Bush Discusses Iraq With Foreign Leaders

Associated Press ^ | 4-10-04 | SCOTT LINDLAW

[TexKat]

CRAWFORD, Texas - Amid fresh violence in Iraq, President Bush discussed military operations Friday with national security aides and with three foreign leaders who have sent troops.

Bush spoke by phone with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland and Francisco Flores of El Salvador.

Nearly 3,000 Italian troops and paramilitary police are serving in Iraq, 2,400 Polish and 380 Salvadoran.

Seventeen Italians have died in Iraq and one soldier each from El Salvador and Poland.

Bush discussed "the current situation in Iraq" with the men, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "All four leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to helping the Iraqi people realize a free and democratic future," he said.

The leaders promised to help defeat the "minority, extremist elements who seek to derail the transition to democracy through a violent power play," McClellan said.

Bush also gave his condolences to Flores for the death of Natividad Mendez Ramos, 19, a Salvadoran killed Sunday near Najaf. An additional 12 Salvadorans were wounded Sunday.

Bush did not speak with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was plunged into his deepest crisis since taking office when three Japanese were abducted in Iraq.

Their captors threatened to burn the Japanese hostages alive unless Japan withdrew from Iraq within three days. In Japan, thousands of protesters pressed the government Friday to pull out.

Vice President Dick Cheney left for Asia on Friday, carrying a personal appeal to Japanese leaders to resist pressure from the kidnappers.

Bush received an update on military operations in Iraq in a National Security Council videoconference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; White House chief of staff Andy Card; national security adviser Condoleezza Rice; CIA Director George Tenet; Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command; the top American in Iraq, Paul Bremer; and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq.

They discussed U.S. military operations in Fallujah and other parts of Iraq, including the drive to defeat radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his "extremist militia," McClellan said.

They also talked about a threat by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed to be running a terror network of attacks during Iraqi Shiite pilgrimages to southern Iraq. The pilgrimage is the "type of large gathering that Zarqawi has talked about attacking and then seeking to blame the coalition," McClellan said.

Rice was to arrive at Bush's ranch Friday, where the Bush family was gathering for the Easter weekend.

The president's parents, mother-in-law, daughters and Rice planned to attend church together Sunday at Fort Hood, Texas.

On Saturday, Bush and his father were to go fishing at the ranch's bass pond with a crew from the Outdoor Life Network's "Fishing with Roland Martin."

The White House approached the network about coming to film Bush, who is eager to cultivate an image as a sportsman with the millions of voters who hunt and fish. The crew was to bring its own boat for the shoot on the small pond.

___

On the Net: OLN's "Fishing with Roland Martin" site: http://www.olntv.com/showviewer.asp?sid33

[Burkeman1]

640 Dead Americans and Thousands of Iraqis (that we don't bother to count) wish Bush was far more wiser.

[txrangerette]

Flyer's point was that Bush spoke
to leaders NAMED by the WH, while
Kerry said he spoke with leaders
he wouldn't reveal.

Then Burkeman turns it into a
point against Bush about not
remembering those guys names
back when he ran in 2000.

Also has attacked ME on account
of a news story I mentioned on
Polish troops killing Sadr's #1
aide, in a Karbala battle.

He says the story's fake & the
Poles are worthless allies but
they help Bush pretend.

I say he just hates W

[Flyer]

The thousands that have not died at the hands of terrorists are very thankful he is as wise as he is.

[Texasforever]

Second night in a row that you are dancing in the blood. It is getting tiresome.

[Burkeman1]

Yes. I do hate Bush. I also hate Clinton. In what way does that change anything I have to say either way?

[Burkeman1]

The Americans killed by Iraqi terrorists support you? How much money have you got so far from those mothers killed by Iraqis in the US?

[Burkeman1]

NO- you are the dancer. YOu love it.

[txrangerette]

300,000 plus Iraqis in mass
graves, per international orgs.

Rape rooms, torture chambers,
human shredding machines, kids
rotting in jail, tongues cut out
of dissenters who bleed to death
in the public square, Saddam's
& Ouday's & Qusay's dogs eating
people alive...

But no, let's attack our leader.

Saddam? He just had a bad Press.

[Texasforever]

Look. You have found your kindred spirits on Liberty Forum. I used to cut you some slack until last week when I saw you had joined that cesspool. Now go play with your skinhead friends.

[GretchenEE]

I'm certainly pleased that your vast knowledge of foreign affairs allows you to do such a superior job as CIC and President of the USA.

What's that you say? You know more than the President but you're actually not the President?

Well, I'm thankful for small mercies.

[txrangerette]

Because you are speaking from
irrationality & unreason.

[Texasforever]

No he is speaking from Liberty Forum talking points.

[Burkeman1]

NOt my skinheahd friends. I won't put up with their jew hating crap just as I won't put up with geoncidal "kill them all" crap on this site.

That you even know where I have been means that you at least bother to monitor yourself and your opinions.

I admire that.

[txrangerette]

He asked me why does it matter
if he admittedly hates Bush;
his statements are still valid,
he claims.

I said why it matters.

[Jorge]

Coming from a Chief Chicken Hawk I don't think the Dems are that concerned about your opinions.

Who's the "Chief Chicken Hawk"? You? What are you talking about?

[CyberAnt]

Good grief - go back over to DU and tell them we didn't buy your garbage.

And .. when you get done with that - go back to MA and support that idiot who thinks anybody will vote for a traitor.

[KMG365]

Hello Rangerette.

I assume that means you are a Kilgore (yes burkeman1 Kil-gore is a city in the great state) Rangerette. Which means you are very pretty and extremely fit.

[Texasforever]

Here is what I would do as president. I would get on television Monday night both nation wide and in Iraq. I would lay down this ultimatum. I would tell the people of Iraq that we have given them the opportunity to live their lives as a free people. They are now at the hour of decision. They can rise up as one voice and tell the insurgents that they will not be cowed into submission again OR we will take whatever measures required to insure that this country will remain in the 6th century it obviously wishes to maintain

This is the time to fish or cut bait. We accomplished the original misson which was to get rid of Saddam Hussein and his spawn. The reconstruction was just gravy for the Iraqi people. We withdraw to the north and partition the country to allow the Kurds to build an autonomous nation and then we will make sure that the rest of Iraq is in no position to do anything other than kill each other. If the Iraqis both Sunni and Shia are not willing to come into the light then let them die in the dark.

[Jorge]

Italy, Poland, and El Salvador! Their troops mean nothing but their diplomatic presence means everything to maintain the fiction that it isn't just America and our "Airstrip One" called Britian alone in Iraq.

Right. Perhaps you would prefer we had the America hating nations that were on the take from Saddam to make the coalition legitimate.

[Burkeman1]

Tonight there was a very touchiing story about a kid named Omar who delivered meals and tonic drinks to our troops on the outskrirts of Fallujah.

Well this poor kid was killed by the "terrorists" this week.

It was a touching and moving strory. And yet we don't think there are dozens of such stories of youngsters being killed in support of "them"?