WP: Speech Fails to Bridge Policy Divide

[kskiska]

LONDON, Nov. 19 -- President Bush made a play for a more charitable view of U.S. foreign policy Wednesday, but the silence that greeted one of his most forceful lines said much about the limits of the support he can expect from Europeans already worried about his approach to the world.

Near the end of his address at the government's Banqueting House, Bush said Europeans "should withdraw all favor and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays his cause."

(snip)

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell ran into similar trouble a day earlier in Brussels when he failed to persuade European foreign ministers to lean harder on Iran, found by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to have pursued secret nuclear research for 18 years.

(snip)

The silver lining to the dispute may be that the elements of a good cop-bad cop strategy are taking shape. But Bush's swagger on issues that Europeans feel they understand fuels their perception that the White House considers them largely expendable.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63529-2003Nov19.html

[La_Serpiente]

1. *Sigh*

He is so naive.

[Paschall]

2. Maybe the Europeans are thinking to themselves...

...they should "withdraw all favor and support from any American ruler who fails his people and betrays his cause."