Bush snubs Norway's premier

www.aftenposten.no ^ | 02 May 2006, 09:36 | Aftenposten English Web Desk (Nina Berglund)

[Kurt_Hectic]

US President George W Bush reportedly doesn't want to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Norway also seems to have lost an influential role within NATO, apparently, some say, because of Norway's lack of enthusiasm for the war in Iraq. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg reportedly isn't welcome at the White House.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Tuesday that Bush's staff had turned down a request from Stoltenberg's office for a meeting between the two at the White House. Bush, according to the report, was too busy to make room for Stoltenberg in the foreseeable future.

NRK reported that Bush's staff wouldn't set up the meeting because of the Norwegian left-center coalition government's criticism of the war in Iraq, and Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen's support for a boycott of Israeli products.

Jan Petersen, who was Norway's foreign minister in the last center-right government, told NRK that he feared a phone conversation Stoltenberg had with Bush shortly after last fall's election put a damper on relations between the US and Norway. In the conversation, Stoltenberg told Bush that Norwegian officers would be pulled out of Iraq.

Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor at the University of Oslo, said her sources also indicate that Norway no longer is part of the "inner circle" at NATO.

"My contacts in NATO and Washington say Norway was in the innermost circles in NATO, that we were a partner in this inner circle together with the US," Haaland Matlary told NRK. "Now these contacts say we aren't any longer."

Støre 'unaware'

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told NRK that he wasn't aware that a request for a meeting with Bush was denied. He maintained that the US continued to be an important ally for Norway, while White House officials claimed Norway also was an important ally for the US.

Indeed, Stoltenberg's government often has been criticized within Norway for being too eager to please the US. On issues ranging from the relocation of the US Embassy in Oslo to mixed signals on whether government ministers will meet representatives from Hamas, Stoltenberg has been accused of being too accommodating to US interests.

This in turn has raised concerns about a rift within his coalition government. Stoltenberg's Labour Party needs to cooperate with Halvorsen's Socialist Left, which has a far more critical line towards the US than Labour. A snub by Bush actually might help Stoltenberg appease the more left-leaning members of his government, and voters, at a time when the conservative Progress Party is leading in the polls.

The former center-right coalition government led by Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian Democrats, meanwhile, maintained good relations with Bush, even though Bondevik's government went on record as opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq from the start.

[danamco]

During WWII, Norway became a docile servant of the Nazis and, in fact, the word "Quisling" (the name of their Prime Minister) became the term for "traitor".

I see that there are still a lot of Quislings in Norway to this day.



You better learn you history lessons before posting such lies!
The quisling movement was a very minuscule % of the Norwegian people!!
The rest were extremely brave freedom fighters sabotaging the germans at every corner possibly!!!
You need to back to schrool before posting!??!

[danamco]

Without Swedish iron ore many fewer panzer tanks would have rolled out of the Ruhrgebiet.



Do you know if Sweden had a secret airlift of SKF ball bearings across the North Sea to the allies???

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

SKF?? SKF was the biggest supplier to Nazi Germany of precision ball bearings!!!

"Sweden was Nazi Germany's largest trading partner during the war and almost the sole source of high-grade iron ore and precision ball bearings for the German war machine. Imports of the latter from Sweden were especially important following the destruction of the VKF ball bearing plant (itself Swedish-owned) at Schweinfurt by the US Eighth Air Force in August and October 1943."

http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/summer00/art04.html

Only after Stalingrad and Kursk, and the tide had turned against the Nazis, did the Swedes start attempting to limit their material support for the Nazi war machine.

[albee]

Go back to school, danamco. You are either stupid or trying to rewrite history.

[ProudNorseman]

Don't worry about him, he's just a stupid, ignorant kid.

[wardaddy]

Ignore the ignorant here please.

They seem unaware that Norway had a slightly higher casualty rate in WWII than did the US and that 95% of those were at the hands of the Axis.....about a third were seaman.

Some folks here are just grumpy.

Regards

[ProudNorseman]

Thanks - appreciated. And you're right; no use bothering with those who almost surely couldn't find the country on the map.

[tomjohn77]

The question being if you really every went to school. I doubt it.

