Rumsfeld braucht Fischer!

[aloute]

Rumsfeld unapologetic on Iraq war, but reaches out to Europe

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld unapologetically defended the Iraq war yesterday at a conference with some of its most staunch opponents, saying it had made "the world a safer place today."

Returning to the scene of a dramatic clash last year with Germany's foreign minister during the buildup to war, Rumsfeld said the ouster of Saddam Hussein served as a potent warning to countries with weapons of mass destruction.

"I know in my heart and my brain that America ain't what's wrong with the world," Rumsfeld told the annual conference of leading experts and officials from some 50 countries.

He listed crimes and atrocities by Saddam's former regime and, raising his voice, derided those who "said it didn't matter who won."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, speaking before Rumsfeld, said the Germans "were not, and are still not, convinced of the validity of the reasons" - repeating phrasing that angered Rumsfeld at the conference a year ago.
But Rumsfeld and Fischer emphasized the message that both camps now want to look to the future.

Fischer called for Europe and the United States to join together in a broad effort to bring peace and stability to the Middle East.
A major push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fight terrorism and promote economic development in the Middle East would help heal the trans-Atlantic rift, Fischer said.

"Neither the United States nor Europe and the Middle East itself can tolerate the status quo in the Middle East any longer," Fischer told the audience, which included Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld expressed support for Fischer's proposals, saying the NATO alliance could help Middle Eastern countries beef up their security forces and serve as a catalyst for economic and democratic change, like in eastern Europe after the fall of communism.

[Großadmiral]

so ein Text auf Englisch!
Übersetzte ihn bitte auf Deutsch, damit auch unsere jüngeren Mitglieder ihn verstehen können.

[aloute]

Bush ging unter die 'Hellseher'!

Bush Says Saddam Had Capacity for Nukes
Defending his decision to invade Iraq (news - web sites), President Bush (news - web sites) said that although stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons have not been found, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had the capacity to produce such arms and could have developed a nuclear weapon over time.

Bush, in an interview broadcast Sunday, denied he led the United States into war under false pretenses, but he acknowledged that some prewar intelligence apparently was inaccurate. He did not directly respond to election-year allegations that his administration exaggerated intelligence to bolster a march to oust the Iraqi president.


"We will find out about the weapons of mass destruction that we all thought were there," Bush said in the interview taped Saturday in the Oval Office with Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press."


Bush, who pledged after the Sept. 11 attacks to get suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) "dead or alive," said Sunday: "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice."


Bush said former chief weapons inspector David Kay, who has said that U.S. intelligence was "almost all wrong" about Saddam's arms, said Saddam found the "capacity to produce weapons." Bush went on to speculate about what happened to the weapons.


"They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq," Bush said. "They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out."


Bush said he decided to go to war based on the intelligence he had at hand about Saddam, but said CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet's job is not in jeopardy. "I strongly believe the CIA is ably led by George Tenet," he said.


While Bush heavily based the decision to wage war on the rationale that Saddam had forbidden weapons at the ready, the president continued in the interview to emphasize his contention about Saddam's dictatorial rule — that Saddam brutalized Iraqis and had connections to terrorist groups.


"I repeat to you what I strongly believe, that inaction in Iraq would have emboldened Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time — I'm not saying immediately, but over time. ... We would have been in a position of blackmail. In other words, you can't rely upon a madman."


Among the other issues discussed in the interview, Bush:


_pledged to cooperate with the commission he set up last week to examine intelligence lapses. "I will be glad to visit with them," he said.


_defended his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), Terry McAuliffe, has accused Bush of being "AWOL," or absent without leave, for a year in the early 1970s after Bush transferred to an Alabama unit.


"I served in the National Guard," Bush said. "I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge."


The president dismissed news reports saying there is no evidence he reported for duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972. "They're just wrong," Bush said.


_said his policy to cut taxes was responsible for driving the economic rebound and putting the country on the road to recovering the more than 2 million jobs lost since he took office in 2001.


_expressed indifference to polls that showed him trailing Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., who is leading the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee. "I'm not going to lose," Bush said. "I don't plan on losing."


_said he would "perhaps" submit to questions from the commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks.





_said "diplomacy is just beginning" with North Korea (news - web sites), where the United States and its allies are seeking to persuade the communist nation to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. "We are making good progress," Bush said.

The interview came at a time when Bush's approval rating has dipped to 47 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in early February; that compares with 56 percent just a month ago.

http://translation.lycos.com/

;-)
"I served in the National Guard," Bush said. "I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge."
National Guard ist bei uns sowas aehnliches wie naja, Kriegsdienstverweigerer'. Deswegen spielt er jetzt gerne den General!

[aloute]

Herr Admiral: Ich traue der Deutschen Jugend zu, das jene Englisch sehr gut lesen und sprechen koennen!

