Bush disappoints us again

Just a day after an announcement that the Bush administration will funnell $20 million to Yasser Arafat's terrorist pseudo-state, the President sheepishly shied away from calling for Robert Mugabe to step down:

President George W Bush disappointed millions of Zimbabweans yesterday when he said America would defer to South Africa's quiet diplomacy on changing the behaviour of President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Having stoked up expectations in recent weeks with statements from Washington calling for Mr Mugabe to stand down, Mr Bush gave way to the more cautious, non-confrontational approach of President Thabo Mbeki.

During a joint press conference in the gardens of the South African presidential lodge in Pretoria, Mr Bush said Mr Mbeki was "the point man" driving international policy on Zimbabwe.

"He is the one who is most involved," said Mr Bush in South Africa as part of a five-nation African tour. "He believes he's making good progress. I don't have any intention of second-guessing his tactics. We want the same outcome."

But crushing any idea that American policy had changed, Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, indicated in an interview with the BBC that the softly, softly approach towards Mr Mbeki's handling of the Zimbabwe crisis was taken to prevent a row overshadowing the stop-off in Pretoria on Mr Bush's Africa tour.

"Bully pulpit," my ass.

Posted by damian at July 10, 2003 07:01 AM