In a press conference today, Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russia would counter America's imperialism across the globe. He is most upset that the U.S. has withdrawn from the AntiBallistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and began to plan for a new missile defense system that would protect/engage most of Europe.
The best quote is: "We warned them then that we would come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world. Yesterday we conducted a test of a new strategic ballistic missile with multiple warheads, and of a new cruise missile, and will continue to improve our resources."
Next week will be very interesting for the simple fact that the G8 Summit is taking place. I wonder how well George W and his buddy, or former buddy, Vlad P will get along.
Putin Issues Sharp Warning [Associated Press]
Putin Says Its Not Our Fault [Itar-Tass (Russian)]
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
George W & Vlad P To Meet
So there's been a lot of fuss going on lately about the US-Russia relationship. Just scroll down to read about some of it.
Well now to calm things, the leaders of both nations will meet on July 1 & 2 in Germany.
Maybe they'll decide they're too good of friends and realize they were just blowing off some steam with all this tough talk.
Articles here and here.
Well now to calm things, the leaders of both nations will meet on July 1 & 2 in Germany.
Maybe they'll decide they're too good of friends and realize they were just blowing off some steam with all this tough talk.
Articles here and here.
Monday, May 28, 2007
U.S. & Iran Talk.....About Iraq
As the United States moves forward in the long war on terrorism, you can say it has finally came to its senses. We have realized we can not win over the hearts and minds of Iraqis with out some help. And where might that help come from. A rather unlikely source, Iran. Yes. Iran.
For the last twenty some years, the United States has not talked directly with Iran because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that happened there. Well now, we're talking. The subject is Iraq and how to calm it down. I'm sure every one is waiting for the subject to turn to nuclear enrichment. I'm sure it has been mentioned in passing, but nothing serious.
So to our new allies in helping stabilized Iraq, we welcome you Iran.
Check out this article to read all about the meeting between US and Them.
For the last twenty some years, the United States has not talked directly with Iran because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that happened there. Well now, we're talking. The subject is Iraq and how to calm it down. I'm sure every one is waiting for the subject to turn to nuclear enrichment. I'm sure it has been mentioned in passing, but nothing serious.
So to our new allies in helping stabilized Iraq, we welcome you Iran.
Check out this article to read all about the meeting between US and Them.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
War Games In Gulf
The United States has sent a large amount of ships to the Gulf as a show of force and to coincidentally run war games. Yesterday, the ships entered the region and today they started war games.
Didnt we do this a few months back. I think this time we might have more ships. And two of the ships are nuclear powered aircraft carriers. Oh yeah! The big boys.
According to the group leader, the aim of the ships is to reassure U.S. allies of our committement to regional stability of the region. Just like we've stabilizided Iraq I bet.
US Begins War Games
Tensions Rise Again
US Wants To Widen Iran Sanctions
Iran Accuses America Of Revolution Plot
Didnt we do this a few months back. I think this time we might have more ships. And two of the ships are nuclear powered aircraft carriers. Oh yeah! The big boys.
According to the group leader, the aim of the ships is to reassure U.S. allies of our committement to regional stability of the region. Just like we've stabilizided Iraq I bet.
US Begins War Games
Tensions Rise Again
US Wants To Widen Iran Sanctions
Iran Accuses America Of Revolution Plot
Monday, May 21, 2007
US Meets With NATO & UN
Today Senator Joseph Biden met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. After the meeting, Biden called for a step up of UN forces in the Darfur region because the government has lost power. [Monsters & Critics]
In the meantime, President Bush met with NATO Secretary General to discuss all the civilian deaths that have been going on in Afghanistan. Well it seems, the terrorists are using the civilians as shields. [CTV]
In the meantime, President Bush met with NATO Secretary General to discuss all the civilian deaths that have been going on in Afghanistan. Well it seems, the terrorists are using the civilians as shields. [CTV]
Monday, May 14, 2007
Iran Talks Big
Condi: "It's Time For Intensive Diplomacy"
Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice is on her way to Moscow today. On her trip she tried to stress that the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is strained, but there is no new cold war developing.
This will be an interesting relationship over the next two years. With George Bush and Vladimir Putin both about to leave office, it will be up to the next set of presidents to mend the relationship, that is if it is possible.
Associated Press: Rice: No New Cold War For U.S., Russia
Matthew Lee
MOSCOW (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday there's no "new Cold War" between Washington and Moscow, though she acknowledged growing strains ahead of contentious talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's time for intensive diplomacy," said Rice, who meets face-to-face with the Russian president on Tuesday amid major differences over U.S. missile defense plans and Putin's increasing criticism of American policy.
