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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (253179)	7/30/2003 9:17:34 PM
From: laura_bush	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Mr Tin: CERTAINLY, I do not mean to imply anything personal. I want to have tea with Mr. Godot, after all. But, WHAT ABOUT THAT HO IN MO CITY???? Yours or his? Or both? Needless to say, all information which you choose to reveal will be kept confidential; you have my WORD. At the right hand of God himself. Kind Regards, lb

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (253179)	7/30/2003 9:24:31 PM
From: Terry Maloney	Respond to of 436258

To all: Anyone within reach of CBC tv or radio who's interested can see/hear the Stone's Toronto SARS concert live in about 15 minutes.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (253179)	7/30/2003 9:29:08 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

You're either with us or against us and eventually they'll all choose to distance themselves from us. Answering Uncle Sam's Call With Soldiers for Iraq Special to washingtonpost.com Thursday, July 10, 2003; 10:19 AM It has been just a few days since the first of the Hondurans arrived, an advance party of four military officers to be followed by some 370 troops. Soon, others will come from El Salvador, from Nicaragua, and from the Dominican Republic--the first Latin American forces in Iraq. By any measure, it will be a small contingent, a maximum of 1,200 troops--a drop in the bucket compared with the 64,000 on active duty in those four countries, not to mention the 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now. What could such mini-militaries possibly offer Washington in Iraq? And why would they bother to go when their contribution would be so slight? For Washington, they serve the "I told you so" factor so critical to President Bush's foreign policy. By obtaining this troop commitment from its Coalition of the Willing, the loose conglomeration of nations that supported the invasion in March, the administration can show that the ongoing operations in Iraq have broad international support. If they deflect some of the anti-Americanism spreading in Iraq, so much the better. There's also the chance that these troops might reduce the overall number of U.S. personnel in Iraq. According to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week, "the more that are there, the fewer U.S. troops we have to have." For their part, the Latin American leaders of these nations have high hopes for their military's service in the distant danger zone. They talk of small countries being given a chance to become world-class players. They talk about Central American forces being able to develop the kind of trust that will be essential to face 21st-century security threats back in the region. They envision an opportunity to prove that their democracies have come so far that they now can help ensure the blessings of democracy to the people of Iraq. High hopes, indeed, for 1,200 men with guns and boots. What is not said is what keeps these nations from turning down the U.S. request. The real hope is that these soldiers, from some of the region's smallest and poorest nations, will someday be worth something--more U.S. assistance perhaps, or, at least, not less. Washington demonstrated last week that being a member of the Coalition of the Willing is not sufficient in and of itself to ensure its auspices. And for those who stray from the pack for any reason, there can be substantial consequences. Take Costa Rica and Colombia. These two members of the coalition lost U.S. military aid last week after both refused to sign an agreement that would grant U.S. soldiers and contractors immunity from prosecution at the U.N. International Criminal Court. In actual dollars, both countries won't lose much initially. But the message was loud and clear to Colombia, Washington's most critical ally in the war on drugs and terror in Latin America: put up with our whims or shut up. For Costa Rica, by most measures the best performer in Central America economically, socially and democratically, the message was just as clear. This grudge-filled diplomacy pollutes the political waters for Latin American nations in the Coalition of the Willing. Central American officials bent over backward this week to avoid the appearance of being too subservient to U.S. wishes, despite their cooperation with Washington in Iraq. Time and again, they couched their decision to send troops to Iraq in United Nations terms. Honduran Ambassador Mario M. Canahuati stressed that his country owed its participation in Iraq to U.N. Resolution 1483, which calls on member states to support humanitarian and reconstruction efforts there. And in Nicaragua, legislators who favored the dispatch of 230 troops to Iraq said this week that their motive was not to curry favor with Washington, but rather to bolster the U.N. mission to help the Iraqi people. There seems to be acute fear of sounding pro-American these days. Despite their conviction and honest wishes to ensure U.S. victory against terrorism, some leaders find themselves in the difficult position of contradicting other values or beliefs. Rebuffing Washington on the ICC matter, for instance, meant upholding a commitment to greater respect for human rights and international law at the risk of losing U.S. favor. So while there's no written rule that says small countries cannot decline Washington's requests, they'd be foolish to ignore how others--that could afford it--have been treated. Those are the awkward calculations many leaders are having to make to survive the caprices of U.S. foreign policy. Marcela Sanchez's e-mail address is desdewash@washpost.com. © 2003 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive