Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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All Hat ... and All Cattle

Wednesday June 4, 2003

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CNN; June 12, 2001:

U.S. President George W. Bush has started his first official visit to Europe since taking office amid international criticism on a range of issues.
He is under pressure from some European leaders over his refusal to back the Kyoto protocol on global warming.
There is also criticism over his plans for a national missile defense system, while the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on Monday has also prompted fresh calls in Europe for the U.S. to look again at its use of the death penalty.

International Herald Tribune; June 3, 2003:

One more time, there was not anybody around at a G-8 gathering of world leaders who could speak in the name of Europe.

The leaders of the Old Europe have a problem in common with the Democratic Party in the US: No one has the standing to speak for all of them.

In two short years, nearly to the day, American President George W. Bush - whom the European press, if not the European political leadership, had written off as a "a shallow, arrogant, gun-loving, abortion-hating, Christian fundamentalist Texan buffoon" [Time Magazine, June 13, 2001] - walked into the G-8 summit in France with no one - not the press nor the political leaders - caring what any other person said or what any other person did.

It was George W. Bush's show and George W. Bush showed 'em.

For starters, President Bush dropped $15 Billion to fight AIDS in Africa on the European Union boys, and they blinked. They blinked to the tune of coming up some $13 Billion short of the US commitment. So much for parity.

The other G-7 may have wanted to talk about the value of the US Dollar against the Euro - this being an Economic Summit and all - but the President wanted to talk about the war against terrorism and that, by George, is what they talked about.

When he was finished talking about what he wanted to talk about, President Bush left early to move onto the Middle East where he is, once again, pushing the envelope of his Presidency in the quest for a safer world.

The lead in David Sanger's NY Times piece about the talks in Sharm el Shiekh, Egypt was:

Five Arab leaders pledged to President George W. Bush on Tuesday that they would actively fight "the culture of extremism and violence" that has undercut peace efforts in the Middle East.

And as the President moves to Jordan to meet with the Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers there today, this from James Bennett's NY Times piece on the preparations for that summit:

There is a palpable sense of surprise on both sides at the intensity of the White House's involvement in the peacemaking here in recent weeks, and at how far it has already brought them after 32 months of conflict.

Can anyone have imagined, two years ago, that the day would come when President Bush would come to be looked upon by leaders of the major players in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as the ONLY person with the vision to create a new world order and the power to make it more peaceful?

What the President is doing is all the more important and impressive because there are no guarantees. There is no guarantee that the world economy will rebound - even as Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said, "I expect the growth rate to quicken in the United States ... everything seems to be in place.''

There is certainly no guarantee that the Palestinians and the Israelis will be able to follow the Road Map, but the fact that President Bush provided them with a map at all, and is standing on the road with them to point the way is not going unnoticed by anyone.

Mark Twain is quoted as having said, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

The entire world is astonished at how much an untrained, untested Governor from Texas has learned in just 24 months.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: An explanation of the title; links to the NY Times and the Alan Greenspan stories, and CHAPTER 2 of the Paris Travelogue which is a 1,600-word whine about flying in coach and which I do not recommend you read.

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