Rice said Washington is committed to working through the differences, notably over U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe, Russia's threat to suspend a major military treaty and Moscow's opposition to a U.N. plan for Kosovo independence.
There is also growing U.S. concern about Moscow's treatment of its former Soviet neighbors and steps Putin has taken to consolidate power in the Kremlin—seen as democratic backsliding as Russia prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
"I don't throw around terms like 'new Cold War,'" Rice said. "It is a big, complicated relationship, but it is not one that is anything like the implacable hostility" between the United States and the Soviet Union for a half-century after World War II.
"It is not an easy time in the relationship, but it is also not, I think, a time in which cataclysmic things are affecting the relationship or catastrophic things are happening in the relationship," Rice told reporters aboard her plane on the way to Moscow.
"It is critically important to use this time to enhance those things that are going well and to work on those things that are not going well."
She noted that the United States and Russia are working together in numerous areas: on Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs, the global spread of weapons of mass destruction and efforts to achieve Middle East peace.
"Russia is not the Soviet Union, so this is not a U.S.-Soviet relationship, this is a U.S.-Russian relationship," said Rice, an expert on the Cold War who first visited Moscow in 1979. "A great deal has a changed."
Her visit comes as the two nations have traded increasingly sharp barbs, despite ostensibly warm personal feelings between Putin and President Bush, who spoke to each other just last week and are expected to meet at a summit of leaders in Germany next month.
A planned event at which Rice and Putin were to be photographed together and make brief remarks was canceled by the Kremlin, according to U.S. officials.
And a senior Russian diplomat warned the U.S. not to try to go it alone in world affairs.
"Unilateral steps, the more so unilateral force reaction, interference in affairs of other states under various pretexts ... lead to a deadlock," the chief of the foreign ministry's North America department, Igor Neverov, told the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency as Rice arrived.
In April, simmering Russian anger over U.S. plans to place missile defense components in Poland and the Czech Republic, both former Warsaw Pact members, boiled over despite Washington's pledges to cooperate with Moscow on the system.
Russia views the plan as an attempt to alter the strategic balance. Rice has dismissed such concerns as "ludicrous," but top Russian military officials have hinted the system might be targeted.
"Moscow is not convinced by Washington's assurances that (missile defense) in Europe will not be directed against Russia," Neverov told ITAR-Tass.
Last month, hours before the United States and its NATO allies met in Norway to discuss the matter, Putin threatened to suspend Russia's participation in a key treaty limiting military deployments in Europe.
Rice said Monday that NATO and the United States want to keep the Conventional Forces in Europe pact alive but cannot unless Russia abides with its treaty commitments.
Russia views U.S. activity in its former sphere of influence with growing suspicion. Just last week, Putin denounced "disrespect for human life, claims to global exclusiveness and dictate, just as it was in the time of the Third Reich."
The Kremlin insisted that Putin had not meant to compare the Bush administration's policies with those of Nazi Germany, but the reference appeared to highlight Russia's annoyance at what it sees as U.S. domination of world affairs and meddling in Russian politics.
Rice did not address Putin's comments but said she had urged counterparts to avoid "rhetoric that suggests the relationship is one of hostility."
She said of Russia, "This is a big and complex place that is going through a major historic transformation. ... Things are not going to change overnight, but frankly we would like to see them change faster than they are changing, and for the better."
In addition to discussion of missile defenses, she said she would push the Russians on accepting a U.N. proposal for supervised independence for Kosovo, now a U.N.-administered province in Russian-allied Serbia, that Moscow has threatened to block.
This will be an interesting relationship over the next two years. With George Bush and Vladimir Putin both about to leave office, it will be up to the next set of presidents to mend the relationship, that is if it is possible.
Associated Press: Rice: No New Cold War For U.S., Russia
Matthew Lee
MOSCOW (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday there's no "new Cold War" between Washington and Moscow, though she acknowledged growing strains ahead of contentious talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's time for intensive diplomacy," said Rice, who meets face-to-face with the Russian president on Tuesday amid major differences over U.S. missile defense plans and Putin's increasing criticism of American policy.
Rice said Washington is committed to working through the differences, notably over U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe, Russia's threat to suspend a major military treaty and Moscow's opposition to a U.N. plan for Kosovo independence.
