Bush rebuffed at NATO on Ukraine, Georgia, Macedonia

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Bush rebuffed at NATO on Ukraine, Georgia, Macedonia
Wed Apr 2, 2008 6:05pm EDT

By Ilona Wissenbach and Paul Taylor

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - NATO leaders failed to agree at
the start of a summit on Wednesday to put former Soviet
republics Ukraine and Georgia on a path to membership or
to invite Macedonia to join the alliance.

The double setback for U.S. President George W. Bush at
his final NATO summit overshadowed agreement to invite
two new Balkan countries -- Croatia and Albania -- to
join the 26-nation defense alliance and progress on extra
troops for Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai hailed a breakthrough on
Afghanistan after French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered
up to 1,000 extra troops for the east, enabling the United
States to redeploy forces to the south, scene of the
fiercest fighting with Taliban insurgents.

That in turn enabled Canada to say its parliamentary
conditions had been met to stay on in Afghanistan, where
it has suffered heavy casualties at the hands of Islamist
guerrillas.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0179714620080402

[LakeSamish706]

1. I'm really glad that they shut Bush down on th former Soviet Union countries joining. n/t

[tanyev]

2. Salvage operation not going so well, huh?

Bush Sets Out To Salvage Legacy On World Stage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3094875

[acmavm]

4. I don't think bush is smart enough to know when things aren't going well.

Or when to quit pushing his luck. Or OUR luck rather.

He's the most arrogant, obtuse, almost pitiful mo fo on the face of this Earth. He seriously doesn't care either. Asshole probably obsesses on whether or not he should just all take us out on his last day in office. Send a missle or ten in Russia's direction, OR Iran and take off for Paraguay on Air Force One. After that reception he got at that Washington Whatevers game the other day (when he was booed) he probably sits around bitching to himself:

"Those sons of bitches, those peasants booed me. They actually had the nerve to friggin' boo my ass. I'll show 'em. I'll teach 'em to get that uppity."

KA-BOOM!

Forget Iran. He's just getting a clue how much WE hate him. And he ain't happy.

[DeSwiss]

8. His whole life....

....is one long, un-ending salvage operation.

[Doctor_J]

19. Snark. More like daydreaming of pussy and Paraguay

His only hope of salvaging his legacy is to surrender himself to the World Court and beg for mercy. If he were to do it today, he would have my respect for relieving the US of 9 more months of having to look at him.

[hvn_nbr_2]

3. Can we get our Congressional Dems to have some training sessions with NATO leaders?

Get them to understand that if they "rebuff" the boy king, they won't have to stay in detention hall or anything.

[calimary]

9. No kidding. How come they don't seem able to say "NO" to him and make it stick.

I think his biggest and most long-lived problem has been that evidently NOBODY ever told him "no" when he was a kid growing up - when something could have been done to modify, contain, or correct his behavior. I blame his "mother" mainly, since dad was always off somewhere. Who the fuck brought him up??? Someone who apparently wanted to give him a Dauphin complex. The proof is in the pudding as to what kind of mother YOU turned out to be, bar. If SOMEBODY, ANYBODY had said "no" to him when he was a little boy - and more than once - he might have grown up with a little less arrogance and sense of divine entitlement.

World's Biggest Entitlement Program: the arrogant assumption by republi-CONS that they're simply owed the White House by some sort of divine decree.

The EVEN BIGGER World's Biggest Entitlement Program: The attitude on the part of the bush family that THEY are entitled to dominate the White House - as their own personal fiefdom.

[David__77]

5. Abolish NATO!

The Warsaw Treaty Organization no longer exists, nor should NATO.

[babylonsister]

10. Why should it be abolished? With enough thoughtful people involved,

what's the problem? Besides replacing * for starters.

[Xipe Totec]

6. So where on the North Atlantic shore are Ukraine, Georgia, and Macedonia? nt

[Hardrada]

7. Or Albania. But, wait, isn't Turkey in NATO?

I'm not sure.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Yes, it is; so are Italy and Greece

and have been since 1952. It's a long time since 'NATO' was a geographically accurate name; indeed, Luxembourg was a founding country in 1949, and it's landlocked.

[Posteritatis]

22. They're waiting for the ice caps to go. Duh. (nt)

;)

[bif]

11. So someone finally stood up to the boy-king?

Is he going to have a tantrum or what?

[Doctor_J]

20. Pssh. Foreigners have been standing up to him the entire time

Chavez, Putin, Blix...the entire citizenry of Europe and South America.

It's only Big Media and the handful of US citizens who believe their lies that kowtow to him

[bemildred]

12. Bush loses out in Bucharest

Source: al Jazeera

---

Meanwhile, Nato officials are trying to expand the alliance's agenda to include new threats (asymmetrical ones such as cyber attacks, terrorism and others) that will take many years to define in a single doctrine.

All the while its partners are becoming more numerous than its members with a far more complex set of challenges than dealing with the Cold War threat from the Warsaw pact.

It has become clear that the more Nato expands the less effective it has become.

If Washington is to expect more European help, it will have to accept more European autonomy in defense and decision making.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C316EB1A-458F-4409-A6EA-0D15D0596BB2.htm

[spindrifter]

13. The so-called "heavy lifting' still rests on the

larger members. I certainly don't expect that some of the newer nations that have tiny (comparatively) budgets and small, ill-equiped armies are going to be able to contribute much except talk.

[Hardrada]

14. Yes, those nations with their chocolate soldiers and their pampered

palace guards. At least they are too little to INVADE anyone!

[NBachers]

15. Except for the Duchy of Grand Fenwick

Maybe they had the right idea after all.

[Hardrada]

16. Peter Sellers was great in that flick! Yeah, they had the right idea.

[14thColony]

17. What I tend to find

is larger numbers from the larger nations as you say, which of course makes sense, then a minimum of contributions from the smaller NATO nations, but then disproportionately large contributions from the Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations such as Croatia, Macedonia, Albania etc, which are (or think they are) on the short-list for NATO membership. Why? Because most European nations view NATO membership as a means to an end: prove your European collective credentials so you can get invited into the European Union, which is the ultimate goal.

[Kolesar]

18. Or, a "consolation prize" if the nation cannot get into the European Union

[Mudoria]

23. Can't see any reason why those nations shouldn't be

admitted to NATO.