Bush plans week of high-stakes diplomacy

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

Bush plans week of high-stakes diplomacy

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago

WASHINGTON -
President Bush reaches out to allies this week for help in quelling violence in
Iraq and
Afghanistan, in a burst of diplomacy from a Baltic summit of
NATO partners to Mideast talks with Iraq's prime minister.

Just back from an eight-day trip to Asia, Bush was leaving on Monday on another overseas trip as pressure builds at home for a change in his administration's Iraq strategy amid deepening tensions and violence in that country.

The president stops first in Estonia en route to a NATO summit in neighboring Latvia where a debate over peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan is expected to dominate.

Estonia and Latvia have sent troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan and the U.S. considers the two former Soviet Republics important allies.

From Latvia, the president heads to Amman, Jordan, for two days of talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Jordan was deemed a less dangerous setting for the meeting than Baghdad.

White House aides said the meeting, a late addition to Bush's itinerary, was part of the president's process of sounding out various parties as he ponders how to proceed in Iraq.,,,,,,,,,,,

[tridim]

1. Oh crap. n/t

[acmavm]

2. What a hoot! No one is going to help the Douchbag-in-Chief out

of his dilemma.

They just want to get the bumbling incompetent criminal AWOL moran out of the way. Send his on a trip, let Poopy and the boys finish up where they left of when he couldn't get re-elected.

[MindMatter]

9. Don't forget, WE are the ones getting screwed

We are the ones who get stuck holding the bag for this trillion dollar transfer of wealth to Bush's friends.

We are the ones who will suffer the consequences of terrorist attacks fomented by this idiot and his fascist partners.

[acmavm]

16. Yes, we are getting screwed just like we got screwed in 2000.

bush** and his buddies have taken us to the cleaners and they had the help of the Supreme Court and criminal corporate America to do it. If you thing I don't realize that then you're sorely mistaken.

But, what I posted stands. NO ONE is going to jump up to bail bush** out of many fiascos (well actually the ones that the neocons had him front for).

[Javaman]

20. Kinda amazing when you think about it...

If you would have told me 10 years ago that an supreme court appointed C student that doesn't do nuance was going to take us down this road and to totally fuck this country, I would have laughed in your face.

Yet here we are.

WHAT IN GODS NAME WERE THOSE ASSHOLES THINKING???????

[acmavm]

21. They were thinking that Wall Street would get ahold of Social

Security, that corporate America would get rich beyond their wildest belief, and that the republican party would rule forever and ever. Amen.

[Joanne98]

3. NATO summit is a arms dealers paradise

Bush to seek more spending at NATO summit
Big News Network
Wednesday 22nd November, 2006 (UPI)



U.S. President George Bush will call on fellow NATO members to increase defense spending at a NATO summit in Latvia next week.

Judy Ansley, senior director for European Affairs at the National Security Council briefed reporters in Washington on the summit in Riga and said Bush would repeat his longstanding call for more involvement in NATO missions from fellow members.

Ansley said Bush would also discuss problems in the NATO mission in Afghanistan when the summit begins Nov. 29.

I think that you can expect that there will be discussion about the need for some flexibility in where troops are, for an increase in the number of troops, maybe a decrease in some of the restrictions on troops that are currently there, Ansley said.

She said the summit was also expected to announce a new initiative in which 14 allies plus Sweden will be buying heavy C-17 aircraft to upgrade strategic airlift capabilities.

NATO has some 50,000 soldiers involved in six missions on three continents.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. He'll just make things worse. n/t

[aquart]

5. Is this the Onion?

[BrotherBuzz]

6. God help our country - Bush insists in playing checkers while...

the rest of the world is playing a masterful game of chess.