There is also growing U.S. concern about Moscow's treatment of its former Soviet neighbors and steps Putin has taken to consolidate power in the Kremlin—seen as democratic backsliding as Russia prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
"I don't throw around terms like 'new Cold War,'" Rice said. "It is a big, complicated relationship, but it is not one that is anything like the implacable hostility" between the United States and the Soviet Union for a half-century after World War II.
"It is not an easy time in the relationship, but it is also not, I think, a time in which cataclysmic things are affecting the relationship or catastrophic things are happening in the relationship," Rice told reporters aboard her plane on the way to Moscow.
"It is critically important to use this time to enhance those things that are going well and to work on those things that are not going well."
She noted that the United States and Russia are working together in numerous areas: on Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs, the global spread of weapons of mass destruction and efforts to achieve Middle East peace.
"Russia is not the Soviet Union, so this is not a U.S.-Soviet relationship, this is a U.S.-Russian relationship," said Rice, an expert on the Cold War who first visited Moscow in 1979. "A great deal has a changed."
Her visit comes as the two nations have traded increasingly sharp barbs, despite ostensibly warm personal feelings between Putin and President Bush, who spoke to each other just last week and are expected to meet at a summit of leaders in Germany next month.
A planned event at which Rice and Putin were to be photographed together and make brief remarks was canceled by the Kremlin, according to U.S. officials.
And a senior Russian diplomat warned the U.S. not to try to go it alone in world affairs.
"Unilateral steps, the more so unilateral force reaction, interference in affairs of other states under various pretexts ... lead to a deadlock," the chief of the foreign ministry's North America department, Igor Neverov, told the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency as Rice arrived.
In April, simmering Russian anger over U.S. plans to place missile defense components in Poland and the Czech Republic, both former Warsaw Pact members, boiled over despite Washington's pledges to cooperate with Moscow on the system.
Russia views the plan as an attempt to alter the strategic balance. Rice has dismissed such concerns as "ludicrous," but top Russian military officials have hinted the system might be targeted.
"Moscow is not convinced by Washington's assurances that (missile defense) in Europe will not be directed against Russia," Neverov told ITAR-Tass.
Last month, hours before the United States and its NATO allies met in Norway to discuss the matter, Putin threatened to suspend Russia's participation in a key treaty limiting military deployments in Europe.
Rice said Monday that NATO and the United States want to keep the Conventional Forces in Europe pact alive but cannot unless Russia abides with its treaty commitments.
Russia views U.S. activity in its former sphere of influence with growing suspicion. Just last week, Putin denounced "disrespect for human life, claims to global exclusiveness and dictate, just as it was in the time of the Third Reich."
The Kremlin insisted that Putin had not meant to compare the Bush administration's policies with those of Nazi Germany, but the reference appeared to highlight Russia's annoyance at what it sees as U.S. domination of world affairs and meddling in Russian politics.
Rice did not address Putin's comments but said she had urged counterparts to avoid "rhetoric that suggests the relationship is one of hostility."
She said of Russia, "This is a big and complex place that is going through a major historic transformation. ... Things are not going to change overnight, but frankly we would like to see them change faster than they are changing, and for the better."
In addition to discussion of missile defenses, she said she would push the Russians on accepting a U.N. proposal for supervised independence for Kosovo, now a U.N.-administered province in Russian-allied Serbia, that Moscow has threatened to block.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Back To Where We Started: U.S. Versus Russia
Associated Press: U.S. Russia Relationship Moves Steadily Downhill
Anne Gearan
President George W. Bush may have liked what he saw when he first peered into Vladimir Putin's soul nearly six years ago. Yet while Bush was looking away, the sunnier horizon he sought with Russia turned cloudy.
Testy, suspicious and defined by misunderstandings and perceived hurts, the relationship between the Cold War powers has worsened steadily on Bush's watch.
A worried Bush has dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for fence-mending with Moscow this coming week, just three weeks after a similar mission by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Bush also called Putin on Thursday.
The two leaders are to meet next month in Germany, and Washington is trying to prevent a diplomatic disaster.
Putin is not sounding receptive to the Bush administration's message that the U.S. intends no harm to an increasingly restive Russia. On Wednesday, Putin made what many took as a veiled comparison between the global aspirations of the United States and Nazi Germany.
U.S. officials point to numerous areas of cooperation with Russia and insist that even a missile-tipped argument over U.S. defense plans in Europe does not signal the dawn of a new Cold War.
