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November 21, 2004
My Next Vacation Destination
From the Washington Times "World Briefing" this morning
The United States is genuinely popular here — seen as a guarantor of Georgia's independence in the chaotic days of the collapsing Soviet Union — and a source of aid and strategic counterweight in the endless tug of war with Russia.Just thought you might like to read that, given the usual BS we hear from the likes of Jacques Chirac and company.
Mr. Saakashvili (President of Georgia) said he made a snap decision to offer more Georgian troops to guard U.N. personnel in Iraq after hearing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry decry the lack of international help for the U.S.-led mission there. Georgia's contingent in Iraq will quintuple to about 850 in the coming weeks, making it the largest contributor to the multinational force in Iraq on a per capita basis.
"We owe a lot to the Americans," he said simply.
"If the United States fails in Iraq, it will be a disaster for the wider Middle East, and it will have direct repercussions on our part of the world," he said. "It is a risky mission, and we have been open with our own people about that. But the United States has helped us, and we see our participation and relationship with America as an investment in our own future security."
And it has not gone without comment in the conservative press that in general eastern Europeans are much more supportive of our efforts in Iraq than those in the west. Recall how Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski denounced Senator Kerry over the latter's disparaging comments about coalition members, that it was a "trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought, and the extorted." To be fair, many Italians were upset when Kerry insulted their contribution also. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that eastern European leaders have been more supportive of us.
No, I don't really make my vacation decisions based on the politics of the destination country. But I am glad that I saw France before the War on Terrorc because it would be awfully hard to spend money there now.
Posted by Tom at November 21, 2004 9:59 PM
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