Baghdad, Jerusalem Attacks Test Bush Policy

[kskiska]

New Questions Raised About U.S. Resolve in Iraq, 'Road Map' to Peace Between Israelis, Palestinians

By Amy Goldstein and Dana Milbank

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 19 -- President Bush was on the front nine of the Ridgewood Country Club's golf course when the call came from his national security adviser telling him a truck bomb had hit U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

The bucolic setting in which Bush received the grim news served as a symbolic reminder to the president: There is no escape from Middle East violence. Bush cut his golf game short and returned to his ranch -- where, in the afternoon, he received word of a second bombing, this one on a Jerusalem bus.

(snip)

Indeed, the administration is becoming sadly proficient in responding to grisly news from the Middle East. A year ago, Bush was criticized for commenting on the bloodshed in one breath and boasting about his golf swing in another; this time, he was whisked from the golf course and put on a jacket and tie before he faced the cameras. There was no talk of Bush cutting short his month-long visit to his ranch; he and his aides have by now become comfortable handling the never-ending Middle East crisis from any location.

Bush called U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, to coordinate the response to the U.N. bombing. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to express U.S. condolences for the victims of the Jerusalem bombing and the Bush administration's determination to push ahead with the Middle East peace process.

(snip)

The rhythm of world events do not always mesh smoothly with Bush's penchant for month-long August vacations at his beloved Prairie Chapel Ranch. His aides call these sojourns "working vacations," and the White House has taken pains to reinforce that image, importing the president's senior defense advisers for a meeting during his first week here and his economic team for several hours last Wednesday. Though the president has had no public duties or appearances since he returned Friday evening from a two-day trip to California, the White House scrambled to ward off any appearance that the president was at play while trouble was deepening in the Middle East.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17158-2003Aug19.html

[VolcanoJen]

1. Dupe... locking

Nambe beat you by sixty tiny seconds, kskiska! :-)

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=74028

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VolcanoJen
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