More / world leaders support Kerry, revisited

[NV1962]

While the Bush camp paints Kerry as terrorists’ champion, "new Europe" asserts otherwise:

• British Ambassador to Italy Ivor Roberts kicked up a huge fuss this week on several levels when he lobbed this little grenade into a closed conference of British and Italian diplomats: "George W. Bush is the best recruiting sergeant for al Qaeda," Roberts said. "If there is anyone ready to celebrate his eventual reelection, it is al Qaeda."
  
• Before the UN, Bush noted without specifics and no follow-up that "when it comes to the desire for liberty and justice, there is no clash of civilizations. People everywhere are capable of freedom, and worthy of freedom." The same day, also in a speech to the UN Assembly, Spanish PM José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero proposed an "alliance of civilizations between the Western and the Arab and Muslim worlds." With specifics, and a clear vision to procure its success.

I think that speech is a worthwhile read, as in my opinion it represents a strong, but diplomatically guarded signal to John Kerry that with his election, the US government will again count with Spanish help to build that strong, broad and effective international alliance, which I called the "grand coalition of the able, willing and wise."