Lifestyle > Train of Thought

American Should Do more To Support Key Allies

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King Tech Quadafi:
nuking is a grand evil scheme that will never happen

just hope that everywhere america goes it gets smashed


I got a pool at work when the 2000th soldier is gonna die

i say November


although I still like my original plan of gunning down every member of congress, in some rambo 3shit

Thirteen:
now there there, Don Rizzle.....where's that apology that you owe my great nation?

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Bush, Blair Work on Plan for African Aid By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 2 minutes ago


WASHINGTON -     President Bush and British Prime Minister     Tony Blair on Tuesday embraced a tentative plan to forgive the debt of poor African nations "on a path to reform" but failed to come together on Blair's calls to double aid to the troubled continent and tackle global warming.

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The leaders expressed confidence that the remaining details of a deal on African debt relief could be worked out among them and with the other countries attending next month's summit of major industrialized nations in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The leaders' agreement represented a milestone of sorts for the Bush-Blair relationship, in which the British leader has risked his own political standing at home to provide staunch support for U.S.     Iraq policies but not often gained reward from the White House.

Standing alongside Blair, Bush also for the first time addressed a 2002 memo to the prime minister from a top British intelligence official suggesting that the United States had bent intelligence to justify a decision to invade Iraq and sought British cooperation in doing so.

"There's nothing farther from the truth," Bush said. "Both of us didn't want to use our military. It was our last option."

Said Blair: "The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all."

Their face-to-face talks, the first since Blair narrowly won what Bush called a "landmark victory" for a third term, touched on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq's halting progress toward stability and efforts to turn     Iran away from nuclear weapons pursuits.

In between talks in the Oval Office and a working dinner in the White House residence, Bush and Blair made plain that Africa was their top agenda item and sought to minimize differences.

Bush aides have said the United States wants to ensure that Blair's hosting of the July summit is deemed a success. But Blair has made global warming and dramatically stepped-up aid to Africa the main topics of the meeting, and Bush has opposed most of what the British leader wants to do — or how he wants to do it.

Hinting at the outlines of a deal in progress on debt forgiveness, each leader used language pleasing to the other.

Blair talked repeatedly about a key goal of Bush's: requiring African countries receiving help to be committed to "governance against corruption, in favor of democracy, in favor of the rule of law."

"It's not a something-for-nothing deal," Blair said.

Added Bush: "Highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform should not be burdened by mountains of debt."

For his part, Bush gave support to Blair's desire that organizations such as the     World Bank and the African Development Bank not be required to absorb the losses from the debt forgiveness and thus reduce the overall pot of money available for assisting needy countries.

"Our countries are developing a proposal for the G-8 that will eliminate 100 percent of that debt and that, by providing additional resources, will preserve the financial integrity of the World Bank and the African Development Bank," he said.

There was no public talk, however, of how disagreements over the financing of debt forgiveness would be resolved. The Bush administration had previously rejected Blair's proposals to raise money by selling bonds on the world's capital markets and by selling off some of the     International Monetary Fund's massive gold reserves.

Bush also announced an African emergency famine relief initiative, with the United States to provide $674 million, the British to put in an unknown, but lesser, amount, and both calling on other nations to increase their contributions.

Along with debt relief, Blair wants summit participants to double current Africa aid levels, as part of a push to go beyond emergency relief in favor of more comprehensive, long-term help for the continent's problems.

Bush didn't retreat from his position against a doubling of American money, saying that the United States has already tripled its Africa aid during Bush's four years in office, to $3.2 billion in 2004, and that "we'll do more down the road." The president argued that calculating aid contributions as a percentage of national income, as Blair's proposal does, is the wrong way to look at the matter.

"There's a lot of things that aren't counted," Bush said. "Our country has taken the lead in Africa, and we'll stay there. It's the right thing to do. It's important to help Africa get on her feet."

But amid a global lobbying tour with four weeks to go before the summit, Blair suggested he still had time to win the support he needs.

"There is a real and common desire to help that troubled continent come out of the poverty and deprivation that so many millions of its people suffer," Blair said. "It's our duty to act and we will."

Bush and Blair remained farthest apart on global warming.

"I've always said it's a serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with," Bush said. But he fell far short of Blair's call for "clear and immediate action" to address rising temperatures, saying, "We want to know more about it."

The president, who opposes the kind of government mandates contained in the 1997 Kyoto treaty ratified by 140 nations but not the United States, questions whether manmade pollutants are the cause of global warming. He said the focus should be on research into new technologies and clean-energy sources.

Don Rizzle:
I may have gone too far in my comments in the heat of the moment but you won't get an apoligy i'm still very dissatisfied with american support for any our policies

bush hasn't really given anything new, we had already agreed to write off africa's debt its just how we go about it, and there been no progress on increasing aid or climate change


--- Quote ---US President George W Bush is set to pledge $674m (£350m) in aid for Africa as part of a joint initiative with visiting UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Blair is in Washington to press for the president's support for his plans to get Africa back on its feet.
Mr Bush has already rejected several key parts of Britain's relief plan - but Mr Blair insisted there had been "significant progress" on a deal.
Aid groups criticised Mr Bush's cash pledge as a mere "drop in the ocean".
Jonathan Glennie of Christian Aid said: "If this is President Bush's only response to the crisis in Africa, we think he cannot be serious about alleviating poverty."
The $674m is destined largely for Ethiopia and Eritrea, countries threatened by famine, and for humanitarian needs in other African countries.
This money is part of the US aid budget that had already been announced but had not yet been allocated to a country.
--- End quote ---

Low Key:
Maybe Tony Blair should watch Ali G Indahouse.

Keep...It...Real...

Noname:

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