[Großadmiral]

Original von aloute
Herr Admiral: Ich traue der Deutschen Jugend zu, das jene Englisch sehr gut lesen und sprechen koennen!

wenn ich bitten darf.

Ja, ich verstehe den Text auch, doch sagen kann ich dazu nichts.
Kenne mich da nicht aus.
Doch es gibt hier auch Leute, die nur wenig Englisch können.
Auf die muß man Rücksicht nehmen.

[aloute]

Also, alle auf nach Engeland? Sofort Abstimmung beginnen!
Gruss

[aloute]

;-) Mein Sohn fragt mich gerade wie ich die Musik in meinen Computer bekommen habe.......(abgespielt)
Naja, habe eben gute Kontakte zu einen Admiral!

[Großadmiral]

Original von aloute
Also, alle auf nach Engeland? Sofort Abstimmung beginnen!
Gruss

Abstimmung?

Hörst du das Lied?
Das ist doch klasse, oder?

[aloute]

Ehrlich von der Klasse her ja, denn es sind eben Erinnerungen die wir alle brauchen und von welchem wir ja immerhin leben oder selbst hier schreiben.
Irgendwie, innerlich bestaetigt das eben das wir tataechlich wieder ein DEUTSCHLAND und nicht eine Chaotische EU brauchen. Deutschland hatte alles und alles war , naja 90 % ok, mehr kann man nicht verlangen.
Dann aber irgendwann so seit Kohl fing all die ganze scheisse an und es endet im Chaos wenn nicht WAS PASSIERT.
Mit der SPD scheint es ja zu wackeln, Fischer als Bundeskanzler... sehe ich nicht.
Merkel ist mit ihren Herz in Texas
Stoiber , naja ein Bayer wurde noch nie angenommen als Kanzler..
Also was?
CHAOS weil es keine Politiker mehr gibt welche in ERSTER LINIE AN DEUTSCHLAND denken koennen?

[aloute]

