*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush can expect a hot welcome
[Shrub will be visiting Australia's friendly natives in October.]
The coming visit of the US President will be a lightning rod for the anti-war protesters, writes Anne Summers.
"The last time a US president visited Australia there were tears. This time, unfortunately, there is more likely to be tear gas.
"George Bush will drop in on us in late October for as long as 24 hours on his way home from an APEC meeting in Bangkok. The word is that he wants to "thank us" for our involvement in one of the smallest clubs in military history, the 'coalition of the willing' that invaded Iraq in March.
"Although he comes at the invitation of John Howard, the Prime Minister must be rueing the day he pressed for the visit because Bush's presence is likely to trigger anti-US demonstrations of a kind we have not seen since October 1966 when president Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) became the first US president to visit Australia.
"That trip was also to thank us for being part of in an unpopular US war - Vietnam - and produced the Sydney street sitdown by protesters that led the premier, Robert Askin, sitting beside LBJ in the limousine, to utter his infamous remark: 'Drive over the bastards.'
"Thirty years later there was a very different presidential visit. (In between LBJ had returned in 1967 for Harold Holt's funeral, and George Bush snr came for a couple of days at New Year 1992.) In November 1996 Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed in the country a whole five days. They shopped, went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, played golf and jogged (him), investigated women's issues (her) and generally relaxed. Everywhere they went, they were mobbed by friendly, even adoring crowds."
Source
[Shrub will be visiting Australia's friendly natives in October.]
The coming visit of the US President will be a lightning rod for the anti-war protesters, writes Anne Summers.
"The last time a US president visited Australia there were tears. This time, unfortunately, there is more likely to be tear gas.
"George Bush will drop in on us in late October for as long as 24 hours on his way home from an APEC meeting in Bangkok. The word is that he wants to "thank us" for our involvement in one of the smallest clubs in military history, the 'coalition of the willing' that invaded Iraq in March.
"Although he comes at the invitation of John Howard, the Prime Minister must be rueing the day he pressed for the visit because Bush's presence is likely to trigger anti-US demonstrations of a kind we have not seen since October 1966 when president Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) became the first US president to visit Australia.
"That trip was also to thank us for being part of in an unpopular US war - Vietnam - and produced the Sydney street sitdown by protesters that led the premier, Robert Askin, sitting beside LBJ in the limousine, to utter his infamous remark: 'Drive over the bastards.'
"Thirty years later there was a very different presidential visit. (In between LBJ had returned in 1967 for Harold Holt's funeral, and George Bush snr came for a couple of days at New Year 1992.) In November 1996 Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed in the country a whole five days. They shopped, went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, played golf and jogged (him), investigated women's issues (her) and generally relaxed. Everywhere they went, they were mobbed by friendly, even adoring crowds."
Source
Pip Wilson posted item above at 11:53 AM | Permalink
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