[KoKo]

7. Screaming Chimp doing "High Stakes Diplomacy" is so incongruous

it's hard to imagine the person typing that Headline not having a stroke from the laughing fit. :rofl:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. The face of the US to the rest of the world...

edited to add caption with pic:
President Geroge W. Bush answers a question during a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following their meeting at the summer palace in Bogor, West Java. Bush paid his second visit to Indonesia and shrugged off protestors' calls for his head as a sign of democratic health in the world's largest Muslim nation.(AFP/Jewel Samad)


MKJ

[Human Torch]

10. What an absolute pantsload...

Anyone who wants to get an honest look at "the president's process of sounding out various parties as he ponders how to proceed in Iraq" should check Norah O'Donnell's comments from this morning, which I just posted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2987386

Bush is not looking for ideas...he's looking for the only thing he's trained to look for...agreement.

:patriot:

[last1standing]

11. That is literally the scariest sentence I have ever read.

The lame duck resident wants to go overseas and talk with world leaders who secretly (or not so secretly) despise him. After yet another round of humiliation he'll head to his pig ranch to wail till the bad publicity dies down.

And the only good part of all of that is having him out of Washington for a few weeks.

[lpbk2713]

12. Cowboy diplomacy.

Hold on to your hats folks, he's at it again.

[sweetheart]

13. the sulphur trail from el diablo...

... leaves a moral tritium glassing it all over slick and hard with radioactivity.

[Quantess]

14. Plan for embarrassment!

Something tells me this week will be full of faux pas and gaffes.
As if he hadn't embarrassed our nation enough already....

[Triana]

15. using bu$h and 'diplomacy' in the same sentence?

That's like using Charles Manson and 'compassion' or 'empthy' in the same sentence IE: "Charles Manson embarks on Compassion Tour"

Talk about 'catapulting the propaganda'. This is just pure shit-hurling. But, what else can we expect from bu$hit, Inc. and the lamestream media who support him (like the good little jockstraps they are).

Huh.

[NastyRiffraff]

17. I shudder every time he talks to a foreign head of state..

..or diplomat. He embarrasses our country every single time. The only question is what idiotic gaffes will he make this time?

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Well, "Tell 'em they gotta stop this shit" apparently didn't work so well

Maybe he'll fall back on his "cutting open the chest cavity for heart surgery" schtick that went over so well on Letterman. :headbang:

[Heidi]

18. Kick.

:kick:

[nedbal]

19. President reaching out to allies on trip (for help in quelling violence in Iraq )

President reaching out to allies on trip to Latvia, Estonia, Jordan
NBC VIDEO


• Pressure builds on Iraq
Nov. 26: As Iraqi violence increases, President Bush heads to Jordan to meet with the Iraqi prime minister. NBC's Kevin Corke reports.
Nightly News

Updated: 11:46 p.m. ET Nov 26, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush reaches out to allies this week for help in quelling violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a burst of diplomacy from a Baltic summit of NATO partners to Mideast talks with Iraq’s prime minister.

Just back from an eight-day trip to Asia, Bush was leaving on Monday on another overseas trip as pressure builds at home for a change in his administration’s Iraq strategy amid deepening tensions and violence in that country.

<more> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15910652/

YOU BREAK IT, YOU BOUGHT IT, C POWELL

[newyawker99]

22. Like he was really going to Baghdad!

From Latvia, the president heads to Amman, Jordan, for two days of talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Jordan was deemed a less dangerous setting for the meeting than Baghdad.



White House aides said the meeting, a late addition to Bush's itinerary, was part of the president's process of sounding out various parties as he ponders how to proceed in Iraq.

:rofl:

[zann725]

23. Clearly he's trying to "push thru" all his plans BEFORE January Dem-takeover of both houses.

I'm not surprised the violence in Iraq has escalated...justifying "action" BEFORE the Dems take over Congress & Senate.

Shrub keeps saying he wants to work with Dems, but all I see is him pushing ahead with his Old Plans, PLUS Daddy's Old Friends, to make quick extended Military commitment abroad irreversible by January.

[Beetwasher]

24. This Can Only End Badly and Embarrassingly

Why don't they just keep him doped up on the ranch for the next two years? Why inflict him on the rest of the planet?