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.
Thanks, snugs :)
When I'm on the computer, the two of them are busy playing around my feet, jumping into my lap, trying to get on the keyboard, and so on.
The one I named China is not as much of a cuddler as her sister, Sugar. But China will take food from my hand, while Sugar won't. China will try bits of muffin and cooked meats, but Sugar won't. But Sugar loves for me to hold her, and like a dog she always keeps an eye out for where I am.
They are a real treat to raise.
This struggle, I'm afraid, will last the Islamofacists finally set off a nuclear bomb somewhere, or kill massive numbers of people with bioweapons, or do something else so drastic that the rest of the world will have no choice but to all but wipe them off the face of the earth.
These people are not crazy. They are fanatics, but not crazy. Fanatics never go quietly into the good night.
I am SMILING and laughing with delight! They are adorable. I need to call it a night --- my sleep has been messed up since I returned from CA.
(PS .. read your "special" upclose visit with The Man, OWF .. joyous!! I'm so happy for you .. ;)
Thanks.
I got here kind of late tonight, but this thread is a keeper. Your post was pure eloquence!
Good to "see" you, Cow. Always a pleasure when we cross paths. You're welcome. I so pleased you saw the photo essay and enjoyed it.
We may have a military that is a hundred times stronger, but they have a focused determination that is a thousand times stronger.
Not until some cataclysmic event raises the focus and determination of the Free World a hundred times what it is now will we be able to overwhelm them.
We will not have to wipe a billion Muslims off the face of the earth ... just tens or hundreds of thousands of their leaders and warriors, until those remaining are on their knees not to Mecca, but to their fellow humans, begging for mercy and the opportunity to guide Islam away from the evil side.
There is a good chance this may not happen ... there may be nothing sufficiently cataclysmic to embolden us to victory. This war may rage like a chronic illness, like an AIDS of civilization, for the rest of our mortal lives.
At present, for each person who sees the danger clearly and is prepared to act, there are several others opposed for various reasons, crass or misguided, and yet others clueless or oblivious.
Thank you, Merlinator. :)
"When did it start or did it start on another thread the first one I saw was "shut up"."
Nope, it didn't start on another thread...It happened on this thread by that one...very out of the blue & not merrited phrasing.
((((Thank you all for your posts of support and concern...))))on each post re:This matter.
Our security forces and those of our allies have been doing a fine job since 2001, but the fanatics will keep coming and eventually will get through.
The one thing they haven't shown yet (and I hope they never do), is smart strategic planning. Everything to them is tactical, and their one tactic is the spectacular event, the bigger the better.
Y very W!
Glad you like them...
Enjoy, & more to come!
Do you have other like other gif themes you like?
I could find you other stuff too.
Just let me know and I'll add to my
treasure gif gift hunt for you!
Yes - I quite enjoyed your essay.
I think you're absolutely right.
If you go to the Getty photo site there is a new ranch photo! Can't put it up her because of the copyright thing, but it was a WhiteHouse handout, so should be posted on the White House site soon. Dubya's wearing a Hawaiian looking shirt.
Dubya, if you are lurking here, I love the shirt! Very cool!
Gettyimages.com - Editorial Photo - News Photosand enter "Bush" in the search box. He's on the phone, below the "Western Whitehouse, Crawford, Texas" seal.
Although all are welcome on the Dose threads, the Dose is one of the rare places on FR where decorum is strongly enforced. The Dose is social in nature, not political.
I don't know what brought on your impulse to tell Maj to shut up, nor do I know how you meant it. But it's behavior that isn't tolerated here. Just so you know.
I always give people the benefit of the doubt at first. So I'm taking your word that you were tired and, therefore, perhaps a bit too curmudgeonly. But in the future, please keep what I told you about Dose decorum firmly in mind.
Maj, I don't think I could express how much I enjoy the wolves and stars you post. You do it just for me, and I see your kindness as a gift beyond price. So post whatever strikes your fancy. I will enjoy it all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.