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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (257459)	5/21/2002 8:37:57 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

MASSIVE PROTEST AHEAD OF BUSH TRIP TO BERLIN - Germans to Bush: EAT MORE PRETZELS! MSI, First, the view from Deustchland: spiegel.de Zehntausende protestieren gegen "das Diktat des Cowboys" Looks like the LA Times didn't get the word on how all the Continent is in a swoon about the glorious Uber-Yanqui coming to dictate: latimes.com Thousands Protest on Eve of Bush Visit From Reuters BERLIN -- Shouting "Yankee go home", about 20,000 protesters marched peacefully in Berlin against U.S. policies today on the eve of a visit by President Bush that officials fear may widen a transatlantic rift rather than close it. German authorities have mobilized 10,000 police - a post-war record for a state guest - to contain any violence from demonstrators protesting on issues ranging from a possible U.S. attack on Iraq to Washington's policies on trade, the environment and the Middle East. Protesters marched through eastern Berlin chanting "Yankee go home" and waving banners reading "No blood for oil" and "Axis of Evil runs through the Pentagon," a jibe at Bush's description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil." Meanwhile, several hundred pro-U.S. demonstrators paraded at the former U.S.-run border crossing between East and West Berlin, dubbed Checkpoint Charlie. Bush arrives in Berlin for a 20-hour visit Wednesday. His six-day tour then takes him on to Russia, France and Italy. Police spokesman Carsten Graefe said the police expected most of the rallies planned over coming days to be peaceful. But he said the authorities feared an estimated hard core of 2,000 left-wing extremists in Berlin might use anti-globalization and anti-Bush protests to spark violence as they have on previous presidential visits. The demonstrators on the streets today, many of them members of the former Communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), marched noisily but peacefully through the streets of east Berlin before gathering on the Alexanderplatz square. "We're not against America - I have many friends there. We're against the warmonger Bush," said Ralf Rippel, a PDS member. His party colleague Gerhard Kreissig said: "Bush should be put in front of a war crimes tribunal." One banner read "Bush - eat more pretzels," referring to an incident last year where the president choked on a pretzel while watching a football game, falling and bruising his face. In what could be a taste of more to come, the ecologist Greens, junior partners in government, were forced to break off a rally in the city center today after one demonstrator stormed the stage and others heckled those on the podium. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, himself a top Green, said he was afraid violent clashes could send misleading signals that would cast doubts on Germany's reliability as a partner. "It is in everyone's interest that the demonstrations remain peaceful, otherwise the message transported will be different from the one intended," Fischer told German radio. "Ugly anti-American images would be sent across the Atlantic." [[RD: We can hope, can't we?]] In recent months, Europe has seen public opinion turn from shocked sympathy after the September 11 attacks to anger over perceived U.S. warmongering and protectionism. European criticism of U.S. policy, matched by an increasingly anti-European tone in sections of the U.S. media, has prompted Secretary of State Colin Powell to accuse Europe of "bashing" the United States over its war on terrorism. A senior German government official sought to play down talk of a transatlantic rift, saying disagreements and mass protests could not undermine the close U.S. partnership with Europe, and with Germany in particular. "The U.S. president is coming to Berlin as a good friend of Germany and we heartily welcome him," the official said. "We're linked to the United States by a solid friendship which can withstand differences of opinion." He echoed comments from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who urged politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to stop trying to divide America and Europe, saying the two continents had more that united them than divided them. Issues that have sparked European criticism of Washington have included perceived U.S. indulgence for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military crackdown on the Palestinians, despite calls by Bush for Sharon to pull back. Other issues are U.S. talk of military action to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, regardless of allied fears, and the imposition of punitive tariffs on imported steel in March, despite European protests.