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Bush Starts Europe Tour Lobbying For War On Iraq
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Heightened security for Bush’s visit to Germany, heavy demonstrations expected. |
WASHINGTON,
May 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W.
Bush opens a week-long trip to Europe Wednesday, May 22, hopeful he
can convince its leaders that Saddam Hussein's Iraq and terrorists -
not U.S. unilateralism - threaten their people.
"I
go to Europe feeling optimistic about our relationships and feeling
optimistic about our capacities to work together to solve
problems," he told a roundtable of reporters from Germany,
Russia, France and Italy on Tuesday, May 21, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Bush,
who leaves early on Wednesday, will travel to Berlin; St Petersburg
and Moscow; Paris and Normandy's D-Day beaches; and Rome for a
NATO-Russia summit as well as a meeting with Pope John Paul II. He
returns May 28.
In
meetings with E.U. leaders, he is likely to hear concerns about
perceived U.S. unilateralism such as Washington's renunciation of
treaties like the accord creating an international criminal court and
the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gasses blamed for global
warming.
And
he is also likely to hear European worries about what is seen there as
an overly pro-Israel policy towards ending violence in the Middle
East, as well as potential U.S. military action against Iraq.
On
Tuesday, Bush warned the United States and Europe could not be
satisfied with containing Iraq, saying: "the word 'contain'
doesn't work if someone's got the capacity to deliver a weapon of mass
destruction."
"Iraq
ought to be on the minds of the German people, and ought to be on the
minds of the American people. Because the Iraq government is a
dangerous government," he told Germany's ARD television
separately . "We've got to deal with it."
Bush
is expected to try to gain European backing for action against Iraq in
a speech to Germany's lower house of parliament Thursday. He will also
meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Hours
after the U.S. government urged Americans living in Germany to stay
away from what are expected to be massive demonstrations against
Bush's visit, the president shrugged off the protest as signs of a
healthy democracy.
"That's
good. That's democracy," he told ARD television. "I love to
visit a place that is confident in her freedom, a place where people
feel free to express themselves, because that's what I believe
in."
Bush
also pledged to renew his strong support for expanding NATO - he plans
to seal a historic rapprochement between Russia and the alliance
conceived as a bulwark against the Soviet Union - and for cooperation
with Europe in general.
On
Tuesday, he said that allies should not doubt Washington's long-term
commitment to NATO but must increase military spending to help
transform a coalition that is "more needed than ever" to
battle terrorism.
Only
over the weekend, French President Jacques Chirac delivered a
belligerent speech attacking the "unilateralism" of the Bush
administration, a by-word in Europe for America's diplomatic
single-mindedness and indifference to the concerns of other countries,
reported BBC’s online news service.
In
short, its infuriating tendency, as the Europeans see things, to go it
alone, the BBC said.
In
the German capital, Berlin, police divers examined drains and sniffer
dogs accompanied officers Wednesday on checks of vehicles around
Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, Bush was expected later.
The
German capital, in one of its biggest security operations, has
mobilized 10,000 security personnel for a Bush visit that will last
less than 20 hours.
Tens
of thousands of pacifist and anti-globalization protestors were
expected to hit the streets at around midday (1000 GMT), and police
are on alert despite the relative calm in which demonstrations took
place Tuesday.
Shouting
slogans such as "Stop War" and carrying banners reading
"Warmongers Unwelcome" and "War is Terror", about
17,000 activists had marched down the main Unter den Linden avenue
nearby in east Berlin amid heavy security, police said. Organizers put
the figure at up to 40,000.
In
another development on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair hit
out on wreckers of Europe-Atlantic relations. "I regard it
as one of my tasks to say to people the whole time, don't pull apart
Europe and America," Blair said in an interview with The Times.
"The
only people that rejoice in those circumstances are the bad guys and
America and Europe should stand together on most issues," he
added, ahead of Bush's week-long visit.
"Secondly,
don't tell Britain to choose between Europe and America because that
isn't sensible for us."
Blair
said Britain would in "no way ... be anything less than a full
friend and partner of America" and that Europe's leaders
"have a high respect for" Bush, "personally and
politically".
He
added: "My sense of this is that despite the difficulties the
sensible majority understand that what we have in common is far more
important than what divides us."
He
ruled out the prospect of an imminent U.S. strike against Iraq as part
of a wider military campaign against terrorism.
He
also dismissed talk of a rift over the Middle East. "The truth is
that Europe is not anti-Israel ... What is more prominent in Europe's
political culture is a belief that the Palestinians have a raw deal.
But that is not to say that Europe doesn't agree that Israel should
exist.
Blair
said anti-American voices existed in Europe because of "jealousy
about American culture dominating European culture. Also, partly,
America is the world superpower. Anyone who is pre-eminent always
takes a bit of flak.
"Perhaps
I'm being franker than I should be. I think that there is a certain
ambivalence on both sides of the Atlantic ... The Europeans want
America to take the lead but sometimes, if it does, will criticize it
for being unilateralist.
"The
Americans want Europe to take more responsibility, but then when we do
it can sometimes look as if we're trying to muscle in or be
unhelpful," added the British leader.
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