Bush wins token NATO Iraq pledge

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5555198

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush has won a largely symbolic pledge from NATO allies,
including Iraq war critics, to help train Iraqi security forces but France and Germany pressed him for reform of
transatlantic ties.

On the second day of a fence-mending tour, Bush took his charm offensive to summits with NATO and European
Union leaders, eager to mend fences after two years of bitter rifts over Iraq.

A NATO official trumpeted the agreement of all 26 allies to make some contribution to the Iraq training mission as
a token of the alliance's rediscovered unity.

"We have the 26. As far as we are concerned, that is everyone working in the same direction," the official said.

But the boast masked wide divergence in the level of help on offer. France, the most virulent European critic of the
war, agreed for just one of its officers at NATO headquarters to help coordinate offers of equipment to the Iraqi
military.

more

[LynnTheDem]

1. And both bush's UN resolutions on Iraq last year passed unanimously.

And they didn't actually mean shit, either.

Poor bush. How pitiful.

[doodadem]

2. Do you get the idea

that European leaders are treating Bush like a dangerous child? Smile, pat him on the head, give him some kind of token agreement to what he wants, and hope he goes home asap.

[Spazito]

3. This trip for bush is another 'diplomatic' failure...

he has changed nothing, no one believes or trusts him and his cabal.

[illflem]

4. True. But, you can't have things both ways, you know?

You can't castigate him for acting unilaterally, and then again when he attempts to mend alliances. What should he do, not come to Europe, ever, and just keep acting in a vacuum and pretending the rest of the world doesn't matter?

The only way to ensure that European leaders have a greater share in the conversation (and, ultimately, more influence) is to get him off his home turf and have to deal with the Chiracs and the Schroeders face to face. Much as I hate the miserable bastard, the fact that the need to save face has been implicitly acknowledged is a (itsy bitsy, teensy weensy) step forward.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

5. And besides

The Iraqis need to learn to defend "their own selves".

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/22/bush.europe/index.html

[yellowcanine]

6. "Largely symbolic" is the name of the game - It is a U.S. War.

Even the Coalition of the Willing is mostly a joke, except for Great Britain (Thanks for nothing, Tony).