Bush Told, End The War

Not The Iraq War, The Korean War

Everywhere President Bush goes in the world today, he comes face to face with journalists, protesters and politicians who demand, or politely ask, that he hurry up and finish the Iraq War.
But today in Sydney, at the APEC summit of world leaders, President Bush found himself facing demands that he wind up the Korean War, after some 53 years of stalemate.

Media reports claim that the US and South Korean presidents had a "testy" exchange. That's one way to put it. Another way would be to say that President Bush was confronted, he quickly lost his temper and diplomacy and decorum vanished into quiet seething, on both sides.

The Sydney APEC summit is quickly proving to be one of the most remarkable gatherings of world leaders for a good decade or more.

And the main weekend of meetings have not yet begun :

President Bush's talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun ended on a sour note Friday, not over the war in Iraq, but rather the Korean conflict that ended with a truce more than five decades ago. As Bush began to wind down his stay at the Asia-Pacific summit, Roh challenged him to make a declaration to end the Korean War. That conflict ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, so the two sides technically remain at war.

The awkward exchange occurred during the first in a series of sit- downs that Bush had here with leaders from Pacific Rim nations.

Bush's talks with Roh focused on the six-nation negotiations to get North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. Soon after the mini diplomatic incident, Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy handling the talks with Pyongyang, announced that nuclear experts from the U.S., China and Russia will travel to North Korea next week to survey nuclear facilities due to be shut down.

Bush said that during his talks with Roh, he reaffirmed the U.S. position that Washington will consider the war formally over only when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il actually dismantles his nuclear program.

Whatever Roh heard Bush say through his translator, it wasn't good enough.

"I think I did not hear President Bush mention the—a declaration to end the Korean War just now," Roh said as cameras clicked and television cameras rolled.

Bush said he thought he was being clear, but obliged Roh and restated the U.S. position.

That wasn't good enough either. "If you could be a little bit clearer in your message," Roh said.

Bush, now looking irritated, replied: "I can't make it any more clear, Mr. President. We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will end—will happen when Kim verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons."

The White House immediately downplayed the testy exchange and said the meeting went smoothly.

A most curious incident. The United States cannot end the Korean War, because it was a war, officially, between the United States and the then breakaway North.

This incident marks the fourth time in only a few days that President Bush has clearly lost his temper in public. Not a good look.

Was Bush Drunk During Error-Plagued Speech In Sydney?

Thanks "Austrian" Troops, Gets Lost Trying To Leave The Stage

President Bush gave a speech today at the APEC summit in Sydney, riddled with implausible errors and mispronounciations. He appeared slightly unsteady on his feet, and had trouble finding his way off the stage.

Bush referred to the APEC summit as "OPEC".

He thanked "Austrian" troops for fighting in Iraq, instead of "Australian troops" and called his close friend Australian prime minister John Howard the "Austrian" prime minister.

All the more remarkable because Bush was in Sydney, Australia when he gave the speech, and has been in Sydney, Australia since Tuesday night.

Naturally, the audience laughed.

During the speech, Bush clearly slurred a number of other words.

He had the most trouble of all getting out the name of terror group Jemaah Islamiah, and quickly switched the abbreviation, JI.

No trouble there.

While he was trying to find his way off stage, before being helped by John Howard...

...a veteran White House correspondent seized the opportunity to ask Mr Bush whether there had been any new message in his speech. Apparently misunderstanding the question, he bristled and asked, "Haven't you been listening to my past speeches?" before turning away.

White House staffers offered an explanation for Bush's string of gaffs - he was just joking.

Sure he was.

Dazed Bush Forgets Where He Is - Thanks "Austrian" Troops For Fighting In Iraq - Video

Bush Takes Condi Rice On A Date

Says "We're Kicking Ass!" In Iraq

President Bush is now Down Under, and clearly enjoying his time in Sydney with Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, while his wife, Laura, is stuck back at home in the US with a 'pinched neck' that supposedly stopped her from joining her husband on the long flight, via Iraq, to Australia.

Arriving at Sydney airport last night, Bush and Rice looked and acted more like a president and his first lady, than a president and his secretary of state.

After a day's worth of meetings, press conferences, lunches and a little business, President Bush and Condi Rice climbed aboard a magnificent cruiser for a night-time trip across Sydney Harbour to the residence of prime minister John Howard.

Condi Rice stood back from Bush while he met with senior ministers of the Howard cabinet, but when he noticed her alone and off to one side, President Bush put his arm around the woman long rumoured in Washington to be his lover and said "You can be my date" for the dinner. The n the champagne began to flow.


Go To The Orstrahyun For More On The Ultra-Security Now Enveloping Sydney For Bush's Visit


From Your New Reality :

President Bush's first 24 hours in Australia have been a mix of luxurious dining, a chow down with Australian troops, harbour cruises, press conferences and big deals signed with Australia on the sharing of military technology secrets.

Bush's hour long press conference with Australia's prime minister John Howard was a dreary, long-winded mess of standard Bush rhetoric on the Iraq War, climate change, the lapdog loyalty of Australian prime minister John Howard and the hassle of having to wage both an "ideological" struggle and a battle for "hearts and minds" in the 'War on Terror'.

But President Bush is clearly feeling confident regarding the Iraq War. How confident?

When Bush arrived in Australia last night, he was greeted at the airport by deputy prime minister Mark Vaile. Having just flown in from Iraq, Bush was asked how things were going over there.

Bush grinned, "We're kicking ass!"

Bush almost topped himself in the headline quote department earlier today during the press conference when he told prime minister John Howard that he was expecting him to "shout" lunch.

"I'm a meat guy," the president reminded his Australian host.

A meat guy who loves kicking ass.

It's remarkable he's so unpopular back home in the United States.

President Bush also made the most of his massive 30-plus vehicle long motorcade. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was shut down so the president could cross the harbour to go mountain biking in a patch of national park.

And earlier in the morning he broke his own record for the shortest presidential motorcade ride in history. A mere 230 feet from his hotel to the prime minister's office. The motorcade was longer than the distance it traveled.

No doubt realising the sheer absurdity of driving such a short distance, Bush left the motorcade behind to walk back to his hotel.

But the streets around the Intercontinental Hotel are 'caged' - lined with ten foot high steel fences embedded in huge concrete blocks. The evening news was filled with bizarre images of the president walking down a city street, but cut off from the entire city by the massive security fence. The only people inside 'The Cage' were literally hundreds of police, riot squad officers and paramedics in chemical weapons suits and flak jackets.

Many Australians probably thought that was exactly where Bush belonged. Locked up behind steel mesh.