Daily Update

updated 10:30 a.m. ET November 17, 2003

Bush's UK visit could become 'trip from hell'

Although it was envisioned as a "victory lap" when originally conceived, The Christian Science Monitor reports that US President George Bush's trip to England this week to visit British Prime Minister Tony Blair may create problems for both men.

"From a point of view of public relations, it's not good timing," says Wyn Grant, professor of politics at the University of Warwick in central England. "Things have been going badly in Iraq, so the visit is bound to have a further effect on public opinion, confirming the view of those people doubtful in the first place about the campaign."

WorldDailyNet reports that a poll released on Sunday in Britain showed underwhelming support for the overwhelming support Mr. Blair has shown for Bush. To most people living in Great Britain – 60 percent – Bush is a threat to world peace, and at least 1 in 3 characterize him as "stupid," according to the poll. While only a small majority say that Britain and the US were wrong to go to war with Iraq (45 to 43 percent), more than 70 percent said the security situation will only get worse over the next few months. Another poll, released last week, showed that only 40 percent of Britons believe the closeness of the Bush-Blair relationship has been good for Britain.

While on the surface the British government has supported Bush's trip – Blair said it was "exactly the right time" for Bush to come for a visit – the Guardian reports that behind the scenes, sentiments are a bit different. One Downing Street insider, contemplating the visit, expressed exasperation: "That man seems to cause us no end of trouble, doesn't he?" The feeling is apparently mutual, according to The Australian. Although President Bush has said that he looks forward to going to Britain, and that he was not upset at the prospect of protestors because "freedom is a beautiful thing," US officials are quietly describing the visit as " the trip from hell."

"We are getting the spillover from Blair's problems," a White House aide grumbled at a weekend party in Washington. "It was Blair who made us go back to the UN for that second resolution that we never won," recalled another. "He insisted he had to have a UN mandate because of his own Labour Party rebels – and that gave the French the opportunity they wanted to stick it to us."

For instance, officials at one time had hoped that, with an election coming, useful images of Bush with Blair and the Queen could be used to promote a sense of international support. But Reuters reports that US officials now realize that that many images will be ones of protest, and that many Americans will be shocked to learn that the anti-Bush feelings that are found on the European continent are also very strong in Britain. Forbes reports that Bush has also decided not to address the British Parliament, for fear that the heckling he received when he spoke to the Australian parliament would be repeated, only it would be much more ferocious. (Outspoken Labour MP Glenda Jackson, for instance, has called the Bush-Blair summit a meeting of "Dumb and Dumber.")

Iraq is not the only issue that creates a problem for Bush in the United Kingdom. Many Britons are opposed to his unilateral stands on issues like the Kyoto treaty about global warming, the landmine treaty, and the International Criminal Court. Channel News Asia reports British business leaders, one group that has been traditionally relatively pro-American, slammed US trade policy Sunday. "There is a real danger of (the United States) sliding towards isolationism and protectionism. The rest of the world desperately needs America to stay engaged," said John Egan, president of the Confederation of British Industry in an advance copy of a speech he will give at a meeting Monday in Birmingham, England, that will also be attended by US Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Even Bush's planned meeting with the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq has turned into a public relations disaster. The Scotsman reports that Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys who died in Iraq, said the US president was just using " propaganda words." The BBC reports that Mr. Keys, who has not been invited to meet the president but has been much quoted by the British press ahead of the visit, also said "I don't know how the man (Bush) has the nerve to show his face in his country after costing the lives of 53 British servicemen. They didn't die for a noble cause, they died for Bush's political reasons, they were just sacrificial lambs."

With so many protesters expected, the Washington Post reports that security has become a real problem. The Post reports that the British have balked at some of the requests made by the American Secret Service. While a large area around Buckingham Palace has been cordoned off, and 250 Secret Service agents will suppliment Scotland Yard's force, the Queen nixed the idea of having a Black Hawk helicopter hover over the Palace while Bush was staying there. Meanwhile, officials from Scotland Yard said they have no intention of saving US President George Bush from seeing antiwar protesters during his visit to London. "We guarantee that lawful and peaceful demonstrators will have every opportunity to make their point, " said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter

Also...
• CIA finds no evidence Hussein sought to arm terrorists ( Washington Post)
• Questions for President Bush's next press conference ( New Yorker)
• Prez in topless tabloid ( Washington Post)
• On hating the Jews: The inextricable link between anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism ( Wall Street Journal)
• US casualties from Iraq war top 9,000 ( United Press International)
• US agrees to international control of its troops in Iraq ( The Independent)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan .