Bush opens new rift over Middle East plan

[JoFerret]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1235377,00.html

Attempts by President George Bush to exploit the diplomatic triumph of the United Nations resolution on Iraq were last night running into stiff opposition at the G8 summit, as France joined Arab countries in deriding the White House plans for a greater Middle East initiative.
Buoyed by the 15-0 UN security council vote, Mr Bush and Tony Blair were seeking a three-pronged follow-up that would involve greater Nato involvement in Iraq, plans to bring western-style democracy and economic reform to the Middle East and north Africa and a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Britain and the US believed the UN show of international unity could mark the end of the west's year-long schism and draw a close to a turbulent period in which the two leaders have been dogged by violent insurrection and allegations of torture in Iraq.

"After almost two months of rough news, we had finally had a series of significant moves forward on the political side," said a senior Bush administration official
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[Tellurian]

1. Taking credit for someone else's success. The hallmark of the BA...

I hope he destroys the progress the UN
has made and doesn't have a plan by the 30th!

[anakie]

2. In order to resolve the Israeli Palestinian problem

wouldn't the US actually have to vote yes to an UN resolution that condemns Israel. First time for everything?

[MO_Dem]

3. That's our Boosh!

Wherever he goes, he leaves chaos and discord and anger in his wake.

[Tellurian]

12. kick-

[struggle4progress]

4. Uh, Mr. President? Two words: "State Department." Ring a bell?

[goforit]

5. Yah ....where is that long lost masked man named ....POWELL

Has anyone seen him lately???

What hole did Cheney put him in???

[kskiska]

6. Guess who's right…

But Mr Chirac was also dismissive of Mr Bush's initiative. "There is no ready-made formula for democracy readily transposable from one country to another. Democracy is not a method, it is a culture. For democracy to take root solidly and durably in the Arab world, it must be an Arab democracy before all else."

[struggle4progress]

7. Damn! Chirac sounds so intelligent! No wonder wingnuts hate him!

[dArKeR]

8. Bush's Middle East plans irk G8 leaders

AP , SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004,Page 7

It may seem innocent enough to US President George W. Bush, the notion of training 100,000 teachers across the Middle East to improve the quality of education and perhaps also cut down on possible extremism.

Yet Arabs and Europeans at the Group of Eight summit here are bristling over this and other aspects of Bush's proposed Middle East democracy initiative. They consider it a heavy-handed effort to foist American ideas on the region.

Both Arab and European leaders say Bush must deal first with what many consider the Middle East's most pressing problem, the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians. King Abdullah II of Jordan, for one, came here focused on the plight of Palestinians "because no reform could be achieved away from finding a solution to this issue," said Jordan's official news agency, Petra.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/10/2003174502

[Tellurian]

9. This is what they're after:

Religious Leaders Would Be Allowed More Freedom to Participate in Partisan Politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26244-2004Jun8.html

Bush will be sending federally funded missionaries to the ME
to "save" their souls. For real!

[Eye and Monkey]

10. Samaritans Purse (run by Billy Graham's son), already has US contracts

to work in many countries, providing relief services with an inseparable Christian message. They were planning operations in Iraq last year, there was quite some outcry. I don't know if the US gov't funding actually went through.

[The Stranger]

14. Just call it what it is. It is crusade.

The bizarre, pathological need to make someone else "believe" a rote set of principles in order for you yourself to make it to "heaven."

It is religious abuse on a worldwide scale powered by the individual penitent's denial of death and administered by professional Christian supremacists, resulting in the objectification and subjugation of impoverished peoples around the world who participate because they require the material assistance.

This is an ideological cancer backed by massive amounts of money and materiel.

[Eye and Monkey]

15. You're preaching to the choir, but I say "Preach On!" -

Funning aside, it is the most malignant form of cancer. I've had to deal with these morans out in the field. More often than not, "dealing with" really means "trying to repair the damage done by fundie missionaries who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground and who believe that doesn't matter because Gawd told them what to do and who to do it to".

[Tellurian]

11. kick~

[The Stranger]

13. Someone email this to the LA Times.

They are busy announcing the death of the Neonazicons.