The 'Greatest Guest'
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 4:20 PM PT
Foreign Relations: President Bush was welcomed like a hero returning home from war when he visited Albania on Sunday. What does this obscure Eastern European country understand that much of America doesn't?
According to the New York Times, Bush "was treated like a rock star" as he "zipped through this small, relentlessly pro-American nation." Approving banners and billboards were everywhere, and cannons volleyed a 21-gun salute. Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha hailed Bush as "the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times."
More telling, though, was the behavior of the thousands of regular Albanians who flooded Skanderbeg Square in downtown Tirana, the capital. Bush was the first sitting president to visit their country, and they desperately wanted to see and touch him.
Bush was already held in the highest of esteem before he arrived. Albanians have issued three postage stamps bearing his image and even renamed a street in front of parliament for him.
Outside Tirana, the scene at Fushe Kruje, a small town near the airport where Bush dropped into a cafe to talk with business owners, "was uncharacteristically wild for a presidential crowd," the AP reported. Bush shook hands, kissed cheeks and posed for cameras. Hands from the crush of people reached out and rubbed his head. A chant of "Bushie, Bushie" rang out.
Not even the most dedicated Republicans in this country could work up such an spirited greeting. Albanians, however, are people who felt for decades the crush and the slash of the hammer and sickle of communism, and they weren't shy about displaying their affection for a man who represents to them independence, opportunity, prosperity and the protection of liberty across the world. They appreciate what most Americans take for granted each day.
"Bush is the president of the world. He is like a king to me," Arian Geka told the Australian newspaper, showing that even an 18-year-old student in Islamic Albania knows more about life in our world than tens of millions who live insular existences in the U.S.
Albania is a nation of nearly 3.7 million located just across the Adriatic Sea from the heel of Italy's boot. It is a painfully poor country, among the poorest in Europe, recovering from nearly a half-century of communist rule that left it rusted and broke.
In contrast, the U.S. is a fabulously prosperous nation of 300 million people, many of them spoiled — even troubled and guilt-ridden — by their liberty and wealth. These Americans are missing the story that the Albanians and many others have been for so long yearning to live.
Americans — and Europeans — who are bothered by capitalist wealth in developed countries and the West's strong defense of freedom should try living like the Albanians did for 46 years. Communist tyranny will quickly change a person's outlook.
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