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

To: sandintoes who wrote (407711)	5/20/2003 2:07:21 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush handling South America in his usual style....boorish and ready for a coup Chavez puppet sparks protests Grace Livingstone in Caracas Sunday May 18 2003 The Observer A puppet show at the US ambassador's residence in Caracas has strained Venezuela's already tense relationship with Washington. A comedian brandishing a rubber-lipped effigy of Venezuela's leftwing president, Hugo Chavez, entertained an audience of Venezuelan newspaper proprietors and television moguls at an event hosted by the American ambassador, Charles Shapiro, last week. Venezuela's vice-president, Jose Vicente Rangel, said the "grotesque" performance contravened the Vienna conventions on diplomatic relations. He said he did not know whether it was a "calculated provocation" or an example of Mr Shapiro's "personal irresponsibility". The government is considering what diplomatic action to take, while the Venezuelan parliament has announced it is sending a delegation to make a formal complaint to the US Senate and the Organisation of American States. The leader of parliament, Francisco Ameliach, described the performance as "a total lack of respect for the Venezuelan Republic". The US embassy admitted in a statement that the act was "in bad taste, because of its political content. We regret that some people were offended. The embassy does not know in advance nor does it censor what its guests are going to say." Bilateral relations have been cool since Washington gave official recognition to a short-lived government which replaced Mr Chavez for 48 hours during a bungled coup attempt in April 2002. Venezuela is the fourth largest supplier of oil to America and the US state department is uneasy about Mr Chavez's nationalist rhetoric and overt friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro. A journalist who was a guest at the embassy function, Laura Weffer, said the performance, which featured "fart jokes" and impersonations of Mr Chavez, did not go down well with the Venezuelan audience. CC Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

To: sandintoes who wrote (407711)	5/20/2003 2:21:56 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

My email for today.. This article, op-ed from the Ny times. nytimes.com Article bold and my comments normal size text. Diplomatic Bonfires Everything seems to be going wrong in the Middle East, and President Bush has himself to blame in part. This is not what the White House wanted as President Bush starts pointing toward next year's election campaign. Iraq is in a state of near anarchy. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is escalating again, and Islamic terrorists are on the attack in the Middle East. Just at the moment when Mr. Bush would like the nation to think of him as a statesman, everything seems to be going the wrong way in one of the world's most combustible regions. Mr. Bush has himself to blame in part. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. Let's blame the president because. Iraq is a mess because the Bush administration failed to plan adequately for the postwar period. The Pentagon has proved itself great at fighting wars but not very good at dealing with their aftermath. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his aides seemed to think that Iraq would emerge from the war as a functioning country that could then be led toward democracy by American officials. Now, more than a month after the fighting subsided, Iraq remains a lawless land without basic services like electricity, fresh water and decent medical care. Instead of serving as a model for enlightened American rule, Iraq is turning into a symbol of American maladministration. It is not too late to turn Iraq around, but Mr. Bush will have to be prepared to throw far more resources into the situation, for a much longer time than he originally intended. The ability of the times talking heads in the administration of one reporter makes me wonder about their skill in judging the state of complexity of rebuilding Iraq and their ability to know what is really going on is very questionable to me. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has its own destructive dynamic, which Washington is belatedly trying to break. If Mr. Bush had not neglected the Middle East crisis in his first year in office, he might not be facing such a seemingly intractable deadlock today. Suspending the cycle of violence may be impossible at this point, but the best chance depends on strong, sustained pressure from Washington In view of the fact that the President has clearly demonstrated a desire to bring about peace and his considerable recent efforts to advance the cause of reasonable people that has as the times below says made violence erupt to stop that process seems to make the observation in the paragraph above suggesting neglect as idiotic. It demonstrates that the talking head don't have a clue about what causes the violence. Yesterday's suicide bombing at a shopping mall in northern Israel was the fifth Palestinian attack in less than 48 hours. All have been claimed by extremist Islamic groups, which are aiming not only at Israel but also at the new government of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister. Mr. Abbas says he wants to confront such groups but cannot do so as long as Israel continues its tough military policies. Israelis say they are being blown up, so do not talk of easing conditions. Only a concerted American effort, led by Mr. Bush himself, can bring Mr. Abbas and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, to take the steps that are needed to quell the violence and rekindle peace talks. I bet that whatever the President does will be wrong and to much or to little or poorly timed Most disturbing to many Americans may be the recent terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which have demonstrated that the war against terrorism is far from over. Much of Al Qaeda's leadership may by arrested or dead, as President Bush has asserted, but the organization and its affiliates are far from finished off. Based upon the fact that the activities have been restricted to places far away that have no real punch in comparison to 9-11 seems to suggest that complex operations capability is greatly reduced. The United States must pursue the international teamwork against terrorism that President Bush initiated after Sept. 11. Unfortunately, the American decision to go to war in Iraq decreased the desire of other nations to cooperate. Those damaged relations now urgently need to be rebuilt. Saluting cheering troops and campaigning for tax cuts may be good politics for Mr. Bush as he runs for a second term, but the president has a lot of work ahead in the Middle East before he can lay claim to the title of statesman. I saw the President saluting the troops and it made me proud to be an American . I understand the logic behind the tax cut. But I have not seen any fact or report or even hint or nuance that cooperation from foreign nations has changed at all. That seems an opinion sans facts from those same folks who new where Jason Blair was coming from. What I learned from the war is that several countries that I though were allies seem to have an agenda that was and is not about full support of the War on Terrorism. The War was educational about who folks really are and where their hearts and souls call home. How many don't call America home is a sad surprise.