For Bush, a Europe tour with tricky terrain
Democracy a central theme in trip marking end of WWII in Europe
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:48 a.m. ET May 6, 2005WASHINGTON -
President Bush undertakes delicate diplomacy on a European tour that celebrates the Allied victory in World War II against a backdrop of post-Cold War tensions over the march of democracy in the former Soviet Union.
Bush took off Friday on a voyage that will range from a solemn remembrance of wartime sacrifice at an American cemetery in the Netherlands to a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square celebrating European victory in World War II.
It is a trip that will also include a simple wreath-laying at a Latvian monument symbolizing independence from communism and a speech before tens of thousands in the freshly democratic ex-Soviet republic of Georgia.
Bush: Each generation's responsibility “It’s a moment to understand that with each generation comes responsibilities to work to achieve peace,” Bush said Thursday in a pre-trip interview with several foreign media outlets.
Bush faces many issues as he hits four countries in five long days.
Meeting in Riga, Latvia, on Saturday with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, he’ll get questions about an American visa policy that makes it difficult for Central and Eastern Europeans to travel to the United States.
On Sunday, he visits the Netherlands, where he is deeply unpopular because of his decision to go to war in Iraq — and later because of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and the indeterminate detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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