Bush Outlines Goals for European Trip [View All]

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush


"America and Europe are the pillars of the free world," Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday, the day before he leaves on a five-day trip to Belgium, Germany and Slovakia.


"Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic understand that the hopes for peace in the world depend on the continued unity of free nations," he said. "We do not accept a false caricature that divides the Western world between an idealistic United States and a cynical Europe."


Iraq (news - web sites) will be a top agenda item during the president's talks with European leaders and officials of NATO (news - web sites), the European Union (news - web sites) and the European Commission (news - web sites). The United States wants to see a larger international role in Iraq, particularly in training its military and police.


U.S. hopes for a larger NATO role suffered a setback last Sunday when Germany rebuffed the alliance's request for help to protect U.N. operations in Iraq. France and Germany, which opposed the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), have prevented the alliance from developing a wider role in Iraq, and have refused to send their own troops, even on the training mission in Baghdad that NATO has authorized.

... oh yeah, and avoid all of those nasty "focus group" protestors!