"On many things we have done very well, but the fact is that on some others it's been a difficult period," Rice said in Senate testimony Thursday. Rice said the relationship was complicated by a rollback in democratic reforms in Russia and the Putin government's treatment of nearby states.
"Pretty rocky," was the harsher assessment of Steven Pifer, a specialist on Russia and former Soviet states at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
It was not supposed to be this way, not with two leaders who seem to like one another, generally good economic times in both countries and converging interests in the fight against terrorism. Rice, Bush's longtime top foreign affairs adviser, is even a specialist on Russia and a fluent Russian speaker.
"I am sure that she is disappointed -- everybody on a senior level in the State Department is disappointed," said Soviet-born Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center in Washington. "They have every right to be disappointed. I am quite disappointed myself."
Perhaps Rice, of all people, should have seen the deterioration coming. But she, like the rest of the administration, became preoccupied with terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed.
The chumminess between Bush and Putin was regarded as a foreign policy bright spot, but the underlying relationship between the two countries was a relatively low priority.
"With everything going on in Iraq, with Iran, North Korea, at that level at some point you run out of time," Pifer said. "It's a question of bandwidth."
Russia and the U.S. talk past each other on the basic issues that divide them.
The U.S. looks at Putin's consolidation of power and sees a dangerous retrenchment on basic democratic principles. Russia tunes out the lecture from a world power it considers overbearing and hypocritical.
The U.S. is unnerved by Russia's growing energy wealth, its use of energy as a political cudgel and centralization of the once entrepreneurial energy sector. Russian leaders see their return ticket to world relevance.
In fact, on Saturday, the leaders of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan reached a landmark pipeline deal that will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asia's energy export routes. The agreement sets back U.S. and European efforts to secure alternatives to Middle East oil and gas that would be independent from Russian influence.
The U.S. sees its plan to station missiles and interceptors at bases in Poland and the Czech Republic as a strategic bulwark against a potential threat from Iran, especially if Iran gains nuclear weapons.
Russia sees the breaking of promises it thought it had exacted from the West and unacceptable U.S. encroachment on its doorstep.
As Putin enters what is probably the last year of his presidency, he has become more defiant of international pressure and more willing to challenge the U.S. and Europe.
"President Putin thinks the United States has been weakened by Iraq and that he has been strengthened by recent events and high-priced oil," former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said. "He is trying to put Russia back on the international map."
The U.S. has tried to lower the temperature, in large part because it needs Russia's cooperation in international negotiations or confrontations with Iran and North Korea, and on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Russia is likely to cooperate only so far as it sees its own interests served.
"The whole idea going into the U.S.-Russian relationship in the early part of the administration is, how can two great powers work together on issues of mutual concern and common interest?" State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"That's still true, but also in great power relationships you are going to see differences. Where you are not compromising on principle you narrow those differences, and in some cases you need to agree to disagree."
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Cheney Meets A King
So we continue the trek of VP Cheney to the middle east. Yesterday he was trying to flex some muscle on an aircraft carrier and today he met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to try and gain some help towards repairing Iraq. From the article, it does not seem like the meeting went so well.
Associated Press: Cheney In Saudi Arabia Seeking Iraq Help
Tom Raum
TABUK, Saudi Arabia — Vice President Dick Cheney worked to overcome Saudi skepticism over the U.S. military strategy to secure Baghdad and the leadership capabilities of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki.
Cheney met with King Abdullah at a royal palace in this northern city on Saturday. The king, while considered an important U.S. ally in the Arab world, increasingly has sent signals that he doubts the effectiveness of President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq.
Abdullah also has signaled that he sees al-Maliki as a weak leader with too many ties to pro-Iranian Shiite parties to be effective in reaching out to Iraqi's Sunni minority. Saudi Arabia has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
Cheney was given a red-carpet arrival ceremony at the airport. At the palace, as he and the king exchanged pleasantries, Abdullah asked about the first President Bush. The elder Bush assembled a broad international coalition, including Saudi Arabia, to confront Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
Cheney, who was Bush's defense secretary, said the former president was doing well. "He's still willing to jump out of airplanes," Cheney said. For his 80th birthday, Bush made a 13,000-foot tandem parachute jump over his presidential library in Texas in 2004; the 41st president, now 82, jumped alone on his 75th birthday.
"I did not want to do it when I was 60 and he's done it twice now," the 66-year-old Cheney said.
Cheney is touring Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf states in an attempt to win wider support for ethnic reconciliation in Iraq and to counter efforts by Iran to spread its influence in the region.
