Bush offers Europe a defense of Iraq policy
Bush offers Europe a defense of Iraq policy
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 21, 2006
VIENNA President George W. Bush, visiting this Central European city with the aim of promoting trans-Atlantic unity, instead issued an impassioned defense of his Iraq policy on Wednesday amid pointed reminders of how far the United States has fallen in the eyes of many Europeans.
"That's absurd!" Bush declared as he dismissed a reporter's suggestion that most Europeans regard the United States as a bigger threat to global stability than North Korea, which has proclaimed it has nuclear weapons, and Iran, which is suspected of trying to develop them.
Later, when asked about surveys that suggest Europeans have a low opinion of him, Bush said: "Look, people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq and I understand that. For Europe, September the 11th was a moment. For us, it was a change of thinking."
Bush's heated exchange with European reporters - under the glittering chandeliers of the throne room in the Hofburg Palace, once the imperial home of the Hapsburgs - followed a summit meeting of the president and leaders of the European Union, who spent the morning talking about a wide range of issues, from nuclear tensions with North Korea to a faltering world trade pact.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel of Austria, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, stood by Bush's side at the news conference.
At one point, Schüssel defended Bush, recalling his own boyhood in post-World War II Vienna, when the city lay in ruins and Americans stepped in to help. "I think we should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic," Schüssel said. "We should understand what Sept. 11 meant to the American people. It was a shock."
The Vienna talks could have been overshadowed by growing European discontent over the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Iraq and allegations that the CIA colluded with European countries to kidnap suspected terrorists for interrogation in countries that conduct torture. But both sides were at pains to emphasize their common ground on issues ranging from the Middle East to Iraq.
Bush acknowledged the European concerns about Guantánamo. But he asserted that some prisoners there were cold-blooded murderers who could not be released. He also said he understood the concerns of Europeans.
"I'd like to end Guantánamo," he said. "I'd like it to be over with."
But, as he has before, Bush said he was waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to determine where those being held should be tried.
Schüssel, for his part, said he was pleased that Bush had raised the issue of Guantánamo first. "The president started, himself. He didn't wait that we raise the question. He came up and said, 'Look, this is my problem, this is where we are.'"
Bush's remarks on Iraq were not substantively different from what he has said before. But the vigor of his defense, coming at a time when he is trying to repair frayed relations with Europe and has joined in efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to Iran's uranium enrichment program, underscored how fragile those relations remain.
Responding to the announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran early Wednesday that he would respond to an incentives package from the Americans and Europeans by Aug. 22, Bush said that "seems like an awful long time" to wait.
"It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal," he said, and added: "We'll come to the table when they verifiably suspend. Period."
Schüssel encouraged Iran to take the "carrot" offered by the EU and the United States and he praised recent signs from Washington that it was prepared to join negotiations if Iran agreed to stop enrichment in a verifiable way.
"I think now is the right moment for Iran to take this offer, to grab it and to negotiate," Schüssel said.
The trip to Austria was the first by a U.S. president in 27 years. Jimmy Carter was the last: He met Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, to sign a nuclear weapons pact.
Bush arrived in Budapest on Wednesday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising in 1956 against Soviet rule.
U.S. officials said the Budapest visit was the continuation of a campaign by Bush to improve relations with Europe. It began last year, when he reconciled with President Jacques Chirac of France, a vocal critic, and the United States and Europe drew closer together on how to deal with Iran.
The agenda for the summit meeting included the war on terrorism, and energy and trade issues, including the troubled negotiations on the so-called Doha round, the stalled trade-expanding proposal named for the city in Qatar where negotiations first began.
But other matters - Guantánamo, Iran, the killings of two U.S. soldiers captured in Iraq and North Korea's work on a long-range nuclear missile - loomed large. On North Korea, Bush largely sidestepped the issue. But he warned that the country faced further isolation from the international community if it fired a weapon, which some believe could reach the West Coast of the United States.
"It should make people nervous when nontransparent regimes who have announced they have nuclear warheads fire missiles," Bush said. "This is not the way you conduct business in the world."
Schüssel said they discussed North Korea - "what to do when and if" it test- fired the missile - and added that "there will be a strong response on that."
But American officials attending the meeting would not elaborate and Bush remained vague.
"The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past and we expect them to keep their agreements," Bush said, adding: "We think it would be in the world's interest to know what they're testing, what they intend to do on their test."
The summit meeting Wednesday reflected what Ivo Daalder, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called Bush's "delicate minuet" with Europe. His trip to Europe in February 2005 went a long way toward soothing tensions, but even then, Daalder said, Bush "couldn't help but talk about military options."
Now, with Bush emphasizing more peaceful approaches to world problems, analysts said Bush has more credibility with European governments, if not the European people.
Mark Leonard, director of foreign policy at the Center for European Freedom, in London, said: "I don't think Europeans are ever going to learn to love George Bush. He probably remains the most unpopular U.S. president in history within the European Union.
"I think there has been a remarkable honeymoon between governments and their rhetoric and the way they talk about issues, their desire to find agreement rather disagreement. But it is quite fragile. On a whole series of different issues the wheels could come off at any point. Iran is the most obvious."
That honeymoon does not extend to the local press. Bush's image is plastered around Vienna on the cover of the Austrian news magazine Profil under the headline "The Mad World of George Bush."
About 15,000 people marched through Vienna on Wednesday evening to protest Bush's visit, The Associated Press reported. The police monitored the scene but did not interfere, and no violence was reported.
