Bush, allies prepare for summit

March 15 � Amid hardening opposition on the U.N. Security Council, President Bush and the leaders of Britain and Spain prepared to hold a last-ditch summit in the Azores Sunday to hammer out their Iraq strategy. France, Russia and Germany, however, continued to oppose the U.S. position, issuing a joint declaration saying that nothing justifies war at this point and proposing the Security Council meet Tuesday. Meanwhile, Iraq invited U.N. chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to visit Baghdad as soon as possible to discuss pending disarmament issues....

www.msnbc.com...

Yes,I saw this.Full of symbols yet no substance.The Idea is all of us Britons who believe Blair is being led by Bush suddenly think that Bush is meeting the Europeans"Halfway".You can't get more "Halfway" than the Azores.

The meeting itself will settle nothing as war and its timing have already been decided.It cynically allows the public to believe that the decision for or against war has yet to be made but its real purpose is to prolong the anouncement that the UN route is over.If this anouncement were to be made Blair would face an embarrassing vote in the House of Common.If war starts and then later the Commons votes members of Parliament will feel obliged to support British troops in action.

You can say that the Azores as a choice of venue is like Bush's sudden anouncement on the Middle East,purely designed to make it seem that the UK and USA have similar goals.

[Edited on 16-3-2003 by Abraham Virtue]

Blair says that this is "going the last mile for peace". I think Charles Kennedy (leader of the third biggest party over here, the liberal democrats) says it better when he states "This conference will not go one inch for peace".

I just hope Charles has the guts to continue this rhetoric, because he is the only politician in the UK right now who is talking for British public opinion.

This conference is nothing to do with peace, if it was, France and Germany would be invited, or Kofi Annan, or a representative of the Iraqi government. This conference is a war conference and that's the truth of the matter.