Earlier Saturday, Cheney urged greater support for U.S. policies in Iraq when he held meetings in Abu Dhabi with leaders of the United Arab Emirates.
A senior Bush administration official traveling with Cheney said afterward that the Emirates' president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pledged to do as much as possible to support the struggling Iraqi government.
Iran also was a major focus of the meeting, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The Emirates' leaders, the official said, were keenly aware of Iran, a large neighbor less than 100 miles away and a $20 billion a year trading partner.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was scheduled to visit the Emirates on Sunday, is trying to persuade the Gulf states to drop their military alliances with Washington.
Cheney's mission to Saudi Arabia included an effort to smooth over recent divisions between the oil-rich kingdom and the United States.
The kingdom has taken an aggressive leadership role in efforts to quiet Mideast troubles. In a possible attempt to gain more credibility in the region, Abdullah recently has openly challenged the U.S. military presence in Iraq, calling U.S. troops in Iraq an "illegal foreign occupation."
The king refused to see al-Maliki when the Iraqi prime minister toured Arab countries late last month.
Cheney went to Saudi Arabia last November for meetings, requested by the king, that are still shrouded in secrecy.
Reports at the time suggested the two discussed what role Saudi Arabia might play in reaching out to Iraq's Sunni minority as conditions in that country deteriorate.
This time, the king did not request the meeting. Cheney was sent to the region by Bush.
After dinner with the king, Cheney planned to go to Aqaba, Jordan. He was expected to visit Egypt on a weeklong trip that began in Iraq.
Associated Press: Cheney In Saudi Arabia Seeking Iraq Help
Tom Raum
TABUK, Saudi Arabia — Vice President Dick Cheney worked to overcome Saudi skepticism over the U.S. military strategy to secure Baghdad and the leadership capabilities of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki.
Cheney met with King Abdullah at a royal palace in this northern city on Saturday. The king, while considered an important U.S. ally in the Arab world, increasingly has sent signals that he doubts the effectiveness of President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq.
Abdullah also has signaled that he sees al-Maliki as a weak leader with too many ties to pro-Iranian Shiite parties to be effective in reaching out to Iraqi's Sunni minority. Saudi Arabia has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
Cheney was given a red-carpet arrival ceremony at the airport. At the palace, as he and the king exchanged pleasantries, Abdullah asked about the first President Bush. The elder Bush assembled a broad international coalition, including Saudi Arabia, to confront Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
Cheney, who was Bush's defense secretary, said the former president was doing well. "He's still willing to jump out of airplanes," Cheney said. For his 80th birthday, Bush made a 13,000-foot tandem parachute jump over his presidential library in Texas in 2004; the 41st president, now 82, jumped alone on his 75th birthday.
"I did not want to do it when I was 60 and he's done it twice now," the 66-year-old Cheney said.
Cheney is touring Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf states in an attempt to win wider support for ethnic reconciliation in Iraq and to counter efforts by Iran to spread its influence in the region.
Earlier Saturday, Cheney urged greater support for U.S. policies in Iraq when he held meetings in Abu Dhabi with leaders of the United Arab Emirates.
A senior Bush administration official traveling with Cheney said afterward that the Emirates' president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pledged to do as much as possible to support the struggling Iraqi government.
Iran also was a major focus of the meeting, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The Emirates' leaders, the official said, were keenly aware of Iran, a large neighbor less than 100 miles away and a $20 billion a year trading partner.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was scheduled to visit the Emirates on Sunday, is trying to persuade the Gulf states to drop their military alliances with Washington.
Cheney's mission to Saudi Arabia included an effort to smooth over recent divisions between the oil-rich kingdom and the United States.
The kingdom has taken an aggressive leadership role in efforts to quiet Mideast troubles. In a possible attempt to gain more credibility in the region, Abdullah recently has openly challenged the U.S. military presence in Iraq, calling U.S. troops in Iraq an "illegal foreign occupation."
The king refused to see al-Maliki when the Iraqi prime minister toured Arab countries late last month.
Cheney went to Saudi Arabia last November for meetings, requested by the king, that are still shrouded in secrecy.
Reports at the time suggested the two discussed what role Saudi Arabia might play in reaching out to Iraq's Sunni minority as conditions in that country deteriorate.
This time, the king did not request the meeting. Cheney was sent to the region by Bush.
After dinner with the king, Cheney planned to go to Aqaba, Jordan. He was expected to visit Egypt on a weeklong trip that began in Iraq.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Start
This blog is about the united states political theatre in the changing global environment.
