed a deep, comfortable friendship that is likely to last their entire lives. And, on the central issue of our times, international Islamofacist terrorism, these two men certainly have provided rock-solid world leadership on a par with that of Roosevelt and Churchill.
Unlike the definitive ending to WWII, we are not likely to know how the story of these times plays out for decades to come. Yet we do know now that these two great men -- I use great here in a sense far larger than mundane politics -- have given their all. They've tried their best and then some. They have done everything possible to protect the peoples of the United States and United Kingdom from the monsters that walk among us. Through it all, they seem to fit each other like a comfortable pair of gloves with the fingers intertwined, each giving support and strength to the other.
The "Brothers 'B' " have freed tens of millions, handing those people not a paternalistic neo-colonialism, but a chance to make or break their own futures. In other words, true freedom. Those critics who constantly wail about the Iraq "quagmire" either refuse to or genuinely can't get it: True freedom means the Iraqi people must make of their own country what they will. If they want it to be awash in blood, it will. If they want to restore it to "Garden of Eden" beauty, they can. They are free to choose. Free will. What God bequeathed to us all. This is what George W. Bush and Tony Blair have given to the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq -- a chance to exercise their own free will.
Putting their careers and, in a real sense, their lives on the line, the team of Bush and Blair have made excruciatingly hard decisions in the face vicious opposition (a couple of small examples included here so the photo essay is complete in the story it tells). After Thursday's events, at long last opinion is being written that they have been vindicated. (See this editorial from Investors Business Daily: Vindicated.)
What those freed from the yoke of tyranny by these men (and the blood of the troops they lead) will make of their opportunities, only time will tell -- and it's up to them to write the final chapters in this story.
You're so very welcome, Brasil.
I agree, Jonny. That will endure, because I firmly believe that, in the fullness of time, both men will be thoroughly vindicated by history.
Hi mystery. Glad you could stop by and see the photo essay.
The kittens are playing around my feet as I type this. They turned three months old on Thursday. No longer in the real baby phase, but still small enough to enjoy as kittens. I do have some recent photos and will include them. Just have to get everything scanned and uploaded to Photobucket.
I hope the president and prime minister have very long lives. One of the reasons being I think in 30 years they will be viewed by the world the way we view them today.
Their friendship is really quite remarkable, especially considering how different they both are politically.
Wonderful, STARWISE. You've perfectly captured the spirit of this thread.
:0)
If you like the taste of wholemeal or wholewheat flour you can make them with half white and half wholemeal/wholewheat flour but then you definitely need 2oz of sugar in them.
My favourite are cheese scones and I also sprinkle some cheese on top on those before they go in the oven so that it crisps on top.
I assume that if you abuse it you could end up with a limp so be careful and do not over do it.
Look forward to seeing them.
OKIE DOKIE. No hurry, wolfstar. I'm dying to see their pics, but I am patient.
It's a great photograph. We can see whatever it is that passes between the two men, and yet we are not really privvy to it. A public handshake that is intensely private. I had that sense many times going through the photos I found of them.
Their bond really is something beyond brotherly; Dubya and Jeb don't have that same silent communication that passes between GWB and TB. I really think it's similar to the kind of bond that forms between two soldiers who become close social friends and go through combat together.
Oh, that's good to hear. But nevertheless, please be good to yourself while you heal. :)
You're a treasure, snugs. Thanks again.
I think the pain in my ankle will let me know if I'm going too far. That's why I didn't even start putting my foot down today.
Thank you, Wolfie ... I think this bond is of ultimate importance, and apart from any political foibles and differences, it stands emblematic of resolute and united war allies. I'm grateful, and thank God for it and the tested ally and unflinching friend to US Blair is. Sadly, we're now fully in this together. I, too, think this friendship will last til the grave. (Please God .. let not this struggle last that long.)
Oh, I will. I intend to milk this as far as it'll go. I'm still making people get stuff for me :)
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