Not Your Sweetie

bush Disparages Protesters, Threatens Mexico, Reveals his Hand in the France Hatred:

But he insisted that he has paid attention to the protesters.

“Of course, I care what they believe. And I’ve listened carefully. I’ve thought long and
hard about what needs to be done,” he said. “And obviously some people in Northern
California do not see there’s a true risk to the United States posed by Saddam Hussein.
And we just have a difference of opinion.”

Asked about protests overseas, the president initially downplayed the extent of the
problems he has encountered with normally friendly nations.

“There are two nations in Europe – France and Germany – who do not see Saddam
Hussein as a direct threat. And we just have a difference of opinion. But there are a lot of
other nations who do,” he said.

But pressed, the president acknowledged that sympathy for America has diminished since
the days immediately after Sept. 11, 2001. He blamed some of the protests on lingering
unhappiness over his early decisions against international agreements on global warming
and an international criminal court.

“So, yes, I see the protests and I know they’re large at times. But I’m not so sure I’d
jump to the conclusion that everybody in those parts of the world are anti-American,” he
said."

" Making that point, he cited what he called “an interesting phenomena taking place here
in America
about the French.”

With many Americans unhappy at French resistance to a war in Iraq, the president said
there has
developed “a backlash against the French, not stirred up by anybody except by the
people.”