US lays down law about who's in and who's outMr Bush left world leaders digesting his new terms for the Washington relationship
PRESIDENT BUSH came to Europe to mend fences, his aides said. What they omitted was that this would not be a simple patch-up job. Before he swept out of Evian yesterday, Mr Bush had torn down the remains of the old Western alliance and dumped on the table radical proposals for an entirely new set of dividing lines.
As he left the G8 economic summit for the Middle East, Mr Bush left a group of world leaders still digesting his new terms for a good relationship with Washington.
In a post-Iraq world, shared values will no longer be enough to guarantee world leaders favoured status in the White House or an invitation to the Oval Office, aides say. Mr Bush is looking beyond a common heritage, for actions and results.
France poured cold water last night on an American and British proposal to limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction as Tony Blair and George W Bush sought to outflank Jacques Chirac at the opening of the G8 summit.I guess the reconciliation was rather lukewarm.While M Chirac, the host, sought to emphasise his vision of a multipolar world, Mr Blair and Mr Bush joined forces with other members of the Iraq coalition to try to force him to make combating terrorism a central agenda item of the gathering of industrialised nations.
Yeah, we've had lots of rain here in Maryland as well. I think I have seaweed in my front yard. I just hope the weather in Carolina is nice in late July when I make my way down to the Outer Banks...