By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
2 Apr 2008
BUCHAREST, Romania - President Bush suffered a painful diplomatic setback Wednesday when NATO allies rebuffed his passionate pleas to put former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward membership in the Western military alliance.
Confession: I've no idea whether Georgia & Ukraine ought be set "on the path towards membership" in NATO. I've no idea what the issues are, what W's arguments are, or why our NATO allies decided against it.
I'm just delighted to see W rebuffed.
Trying desperately in his last few months to salvage something, he now has to deal with the consequences his go-it-alone cowboy approach to international relations. (At least someone in his Administration is paying a price for past behavior!)
Am I being petty? Yep!
If I were a NATO ally, I'd have rebuffed W on general principles:
If W be fer it, I'm agin it!Maybe this attitude contributed to W's diplomatic defeat. Who knows?
Having disdained international cooperation, world opinion, treaties, etc., etc., and so forth, for his first 7 years in office, did W really expect to score a diplomatic coup in his last year?
Our bungling in Afghanistan has had serious implications for the governments & militaries of our NATO allies.
Our bungling in Iraq has made us a pariah among civilized nations.
Now... if the U.S. Congress could just emulate NATO and rebuff W! - at every opportunity. The so-called Protect America Act is a good place to start! (This particular opportunity can be justified on the basis of sound Constitutional principles - not just being nasty to W.)
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