Dan Bilefsky of the International Herald Tribune contributed reporting from Brussels.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 21, 2006
VIENNA President George W. Bush, visiting this Central European city with the aim of promoting trans-Atlantic unity, instead issued an impassioned defense of his Iraq policy on Wednesday amid pointed reminders of how far the United States has fallen in the eyes of many Europeans.
"That's absurd!" Bush declared as he dismissed a reporter's suggestion that most Europeans regard the United States as a bigger threat to global stability than North Korea, which has proclaimed it has nuclear weapons, and Iran, which is suspected of trying to develop them.
Later, when asked about surveys that suggest Europeans have a low opinion of him, Bush said: "Look, people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq and I understand that. For Europe, September the 11th was a moment. For us, it was a change of thinking."
Bush's heated exchange with European reporters - under the glittering chandeliers of the throne room in the Hofburg Palace, once the imperial home of the Hapsburgs - followed a summit meeting of the president and leaders of the European Union, who spent the morning talking about a wide range of issues, from nuclear tensions with North Korea to a faltering world trade pact.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel of Austria, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, stood by Bush's side at the news conference.
At one point, Schüssel defended Bush, recalling his own boyhood in post-World War II Vienna, when the city lay in ruins and Americans stepped in to help. "I think we should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic," Schüssel said. "We should understand what Sept. 11 meant to the American people. It was a shock."
The Vienna talks could have been overshadowed by growing European discontent over the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Iraq and allegations that the CIA colluded with European countries to kidnap suspected terrorists for interrogation in countries that conduct torture. But both sides were at pains to emphasize their common ground on issues ranging from the Middle East to Iraq.
Bush acknowledged the European concerns about Guantánamo. But he asserted that some prisoners there were cold-blooded murderers who could not be released. He also said he understood the concerns of Europeans.
"I'd like to end Guantánamo," he said. "I'd like it to be over with."
But, as he has before, Bush said he was waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to determine where those being held should be tried.
Schüssel, for his part, said he was pleased that Bush had raised the issue of Guantánamo first. "The president started, himself. He didn't wait that we raise the question. He came up and said, 'Look, this is my problem, this is where we are.'"
Bush's remarks on Iraq were not substantively different from what he has said before. But the vigor of his defense, coming at a time when he is trying to repair frayed relations with Europe and has joined in efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to Iran's uranium enrichment program, underscored how fragile those relations remain.
Responding to the announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran early Wednesday that he would respond to an incentives package from the Americans and Europeans by Aug. 22, Bush said that "seems like an awful long time" to wait.
"It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal," he said, and added: "We'll come to the table when they verifiably suspend. Period."
Schüssel encouraged Iran to take the "carrot" offered by the EU and the United States and he praised recent signs from Washington that it was prepared to join negotiations if Iran agreed to stop enrichment in a verifiable way.
"I think now is the right moment for Iran to take this offer, to grab it and to negotiate," Schüssel said.
The trip to Austria was the first by a U.S. president in 27 years. Jimmy Carter was the last: He met Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, to sign a nuclear weapons pact.
Bush arrived in Budapest on Wednesday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising in 1956 against Soviet rule.
U.S. officials said the Budapest visit was the continuation of a campaign by Bush to improve relations with Europe. It began last year, when he reconciled with President Jacques Chirac of France, a vocal critic, and the United States and Europe drew closer together on how to deal with Iran.
The agenda for the summit meeting included the war on terrorism, and energy and trade issues, including the troubled negotiations on the so-called Doha round, the stalled trade-expanding proposal named for the city in Qatar where negotiations first began.
But other matters - Guantánamo, Iran, the killings of two U.S. soldiers captured in Iraq and North Korea's work on a long-range nuclear missile - loomed large. On North Korea, Bush largely sidestepped the issue. But he warned that the country faced further isolation from the international community if it fired a weapon, which some believe could reach the West Coast of the United States.
"It should make people nervous when nontransparent regimes who have announced they have nuclear warheads fire missiles," Bush said. "This is not the way you conduct business in the world."
Schüssel said they discussed North Korea - "what to do when and if" it test- fired the missile - and added that "there will be a strong response on that."
But American officials attending the meeting would not elaborate and Bush remained vague.
"The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past and we expect them to keep their agreements," Bush said, adding: "We think it would be in the world's interest to know what they're testing, what they intend to do on their test."
The summit meeting Wednesday reflected what Ivo Daalder, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called Bush's "delicate minuet" with Europe. His trip to Europe in February 2005 went a long way toward soothing tensions, but even then, Daalder said, Bush "couldn't help but talk about military options."
Now, with Bush emphasizing more peaceful approaches to world problems, analysts said Bush has more credibility with European governments, if not the European people.
Mark Leonard, director of foreign policy at the Center for European Freedom, in London, said: "I don't think Europeans are ever going to learn to love George Bush. He probably remains the most unpopular U.S. president in history within the European Union.
"I think there has been a remarkable honeymoon between governments and their rhetoric and the way they talk about issues, their desire to find agreement rather disagreement. But it is quite fragile. On a whole series of different issues the wheels could come off at any point. Iran is the most obvious."
That honeymoon does not extend to the local press. Bush's image is plastered around Vienna on the cover of the Austrian news magazine Profil under the headline "The Mad World of George Bush."
About 15,000 people marched through Vienna on Wednesday evening to protest Bush's visit, The Associated Press reported. The police monitored the scene but did not interfere, and no violence was reported.
Dan Bilefsky of the International Herald Tribune contributed reporting from Brussels.
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