ZAGREB, Croatia Wrapping up a four-day European trip, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped here Sunday to promote the country's efforts to join NATO and to pay tribute to its security forces now fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.
.
Rumsfeld, the first United States cabinet officer to visit Croatia since Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled here in 1999, met with Croatian officials, including President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, during a three-hour stop on his way back to Washington.
.
Croatia has dispatched 50 military police officers to assist the NATO-led security operation in and around the Afghan capital Kabul and has donated rifles and ammunition to the new Afghan Army.
.
American officials are also exploring whether Croatia might send troops to Iraq, a prospect the Croatian military is open to but which so far has been politically unpopular here.
.
Rumsfeld's visit comes less than three months after the governing party, the Croatian Democratic Union, regained power after being ousted four years ago amid allegations of corruption and hard-line nationalist politics that made it an international pariah.
.
Under Sanader, the party has purged extremists, some of whom were implicated in war crimes committed during the 1991-95 Balkans wars, and embraced a decidedly pro-American foreign policy. Sanader says he wants Croatia to join the European Union and NATO within the next two to three years.
.
The United States and Croatian navies have conducted joint exercises recently, and the Bush administration has taken several steps to reward the government's efforts to combat global terrorism and to take the necessary steps to join NATO.
.
Last month, the Pentagon honored top officials including the Croatian chief of armed forces, General Josip Lucic, with an awards ceremony in Washington, as well as meetings with the army chief of staff, General Peter Schoomaker, and the commandant of the Marine Corps, General Michael Hagee.
.
The new government and the Bush administration are still working out some rough patches, which Rumsfeld was expected to address in his meetings. The governing party, known by its Croatian acronym HDZ, is openly hostile to the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague.
.
The tribunal has demanded that Croatia hand over a former police general, Ante Gotovina, who is accused of committing war crimes against Serbs during the Balkans wars. But the government has insisted it does not know the whereabouts of Gotovina, who is a former French Foreign Legion officer. Cooperating with the tribunal is one of the requirements for NATO membership.
.
S. intelligence estimates that Iraq had stockpiles of biological weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion last March, The New York Times reported from Washington.
.
A classified "fabrication notification" about the defector, a former Iraqi major, was issued by the agency to other U.S. intelligence agencies in May 2002, but it was then repeatedly overlooked, three senior intelligence officials said Friday.
.
Because the warning went unheeded, the officials said, the defector's claims that Iraq had built mobile research laboratories to produce biological weapons were mistakenly included in, among other findings, the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which concluded that Iraq most likely had significant biological stockpiles. ZAGREB, Croatia Wrapping up a four-day European trip, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped here Sunday to promote the country's efforts to join NATO and to pay tribute to its security forces now fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.
.
Rumsfeld, the first United States cabinet officer to visit Croatia since Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled here in 1999, met with Croatian officials, including President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, during a three-hour stop on his way back to Washington.
.
Croatia has dispatched 50 military police officers to assist the NATO-led security operation in and around the Afghan capital Kabul and has donated rifles and ammunition to the new Afghan Army.
.
American officials are also exploring whether Croatia might send troops to Iraq, a prospect the Croatian military is open to but which so far has been politically unpopular here.
.
Rumsfeld's visit comes less than three months after the governing party, the Croatian Democratic Union, regained power after being ousted four years ago amid allegations of corruption and hard-line nationalist politics that made it an international pariah.
.
Under Sanader, the party has purged extremists, some of whom were implicated in war crimes committed during the 1991-95 Balkans wars, and embraced a decidedly pro-American foreign policy. Sanader says he wants Croatia to join the European Union and NATO within the next two to three years.
.
The United States and Croatian navies have conducted joint exercises recently, and the Bush administration has taken several steps to reward the government's efforts to combat global terrorism and to take the necessary steps to join NATO.
.
Last month, the Pentagon honored top officials including the Croatian chief of armed forces, General Josip Lucic, with an awards ceremony in Washington, as well as meetings with the army chief of staff, General Peter Schoomaker, and the commandant of the Marine Corps, General Michael Hagee.
.
The new government and the Bush administration are still working out some rough patches, which Rumsfeld was expected to address in his meetings. The governing party, known by its Croatian acronym HDZ, is openly hostile to the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague.
.
The tribunal has demanded that Croatia hand over a former police general, Ante Gotovina, who is accused of committing war crimes against Serbs during the Balkans wars. But the government has insisted it does not know the whereabouts of Gotovina, who is a former French Foreign Legion officer. Cooperating with the tribunal is one of the requirements for NATO membership.
.
S. intelligence estimates that Iraq had stockpiles of biological weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion last March, The New York Times reported from Washington.
.
A classified "fabrication notification" about the defector, a former Iraqi major, was issued by the agency to other U.S. intelligence agencies in May 2002, but it was then repeatedly overlooked, three senior intelligence officials said Friday.
.
Because the warning went unheeded, the officials said, the defector's claims that Iraq had built mobile research laboratories to produce biological weapons were mistakenly included in, among other findings, the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which concluded that Iraq most likely had significant biological stockpiles. ZAGREB, Croatia Wrapping up a four-day European trip, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped here Sunday to promote the country's efforts to join NATO and to pay tribute to its security forces now fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.
.
Rumsfeld, the first United States cabinet officer to visit Croatia since Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled here in 1999, met with Croatian officials, including President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, during a three-hour stop on his way back to Washington.
.
Croatia has dispatched 50 military police officers to assist the NATO-led security operation in and around the Afghan capital Kabul and has donated rifles and ammunition to the new Afghan Army.
.
American officials are also exploring whether Croatia might send troops to Iraq, a prospect the Croatian military is open to but which so far has been politically unpopular here.
.
Rumsfeld's visit comes less than three months after the governing party, the Croatian Democratic Union, regained power after being ousted four years ago amid allegations of corruption and hard-line nationalist politics that made it an international pariah.
.
Under Sanader, the party has purged extremists, some of whom were implicated in war crimes committed during the 1991-95 Balkans wars, and embraced a decidedly pro-American foreign policy. Sanader says he wants Croatia to join the European Union and NATO within the next two to three years.
.
The United States and Croatian navies have conducted joint exercises recently, and the Bush administration has taken several steps to reward the government's efforts to combat global terrorism and to take the necessary steps to join NATO.
.
Last month, the Pentagon honored top officials including the Croatian chief of armed forces, General Josip Lucic, with an awards ceremony in Washington, as well as meetings with the army chief of staff, General Peter Schoomaker, and the commandant of the Marine Corps, General Michael Hagee.
.
The new government and the Bush administration are still working out some rough patches, which Rumsfeld was expected to address in his meetings. The governing party, known by its Croatian acronym HDZ, is openly hostile to the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague.
.
The tribunal has demanded that Croatia hand over a former police general, Ante Gotovina, who is accused of committing war crimes against Serbs during the Balkans wars. But the government has insisted it does not know the whereabouts of Gotovina, who is a former French Foreign Legion officer. Cooperating with the tribunal is one of the requirements for NATO membership.
.
S. intelligence estimates that Iraq had stockpiles of biological weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion last March, The New York Times reported from Washington.
.
A classified "fabrication notification" about the defector, a former Iraqi major, was issued by the agency to other U.S. intelligence agencies in May 2002, but it was then repeatedly overlooked, three senior intelligence officials said Friday.
.
Because the warning went unheeded, the officials said, the defector's claims that Iraq had built mobile research laboratories to produce biological weapons were mistakenly included in, among other findings, the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which concluded that Iraq most likely had significant biological stockpiles.