Bush receives hero's welcome in Albania....WTF!?

[and-justice-for-all]

TIRANA, Albania -
President Bush, enthusiastically welcomed as the first U.S. president in this former communist nation, served notice Sunday he is running out of patience with Russia's objections to independence for neighboring Kosovo.

"Sooner rather than later you've got to say `Enough's enough — Kosovo is independent,'" Bush said, telling Albanians what they wanted to hear. He said independence was a certainty.

Nearing the end of an eight-day trip, Bush got a hero's reception in this desperately poor country, still struggling to recover from being cut off from the rest of the world for four decades under the harsh rule of dictator Enver Hoxha. Hoxha died in 1985, and Albania emerged from isolation in 1990 but still is one of Europe's most impoverished lands.

Cannons boomed salutes from mountains overlooking the capital. Huge banners proclaimed "Proud to be Partners," and billboards read "President Bush in Albania Making History."

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070610/ap_on_re_eu/bush


--Someone tell what the hell is up Albanias ass? Who would give this dumb bastard of a president such display of support??

[opihimoimoi]

1. Poverty breeds desperation....who else is dumb enough to flower them with BILLIONS?? BUSH?

[AnnieBW]

2. After Enver Hoxha, * Looks Good

After the previous dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha, * looks positively fantastic. I wonder if they'll agree to keep him there?

[Hardrada]

3. Next stop: Burkina Faso!

[David__77]

4. Let's not mock Albania or Burkina Faso.

Both countries have suffered from imperialism. Albania is a small country and is supportive of the US reflexively only because of Clinton and the Kosovo question which goes back a long time. If the US supported Kosovo independence, even Hoxha would have leaned toward the US.

[Hardrada]

14. Only trying to broaden Shrub's perspective.

[stevedeshazer]

5. President Woodrow Wilson in WW I

Wilson saved Albania after the Great War. No American president has given them shit since then.

Read: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42651/Albania#476200.hook

<snip>

The Great Powers also appointed a German prince, Wilhelm zu Wied, as ruler of Albania. Wilhelm arrived in Albania in March 1914, but his unfamiliarity with Albania and its problems, compounded by complications arising from the outbreak of World War I, led him to depart from Albania six months later. The war plunged the country into a new crisis, as the armies of Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia invaded and occupied it. Left without any political leadership or authority, the country was in chaos, and its very fate hung in the balance. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the extinction of Albania was averted largely through the efforts of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who vetoed a plan by Britain, France, and Italy to partition Albania among its neighbours.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. So Wilson and Clinton do all the work..

..And ShrubCo gets the thanks!?

[stevedeshazer]

9. Yep.

It's a weird world we live in. That's true.

[shenmue]

6. Maybe they just don't get out enough

You've got to feel sorry for them, going from the dictator to, well, this one...

:(

[adarling]

8. my voice teacher is romanian

and it is frustrating sometimes because she is 81 and watches Glen Beck and liked Ronald Reagan, but also loves clinton and almost all democratic causes. The problem is that she grew up under communism and watched the russians invade romania and with all that, people over in eastern europe distrust MOST socialism tendencies, like some of us democrats and liberal minded people think. They don't see Bush the evil dictator, they just see the USA and what we used to stand for. People in that part of the world are just as secluded like people in Africa and other places. I think it is just so sad that people there do not realize what a scumbag that man really is.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Kind of "The MouseThat Roared", but instead of declaring war on the US, they are kissing

the ass of Prez Shit-for-Brains in hopes of getting lots of goodies from the US.

The Mouse That Roared (1959)

An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose.
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Albania is nothing like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick

n/t

[focusfan]

12. if they lived in the U.S they wouldn't be so happy

maybe they would understand if they lived here in the U.S.

[Grandrose]

13. I am confused!!!

Was it not the Repubs who raked President Clinton over the coals about Kosovo?
Since when did Bush become concerned with their independence??
:shrug: