From Vienna
I love what the American President is trying to do in Vienna. The way in which he treats his foreign policy as a saleable product to the Europeans - a commodity that the United States has and the EU should purchase.
The White House inc.
Not since Jimmy Carter has an American President journeyed to mainland Europe in the political arena. Sure there has been talks and cahoots with the UK. But the US has ignored the rest of Europe since the Soviet days. I think ignored is the appropriate word here; i am using it in reference to Australia, because all but one president of the US has visited Australia since Jimmy Carter - doesn't this fact put us much closer to Uncle Sam than any mainland European country? I think it does. To put it bluntly Australia is a smaller nation, in both population and economic senses, compared to France, Germany, Spain - the list continues.
So President Bush has travelled to the old country - Vienna - to sell his wares to the new improved EU. And he was a little unprepared. The journalists and media interests in Europe are a little more savage than there American counter-parts, and US media laws and 'control' laws are not quite the same outside the good ol' US of A. George looked a little troubled at times, facing questions from Guantanomo Bay, to nuclear disarmament, and became 'agressively defensive' (new york times) in the face of questions of Iraq. And George thought he was going to Europe over the IRAN issue!
While the questions hurled inside a large crowd gathered outside. George W. Bush saw something he hasn't seen in a long time. A mass of people protesting against his presidency, against his cabinet and against his foreign policy. A peaceful protest, with no reports of violence or arrests occured outside the summit. Such protests have been zoned in the USA, usually miles away from the actual event, media, and people concerned. "Protest Zoning" has not been reintroduced into Austria since the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZIS) were disempowered in 1945.
It's good to see that some things don't change.