A sunnier summit
Putting aside bad feelings, the Group of Eight comes closer together on Iraq
SEA ISLAND, GA. --Just before the start of last week's G-8 summit meeting here, President Bush got in some fishing. It's not clear whether the angler in chief caught anything, but in any case he pulled in a much bigger catch the following day as the leaders of the world's most powerful nations gathered on this sultry, sealed-off resort island where the wealthy come to play: a badly needed United Nations endorsement for the handover of authority in Iraq along with a show of uncommon comity among leaders riven by the U.S.-directed war and occupation.
Last week's unanimous U.N. Security Council vote means the official end of the U.S. occupation, international recognition of Iraq's "full sovereignty" starting on June 30, and acceptance of the terms worked out by the Bush administration and the caretaker government in Baghdad over how multinational military forces will operate in Iraq's violence-prone badlands. At European insistence, the U.N. measure instructs American-led forces to act in "close coordination and consultation" with Iraqi leaders, and it gives the Iraqis authority to tell foreign forces to leave. The new Iraqi government leaders--selected and installed under U.S. and U.N. supervision--want American forces to stay, presumably through elections planned for December 2005. For Bush and his partner in the Iraq venture, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the deal comes as a great relief. "We all now want to put the divisions of the past behind us," said Blair.
What followed next seemed right out of a White House advance man's script: On cue, a beaming Bush introduced Iraq's new president, Ghazi Yawar, to the leaders cloistered here; coming after months of American deaths in battling a spreading insurgency, Bush called it a "special day." Yawar came to the summit with other Middle Eastern leaders for a lunch and a chat about Bush's ideas for promoting democracy in the largely authoritarian region.
For a president who dislikes the pomp and posturing of typical summitry, Bush showed signs of actually enjoying himself. He noted that his father and mother honeymooned here, and he made himself quite at home. First dog Barney attended at least one meeting, and Bush took a quiet walk on the beach and rode his new, 21-gear mountain bike. The leaders' chow included southern favorites: fried green tomatoes and cheese grits. Bush cracked that the French president "said the food was great" --culinary kudos that he passed on to the chefs because "it's a heck of a lot better to hear the food is great from Jacques Chirac than George W. Bush." More seriously, he pronounced U.S.-French relations "excellent," a shift in tone from recent Security Council battles. (Still, Chirac's decision to skip Ronald Reagan's funeral--with France represented instead by ex-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing--raised a few eyebrows.)
Under the live oaks and palms trees that offered some shade from a hot coast-al sun, the leaders zipped around in electric buggies, painted in their nations' colors and resembling golf carts. "He's in a very good mood," said one German official of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose political maneuvering on the Iraq war had once enraged Bush. One White House official portrayed Bush's private talk with Schroeder as "the warmest meeting that the two have had since . . . before the Iraq war." The official said Schroeder--an implacable opponent of the war--let Bush know that he was "very much glad we're together" on the U.N. resolution and the Mideast democracy initiative.
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