So for the first post, why not?!
New York Times: On Carrier In Gulf, Cheney Warns Iran
Graham Bowley
Vice President Dick Cheney used the setting of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to deliver a stern message to Iran today, warning that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons or gain the upper hand in the Middle East.
“With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we’re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,” he said, in a speech on board the U.S.S. John C. Stennis.
The United States “will stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region,” he said.
The aircraft carrier was about 20 miles off the coast of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, according to a pool report provided by journalists traveling with Mr. Cheney. Mr. Cheney traveled to the Emirates following a two-day visit to Iraq, and will be making other stops in the Middle East on his week-long trip.
Mr. Cheney’s message seemed particularly pointed because, according to the pool report and the Associated Press, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is scheduled to visit Abu Dhabi himself in the next few days.
Mr. Cheney said today that the United States was determined, in the event of any crises in the
region, to keep the sea lanes of the Gulf open.
His speech to American service members on board the carrier also seemed intended to reassure them that a strong American presence would be maintained in the region for some time.
“I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,” Mr. Cheney said. “We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to return home with honor.”
On Thursday in Iraq, Mr. Cheney spoke to American troops stationed near Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, Tikrit, telling them in somber tones that they still had a tough fight ahead of them.
His assessment stood in stark contrast to the one he made two years ago, when he declared in an interview with CNN that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes.”
The United States remains at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, which Iran says is peaceful, but which America and its Western allies say is intended to build weapons. The Bush administration has also expressed concerns about Iranian involvement in Iraq; officials have said that weapons are being smuggled into Iraq from Iran and that the insurgents who assemble and placing bombs in Iraq may be getting training in Iran. The Iranian government denies sponsoring or encouraging terrorism.
Mr. Cheney visited the U.S.S. John C. Stennis before, in March 2002, at a time when he was trying to build support for the invasion of Iraq, the A.P. noted.
Today, standing in front of five F-18 Super Hornet warplanes and a huge American flag on the hangar deck of the carrier, Mr. Cheney spoke to some 3,500 service members, according to the A.P. He sounded a hard line, saying the United States must hold firm in Iraq and confront Iran if necessary, the agency reported.
His tour of the Middle East will also include visits to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
So for the first post, why not?!
New York Times: On Carrier In Gulf, Cheney Warns Iran
Graham Bowley
Vice President Dick Cheney used the setting of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to deliver a stern message to Iran today, warning that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons or gain the upper hand in the Middle East.
“With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we’re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,” he said, in a speech on board the U.S.S. John C. Stennis.
The United States “will stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region,” he said.
The aircraft carrier was about 20 miles off the coast of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, according to a pool report provided by journalists traveling with Mr. Cheney. Mr. Cheney traveled to the Emirates following a two-day visit to Iraq, and will be making other stops in the Middle East on his week-long trip.
Mr. Cheney’s message seemed particularly pointed because, according to the pool report and the Associated Press, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is scheduled to visit Abu Dhabi himself in the next few days.
Mr. Cheney said today that the United States was determined, in the event of any crises in the
region, to keep the sea lanes of the Gulf open.
His speech to American service members on board the carrier also seemed intended to reassure them that a strong American presence would be maintained in the region for some time.
“I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,” Mr. Cheney said. “We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to return home with honor.”
On Thursday in Iraq, Mr. Cheney spoke to American troops stationed near Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, Tikrit, telling them in somber tones that they still had a tough fight ahead of them.
His assessment stood in stark contrast to the one he made two years ago, when he declared in an interview with CNN that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes.”
The United States remains at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, which Iran says is peaceful, but which America and its Western allies say is intended to build weapons. The Bush administration has also expressed concerns about Iranian involvement in Iraq; officials have said that weapons are being smuggled into Iraq from Iran and that the insurgents who assemble and placing bombs in Iraq may be getting training in Iran. The Iranian government denies sponsoring or encouraging terrorism.
Mr. Cheney visited the U.S.S. John C. Stennis before, in March 2002, at a time when he was trying to build support for the invasion of Iraq, the A.P. noted.
Today, standing in front of five F-18 Super Hornet warplanes and a huge American flag on the hangar deck of the carrier, Mr. Cheney spoke to some 3,500 service members, according to the A.P. He sounded a hard line, saying the United States must hold firm in Iraq and confront Iran if necessary, the agency reported.
His tour of the Middle East will also include visits to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
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