[danamco]

Go back to school, danamco. You are either stupid or trying to rewrite history.




Were YOU there during these 5 awful years of the occupation???
I was at that time!
Namely in the neighboring country experience the same atrocities as in Norway, also called our "brother" country, despising the germans. You in your cushy protected state have never suffered starvation and unheated houses in severe cold winter climates.
Therefore you are NOT qualified to judge or teach us other about history, in which you are a total FAILURE.
I bet you can not even point out the location of the Scandinavian countries on a map, less the location of their capitals. You certainly need to go back and claim your tuition moneys from your liberal teachers!!!

[albee]

"You in your cushy protected state have never suffered starvation and unheated houses in severe cold winter climates. Therefore you are NOT qualified to judge or teach us other about history....."

Great logic you use, danamco.

I've never murdered anybody so I guess by your logic I am "not qualified" to say whether or not murder is good or bad.

Sorry for your hardships during WWII. Perhaps if your countrymen had offered resistance to the takeover of your country by the Nazis, you might have avoided your ordeal.

[Kenny Bunk]

That whole Schweinfurt ball-bearing thing turned out to be a complete waste of lives, planes, and bombs.

Not only were the Germans outsourcing the ball bearing thing to Sweden and Italy, it turns out that one sub could pretty much carry all the ball bearings anyone is going to need for a year. If we were to lose bearing production for a while, our industrial supply warehouses could fake it for a quite a while. Ditto NZI Germany. Not to mention in many applications a bronze bushing will do quite nicely ... for a long while.

Interesting reading about how warring air staffs fought for particular targets, there were "Dam Guys," "Plane factory guys," "Petroleum Guys," etc. IMHO the fuel guys made the best case. NAZI Germany's war material output continued to rise throughout the war. They didn't run out of gas until they ran out of men .... and gas.

[danamco]

Sorry for your hardships during WWII. Perhaps if your countrymen had offered resistance to the takeover of your country by the Nazis, you might have avoided your ordeal.




WoW!
Your intelligence says it all about your history knowledge, and I trust that you were old enough to experience WWII, right?
Do you even know the populations of Norway and Denmark at that time??
Do you also know the population of Germany at that time, and the scope of their war machine they started aggressively building up in the 30ths under a dictator called hitler???
It was a force that even surpassed the U.S.s military in power!??!
Your total ignorance is a disgrace and an insult to two great allies of the U.S.!!!

[Doe Eyes]

If my assumptions are correct about the above, perhaps you should persue a "FreeNorse" website...

I have no problem with non-Americans posting here.

Do you?

[albee]

"Do you also know the population of Germany at that time, and the scope of their war machine they started aggressively building up in the 30ths under a dictator called hitler???

If they were so strong, why were they beaten into submission, hmmmmmmm?

It was a force that even surpassed the U.S.s military in power!!

Yes, but the USA along with their FIGHTING allies were able to kick ass across the Pacific as well as the Atlantic oceans! Where was the Norwegian Army all this time or didn't you have one?

Your total ignorance is a disgrace and an insult to two great (cowardly) allies of the U.S.!!!

I corrected your last sentence.

[danamco]

.....by albee (The best thing you can do for the poor is.....not be one of them. - Eric Hoffer)




You haven't listened enough to Eric Hoffer, because you are a sure evidence that your present brain is as poor, or poorer than one could expect from a normal "Freeper"!??!

[ProudNorseman]

Han er bare en stakkarslig idiot. Sikkert en guttunge (dreng) som poster fra sitt værelse hos mamma.

Ha en fin dag!

[danamco]

Det er fuldstaendigt haabloest at have en saglig debat med en snot unge uden nogensomhelst grundig viden om verdens historie i det hele taget. En absolut idiot der er vokset op foran fjersyns skaermen!

albee behovever et godt spark i roeven eller nogen til at banke en lille bitte smule fornuft i en fuldstaendig tom hjerne kranium!!

Maa du have en god og bra dag, hej paa dig!!!

[tomjohn77]

Have you ever considered running for the planets most stupid man. You will have a great chance of winning!!!
Get your fat ass out of your house and get to know the real world. LOSER!!!!